Vrbo Guest Reviews: How to Manage Them as a Host

Vrbo guest reviews
By The Hospitable Team

Authentic reviews from travelers are essential for any Vrbo vacation rental because they serve as social proof for future guests and are critical in their decision-making. The more highly-rated Vrbo guest reviews your listing has, the more it will be booked. Additionally, positive reviews on Vrbo will increase your rental property’s position in search results, helping it stand out among competitors.

Hosts can also review their guests. When travelers who have stayed at different properties get Vrbo reviews from owners, other hosts can learn more about potential guests and feel more confident about bookings. Another benefit of leaving your reviews of your guests is that they will prompt travelers to review you.

So how do Vrbo reviews work? In this article, we’ll talk about getting more positive reviews on Vrbo and how to review your guests, and remind them to leave feedback on their stay.

Vrbo Review Policy

According to the Vrbo review policy, the purpose of their two-way review system is to create trust and transparency across the platform. It allows guests and hosts to rate their whole experience after the stay is completed. So after each stay, both hosts and their guests are encouraged to leave a review.

A guest and a host have up to a year to review each other. But if one party leaves their review at any point prior, the other party has only 14 days to write their review. 

Vrbo review process is designed to ensure that all reviews on their platform are unbiased and truthfully reflect each experience. It prevents both guests and hosts from viewing one another’s rating before it is live. Besides, Vrbo also has an extortion policy that prohibits extorting owners/managers or travelers for money.

Neither guests nor hosts can edit their reviews after they have been published. Neither party will be able to see each other’s ratings until both have submitted their review or until the submission period of 14 days has ended. Hosts can respond to a guest’s review but may not review the guest themselves.

Ratings of travelers are not public. Only owners and property managers can view the average star rating for travelers who have submitted reservation requests and with whom they are corresponding.

How to Get More 5-star Vrbo Guest Reviews

Vrbo always reaches out to guests to ask for reviews after checkout. But you’ll increase your chances of getting feedback by sending messages asking for reviews. Many hosts include a request for a review in their messages with checkout instructions. Guests typically read them pretty closely, so it’s a great place to ask.

You can send a review request from Inbox in the Vrbo navigation menu or from the Review page, customizing the review template manually to make it personal.

Of course, this step can take more time out of your day than you may like, especially if you manage multiple listings. But with Hospitable.com, you can request guest reviews automatically—our system will do it for you.

Have conversations with your guests even when you sleep

We will detect and answer questions on your behalf, send fully custom messages triggered by events, and much more!

5-star reviews from guests are imperative for getting high rankings and more bookings on Vrbo, just like on other OTA websites. So how can you ensure that guests leave positive feedback about your rental property after each stay?

Guarantee Your Home Is Guest-ready

First of all, your rental space must be thoroughly cleaned before each guest arrives. To keep your cleaning team on track, you should provide them with a vacation rental cleaning checklist. This way, you can eliminate accidental oversights and ensure your home is spotless.

To give your Vrbo guests the best experience possible, make sure everything is in working order before every stay. Double check kitchen appliances, lightbulbs, and faucets. It’s also essential to leave detailed instructions to help guests use your amenities to the fullest.

Give Your Guests a 5-star Experience

When travelers rent a vacation rental property, they expect it to feel like home. So you should do everything to put your guests in a comfortable and inviting space:

  • Make sure your kitchen cabinets are packed with essentials like tea, coffee, and spices;

  • Put soap, toilet paper, shower products, and extra towels in every bathroom;

  • Stock clean linen, ample pillows, and cozy throws in each bedroom;

  • Surprise your guests with something extra, like a welcome basket with a bottle of wine and homemade treats

  • Create a welcome book with a list of places to eat and things to see and do in the area.

Communicate with Your Guests

The traveler’s experience at your rental property begins long before their arrival. In fact, it starts the moment they request a booking, and they expect quick and easy communication. So you should be responsive and be ready to answer all their questions fast.

Once they have arrived at your rental property, you should be available to your guests if any issues arise or any inquiries they might have. Make sure your guests can reach you via text, email, or phone call. Answering immediately will eliminate their stress, and you are most likely to get great Vrbo guest reviews.

Managing all communications with your guests and keeping your team updated about the new tasks can be very time-consuming and feel like a part-time job. But you can save tons of time with Hospitable.com. Our tool will help automate conversations with your guests, streamline your operations, and sync your calendar across multiple platforms.

Your entire STR business in one convenient platform

Automate communication, create a direct booking website, manage channels, sync calendars, push pricing updates, notify your team, and much more!
Start today with a 14-day free trial.

Vrbo Reviews by Owners: How to Submit a Review about Your Guests

On the day your guests check out, you will see a card in your Vrbo feed to review them. You can do it by clicking on Add your rating.

You should rate your experience with your guest from 1-5 stars for each of the four criteria: overall experience, cleanliness, communication, and adherence to house rules. There are no text boxes, so you can’t actually write a review as you can do on Airbnb.

After your guests check out, you can review them, request reviews, and respond to submitted reviews through your Vrbo review dashboard. Follow these steps to rate your guests:

  • Choose a property and then go to Reviews.

  • Locate the traveler you want to review.

  • If on the All reviews tab, click Rate traveler. If on the Needs rating tab, click Overall experience to expand.

  • Rate your experience with your guest from 1-5 stars for each of the four criteria and click Save.

If you have not reviewed your guest after three days of their stay, you will receive an email from Vrbo with a link to submit a traveler review. Remember that if you review your guests first, you are more likely to get a review in return, so you should make leaving it a priority.

Getting a lot of good Vrbo guest reviews can have a huge impact on your vacation rental business. It will help you rank higher on Vrbo, attract more travelers, get more bookings, and increase your revenue.