Airbnb Review Policy: How Does It Work?

Airbnb community is built on trust between hosts and guests, and reviews are one of the ways to foster it. Airbnb review system allows hosts and guests to give each other honest feedback and help them make informed booking and hosting decisions.

To help you better understand how the review process works, here we’ll take a closer look at Airbnb Review Policy. You’ll also find information on how to request the removal of a retaliatory review and how to edit an Airbnb review. 

Airbnb Review Policy

Airbnb emphasizes that the platform’s reviews policy was created to help ensure the feedback provided by guests and hosts is authentic, trustworthy, and useful to the Airbnb community. Airbnb Review Policy states that reviews must be unbiased and contain only relevant information reflecting the actual experience of the reviewer during the stay or Airbnb Experience. All reviews must also follow the Airbnb Content Policy.

Here is how the review system on Airbnb works:

• Airbnb hosts and guests can leave reviews for stays booked and paid for on this rental listing platform.

• Hosts and guests have 14 days to leave a review after the checkout.

• Reviews are posted after the host and the guest have submitted their reviews or after the 14-day period has ended.

• If you disagree with a review that someone left for you, you have the right to post a public response within 30 days after the review was submitted and provide your perspective.

• You can’t remove a review you don’t agree with, but you can report it if you think it violates the Airbnb Review Policy.

Getting a lot of great reviews from your guests is crucial for running a successful Airbnb business. 5-star reviews can help improve your Airbnb search ranking, add credibility to your listing, attract more guests, and get more bookings and revenue.

It’s important to encourage your guests to leave an honest review that reflects their personal experience. How? Contact your guests and remind them to leave you feedback before they check out. You also need to do your part in reviewing your guests and tell other hosts that you hosted nice or even wonderful guests. Mention your guests by name to show that it was a genuine personal relationship.

After you leave a review, Airbnb will notify your guests to encourage them to provide feedback. If they had a pleasant, memorable experience during their stay, they are more likely to return the favor.

The good idea is to create many review templates and use them instead of writing unique responses after each stay. That can save you some time. But a better approach is to automate the entire Airbnb host review process using tools like Hospitable.com. You just need to set your review templates, and Hospitable will randomize, customize, and send them for you.

If you think there is a chance that your guest wasn’t satisfied with their stay, don’t leave them a review immediately after they check out. The guest will have time to cool down and may even forget to leave a review within 14 days if Airbnb doesn’t prompt them to do it because you’ve already submitted yours.

If you use Hospitable, our system will help you manage bad reviews. You just need to enable the Bad Review feature in a pending review for a troublesome guest, and your review will be delayed until the last minute.

Airbnb Review Removal Policy

Airbnb encourages hosts and guests to leave transparent, honest reviews but doesn’t moderate reviews before they are published. Airbnb doesn’t generally mediate disputes concerning the truth of reviews. Hosts can’t delete negative critical reviews submitted by guests, but they can contact Airbnb and request the removal of a review if it violates the Airbnb Review Policy.

Airbnb states that a review may be removed if:

• It violates Airbnb’s Content Policy—for example, it includes discriminatory, violent, or threatening content, private or confidential information

• The review is biased—for example when the guest has been incentivized to leave a good review in return for a discounted or free stay, or if there are signs the booking was made just to inflate a host’s overall rating

• The review is irrelevant to the author’s personal experience—for example, it doesn’t provide firsthand information about the host, guest, or stay that would help other members of the Airbnb community make informed booking or hosting decisions

Hosts and guests can remove a review they’ve written if it no longer reflects their genuine experience as a guest or a host. You can contact the Airbnb customer support team and request them to remove a review you’ve submitted after it has been published.

More instructions and best practices on starting and running an efficient Airbnb business in our free guide.

In November 2022, Airbnb updated its review removal policy, offering hosts stronger protection against retaliatory reviews. Hosts can dispute retaliatory reviews—no matter when they were posted—from guests who seriously violate such policies as

• Breaking the listing’s house rules

• Overstaying their reservation

• Damaging the property

• Having an unauthorized party

When you dispute a review, you’ll need to provide evidence supporting your request, such as photos or message threads with guests. But there is no guarantee that a retaliatory review will be removed.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard you’ve tried to ensure your guest had a perfect stay, they still leave a bad review. It’s a frustrating experience, but you should keep your emotions in check. Take your time to read the review and try to understand what went wrong. That will help you avoid similar problems in the future.

Always respond to negative Airbnb reviews quickly to add some information, address the guest’s feedback, or provide your perspective. That can help mitigate the damage a bad review may cause to your listing.

Validate the guest’s negative experience and apologize even if you don’t agree with their version of the situation. Show sympathy and thank your guest for their feedback that can help you improve things in the future to show that you take it seriously. Focus on some positive aspects of the guest’s stay. This tactic will show future guests that you did your best to make the disappointed guest feel better.

You may want to check out our blog article for more tips on handling bad Airbnb reviews.

How can you avoid negative reviews in the future? Create an accurate listing to manage guests’ expectations. Do your best to make your rental space as attractive and welcoming as possible to ensure a comfortable stay. Be proactive while communicating with your guests. You must show your guests that you are a true host who is responsive to their needs and willing to be flexible when necessary.

Creating an outstanding guest experience is the most effective strategy for getting positive reviews. That’s a lot of work, but the process will be easier if you invest in vacation rental software like Hospitable and automate your routine tasks. Then you’ll have more time to focus on making your guests happy.

How to Edit Airbnb Review

To encourage honest reviews, Airbnb limits the ability of hosts and guests to edit a review after they’ve written it. If you are the first to submit a review, you may edit it anytime within the 14-day review period up until the other party submits their review. You can edit your recent review if you go to Profile and then Reviews. Choose Reviews by you and go to the review you’d like to edit.

But once both a host and a guest submit their reviews, or the 14-day review period has ended—whichever comes first—both reviews are automatically published simultaneously. Then it’s impossible to edit your review and make any changes.

Remember: you can’t request edits to a review written about you. You only may contact Airbnb to request a change in the gender pronoun the other party used to describe you in their review.

Final Thought

Being a successful Airbnb host isn’t only about providing your guests with a comfortable place to stay. It’s also about maintaining good relationships with your guests and building trust within the community. Do your best to provide a memorable guest experience, and you’re sure to get more 5-star reviews and win more bookings.