As a vacation rental PM or homeowner, you know that guests leaving 5-star reviews often forget details. If a stay was bad, they might leave a review to vent or hurt your business. Many potential 5-star reviews are dropped after the guest leaves—out of sight, out of mind!
Both Airbnb and Vrbo encourage hosts and guests to leave reviews, but many guests don't. The biggest motivator is when you, the host, write a review first. Then, Airbnb or Vrbo sends a message like "Read what the host said about you" or "See your rating,' prompting guests to review. This method effectively increases review likelihood.
OwnerRez's Smart Reviews (formerly Automatic 5-Star Host Reviews) are enabled by default for all Airbnb and Vrbo bookings (sent 5 days after departure).
Many hosts quickly review their Airbnb or Vrbo bookings with simple comments like "Thanks for coming out, great guest!" or give a 5-star rating. Even property managers with many listings often leave generic positive comments if no issues arise. OwnerRez can automate this process, providing Smart Reviews (formerly Automatic 5-Star Host Reviews) for your bookings.
Learn more by reading Reviews on Airbnb and Vrbo's About the Reviews page.
Turn On Smart Reviews
In the Quality Center Reviews tab, the Host Reviews tab will only be visible if you have an Airbnb or Vrbo channel integration in place. Navigate to the Quality Center > Reviews tab > Host Reviews tab and toggle either Airbnb or Vrbo Smart Reviews on.
When turned on, the Turn on Airbnb or Vrbo Smart Reviews allows you to configure your settings. Smart Reviews settings are slightly different between Airbnb and Vrbo.
Airbnb
The Airbnb configuration page asks you how long you want to wait after the booking to write the review (we recommend just a couple of days - no more than 2 or 3), what review template you'd like to use, and the negative indicators, including booking or guest tags, that you want to flag so that the system doesn't accidentally write good reviews for bad people.
Vrbo
The Vrbo configuration page asks you how long you want to wait after the booking departs to leave the smart review (we recommend just a couple of days - no more than 2 or 3), and which bookings to skip so that the system doesn't accidentally write good reviews for bad people. Host Review templates are not supported by Vrbo.
Users should note that Vrbo "Expedia integrated" bookings aren't eligible for Smart Reviews.
When to Skip
That last "Bookings to Skip" part is especially important to understand. You don't want OwnerRez accidentally writing good reviews for bad guests - this could push an irritable guest to leave you a bad review if they anticipated that you did that to them first. So, make sure to read through the "Bookings to Skip" section and select the negative indicators. Each of the options is an indicator that the booking may have been a bad or negative experience. For instance, if money was collected from the security deposit, you may not want to write a 5-star review because (a) the guest might have caused damage or (b) the guest might be upset about the extra charge, and you don't want to encourage them to write a review.
When configuring which bookings to skip, you can select the following. Note that the conditions for skipping a smart review are checked just before it is sent.
- The booking is canceled.
- If the booking is canceled and the guest didn't stay, there is no need to leave a host review.
- The "Guest Has Problem" flag was turned on
- If you have Problem Guests, you will probably want to skip sending a 5-star host review because it would be untrue.
- There was an amount kept from the security deposit
- If you need to charge a Security Deposit Hold or Refundable Security Deposit, you may want to skip sending a host review, as this typically indicates that something negative (e.g., damage) occurred during a guest's stay.
- The security deposit is still pending release
- This option enables hosts to thoroughly inspect their property before manually responding to a guest review.
- Any refunds were sent
- If refunds were sent to the guest, this may indicate that something negative (e.g., guests arrived at an unclean property) occurred during their stay.
- Any notes were written
- If you, as the host, generally reserve guest notes for negative information, this may indicate that something negative (e.g., bad behavior, damage) occurred during their stay.
- The booking or guest is tagged
- For instance, you might have a "bad guest" tag that you proactively add to the booking during a stay. If so, simply use the "is tagged" criterion to select those tags.
- The booking has a negative sentiment option, which is only available to Rezzy-AI-enabled accounts. For more information, see the Smart Reviews Section of our Rezzy AI Guest Sentiment support article.
Manage Review Templates
If you'd like OwnerRez to rotate between different types of responses, you can do that for Airbnb bookings. Simply go back to the Host Reviews tab, click the top-right Manage Templates button, and create as many templates as you want.
Vrbo does not support review templates.
These are the same review templates that you use as "drafts" when writing reviews on the booking.
By their nature, review templates should be short - no more than a couple of sentences. The point of automatic reviews is that they aren't detailed and don't address the guest's stay specifically.
Some review template ideas include the following.
{CFIRST} was a fantastic guest. Respectful, easy to communicate with, and left the property in great condition. Would happily host again!
Great {BNNGHTS}-night stay! {CFIRST} was friendly and responsive, and the home was left spotless. Five stars!
Everything went smoothly from booking to checkout. {CFIRST} is welcome back at {PNAME} anytime.
{CFIRST} and their group of {BNGUEST} were wonderful. Clean, quiet, and great with communication. Highly recommended!
A pleasure to host from start to finish. {CFIRST} took great care of the property and was easy to reach. Would gladly host again.
{CFIRST} stayed for {BNNGHTS} nights and left the place in perfect condition. Communicative and respectful throughout. Hope to see you again!
No issues at all with this stay. {CFIRST} was friendly, followed all house rules, and left everything neat and tidy.
Wonderful guests! The group was respectful of the space and {CFIRST} was a breeze to communicate with. Welcome back anytime! 😊
{CFIRST} was an absolute pleasure. The home was left clean and communication was quick and easy. Five stars!
Hosted {BNGUEST} guests and they were all fantastic. {CFIRST} kept in touch and the property was left in great shape.
{CFIRST} treated the home with care and respect. Smooth stay all around. Would recommend to any host!
Really enjoyed hosting {CFIRST} for {BNNGHTS} nights. Friendly, communicative, and left everything in order. Would host again in a heartbeat.
Excellent guest! {CFIRST} was responsive and respectful, and checkout was seamless. Highly recommended.
{CFIRST} and their party were a joy to host. The property was left in wonderful condition. Welcome back to {PNAME} anytime!
Smooth and easy stay. {CFIRST} followed all the house rules and left the place looking great. Thank you!
A+ guest all around. {CFIRST} was considerate throughout the {BNNGHTS}-night stay and left everything spotless. Would definitely host again.
{CFIRST} was exactly the kind of guest every host hopes for. Great communication, clean and tidy, and very respectful. Five stars! ⭐
Lovely group of {BNGUEST}! {CFIRST} was easy to work with and the home was left in excellent condition. Recommended without hesitation.
{CFIRST} took great care of the property during their stay. Friendly and responsive from start to finish. Hope to host again soon!
Couldn't have asked for better guests. {CFIRST} and their group were respectful and communicative, and left the place in perfect order. Welcome back anytime!
{CFIRST} was a model guest. Clean, courteous, and kept great communication throughout. Would be happy to host again!
The {BNNGHTS}-night stay was completely seamless. {CFIRST} left the home looking wonderful. Thank you and hope to see you again!
Fantastic experience hosting {CFIRST}. Everything from check-in to checkout went perfectly. Highly recommended to other hosts.
{CFIRST} and their party of {BNGUEST} took excellent care of the property. Friendly, quiet, and left things in great order. Five stars!
Truly a pleasure to host. {CFIRST} was thoughtful, communicative, and left the space in tip-top shape. Welcome back anytime! 😊
{CFIRST} was a delight. Stayed for {BNNGHTS} nights with no issues whatsoever. Would gladly host again in the future.
Great guest from start to finish. {CFIRST} respected the property and was quick to respond to any messages. Recommended!
Hosting {CFIRST} was an easy and enjoyable experience. The home was left neat and clean. Hope to see you back at {PNAME}!
{BNGUEST} guests, zero problems. {CFIRST} was communicative and courteous, and the property was left in excellent condition. Would host again!
{CFIRST} made hosting easy. Respectful of the space, followed all the rules, and left things in perfect shape. Thank you for a great stay!
If you want to write detailed reviews, then you shouldn't use automatic reviews. You should continue writing reviews manually as opportunities arise.
After saving your review templates, the Airbnb Smart Reviews settings page will show the list of templates and let you select the ones you want to send automatically if you don't want to use the entire list.
This will allow you to separate the generic "good guest" Airbnb reviews from the others you might use for more detailed responses or bad/negative responses.
Cancel a Smart Review
Sometimes a guest may not be a great fit for our property, and you may want to cancel the Smart Review and write a manual review instead. You can cancel the Smart Review by clicking on the Cancel Smart Review button on the specific Booking > Reviews tab.
Caveats:
- Smart Reviews are always 5 stars, with no exceptions. If you want to write a 3 or 4-star review, that's something you need to do manually.
- Smart Reviews are only attempted once. If a booking has criteria that cause it to be skipped, the system won't attempt the review again, even if those criteria change. For example, if a "bad guest" tag prevents an automatic review and is later removed, the review won't be generated automatically. You'll need to write it manually. This is a precaution to prevent late automatic reviews.
- Smart Reviews are identical to manual ones. They are just like the manual reviews you write yourself on the booking and are subject to all the same rules. For instance, an automatic review cannot be changed after it is submitted.
- Smart Reviewsonly work within the 14-day review time period. As mentioned previously, automatic reviews function in the same manner as manual ones. Once it has been more than 14 days, an automatic review is no longer possible, just as a manual review isn't.
FAQs
How do I handle the "A scheduled or Smart Review for Guest Name was not submitted. You will need to submit this review manually on Vrbo" error?
There may be occasions where you receive an OwnerRez email notification stating, "A scheduled or Smart Review for Guest Name was not submitted. You will need to submit this review manually on Vrbo."
There could be a couple of reasons why you received this notification.
- The guest has already reviewed the reservation publicly before the host has reviewed the guest. This basically happens when the guest reviews through the OwnerRez Guest Review form, and it becomes an imported review from Vrbo's perspective, so Vrbo assumes it's already public.
- Vrbo's intent behind this is to prevent retaliatory reviews. Vrbo ensures that neither party can see the other's reviews before accepting them.
- The guest reviewed the stay more than 14 days ago.
- The checkout date is more than 180 days ago.