How to Prevent or Respond to Negative Holiday Rental Reviews
Negative holiday rental reviews can be a headache for hosts, but there are techniques to prevent them.
- Key Prevention: Emphasise prevention as the key to avoiding negative reviews in holiday rentals.
- Positive Encouragement: Suggest encouraging positive reviews to counteract negative ones and improve online reputation.
- Positive Transformation: Recommend addressing negative reviews with generosity and empathy to turn them into improvement opportunities.
- Professional Response: Stress the importance of responding professionally and transparently, using feedback to enhance service.
September 2024
Holiday rentals are enjoyed through personal experiences, but it’s common for these experiences to be shared online, where information is democratised, and the customer has the final say. Reviews, whether positive or negative, are part of the everyday reality for establishments, and those renting out their properties for tourism need to know how to handle them. Keep reading to learn how to respond to negative comments about your holiday home.
To achieve the best online reputation and boast a flawless digital footprint, some key strategic words need to be analysed: prevention, encouragement, repair, and professionalism. We delve into these aspects to help your holiday rental gain the prestige it deserves.
The Best Technique to Avoid Negative Reviews: Prevention
When considering how to respond to negative holiday rental reviews, it’s important to note that the best way to avoid negative reviews is to provide guests with the best experience. If their stay meets all their needs, if communication with the host is smooth, and if comfort is the hallmark of their time in the city, negative reviews will be rare.
Therefore, review the entire experience cycle to ensure it translates into positive reviews. Respond promptly to communications via email, specialised platforms, or phone calls, be available through multiple communication channels in case any issues arise during the stay, and address any post-stay inquiries (such as a forgotten item).
A sense of support, professionalism, and service orientation strengthens bonds with guests and can prevent negative reviews if any issues arise. Conversely, feelings of neglect and lack of concern can lead to the opposite outcome. Hence, accompany your guests throughout their experience with the appropriate distance.
Additionally, link your business to good causes like sustainability, local commerce association, or personalised experiences. This will create a sense of comfort and involvement among guests.
Counter Negative Reviews: Encourage Positive Reviews
If you believe a guest had a great experience at your holiday home, ask them to share their view online. Rewarding this action (for example, offering a small discount or some incentive for their next visit) can help. Ideally, concentrate these reviews in a single digital space, making it a reference site in online searches and attracting new guests.
Focusing on highlighting the positive, by promoting favourable reviews, will ensure that the prevailing opinion among those looking for information about your property is positive. If, for example, a property has twenty positive reviews and only one negative, people are more likely to consider the twenty favourable reviews.
Include a QR code in brochures or information leaflets directing guests to the website to write a review for their convenience. Another option is to send an SMS or email requesting a review after their stay to turn their experience into a positive review. Positive reviews help build loyalty among your community.
Turn a Negative Holiday Rental Review into a Positive One
This is very important. A negative experience doesn’t have to be a disaster. The main thing is to accept that it happens, that it’s often unavoidable, and it doesn’t mean you’re a bad host. Holiday rental experiences aren’t an exact science. Sometimes, things go wrong, incidents happen, and things beyond our control occur. So, we must normalise mistakes.
If a guest had a negative experience, there’s still time to repair and turn their bad feelings into less unfavourable or even positive ones. Providing a quick, effective, and generous solution can compensate the guest, potentially changing their opinion. If, for example, you offer a discount for their next visit, send a compensatory gift, or address their complaint personally, their negative opinion might change.
Negative holiday rental reviews should also be handled strategically and given an appropriate response, as we’ll see next.
Respond with Excellence Befitting Your Business
Although the first instinct might be to defend yourself fiercely, it’s essential to show professionalism and resilience in the face of criticism. The first step in responding to a negative review is to express regret for what happened. It’s obvious, but it shows empathy. No one likes their guests to have a bad experience, as the purpose of renting out the property is precisely the opposite – to provide guests with a great experience.
After issuing the apology, delve into the complaint and investigate what might have gone wrong. The usual advice in these situations is to handle each case by phone. This serves two purposes: the voice conveys warmth and closeness, and it also builds trust. This will make the guest feel their case is being taken seriously. The second reason is that it prevents further digital footprint, resolving the issue quickly.
Thus, experts in reputation management recommend a sincere apology, communicating that the case is being handled internally for an appropriate response, and continuing to address the issue internally. Maintain a measured, close, precise, honest, and transparent tone throughout the process. Don’t lose your composure or the professionalism expected of you.
Finally, explain concisely, balanced, and reasonably the reasons that led to the negative experience. Resolving conflicts isn’t pleasant, but a proper and professional attitude is usually the first step to resolving it positively.
Negative Reviews: A Window to Excellence
In the end, negative holiday rental reviews help refine every detail of a stay at your holiday home. So, note the points of conflict, consider improvement options, and carefully transform each aspect. Ultimately, this will bring your service closer to excellence, and positive reviews will come naturally. Moreover, there’s no better feeling for the guest than seeing their disappointing experience addressed and remedied somehow.
As the saying goes: “Every cloud has a silver lining.” Negative reviews have a bad reputation because of the frustration they cause, but in the grand scheme of things, they can help us provide the best holiday experience possible.