Get more out of reviews

At the moment a visitor is considering a booking, a review does two things at once. First, it works as social proof: someone with a comparable trip has already made the same choice, and it turned out well for them. A long text from a rental operator about quality weighs less than a short sentence from a guest who spent a week there.

Second, a review carries concrete information that the official description of the accommodation does not. How quiet it really is at night, how clean it is on arrival, how the operator responds to a question during the stay. Doubts a visitor does not voice while reading the page often find their answer through a review.

Reviews work differently on a rental website itself than the same reviews on a third-party platform. On the website, they sit next to the photos, next to the price, next to the booking button. The visitor does not have to leave the site to find out what previous guests thought, and so does not have to take a detour that breaks the consideration. Third-party platforms have their place, but the decisive judgement most often forms on the accommodation's own page.

For rental organisations with multiple accommodations, a second consideration weighs in. A guest does not choose between organisations, but between specific houses, apartments or spots on a park. An average review of the whole says less than a review of exactly the accommodation the visitor is wavering on. Per-accommodation reviews match how the choice is actually made: not at the organisation level, but at the level of the place where the guest will spend the week.

A review rarely arrives on its own. Guests are thinking about other things after their stay, and the threshold to seek out a form on their own initiative is high. A directed invitation at the right moment raises the response rate considerably.

The right moment is two days after departure. Early enough that the experience is still fresh, late enough that there is some distance to reflect. A friendly reminder a week later catches the guest who missed the first email. Asking again beyond that is counterproductive.

In practice it pays to automate this process. Every booking ends on a departure date, and from there an invitation can go out at the right moment, in the guest's language. Sending the same question manually every week takes time, while the content of the invitation does not meaningfully change between guests. BonBooking handles this step automatically, with a reminder if the first invitation goes unanswered.

A rental operator has limited influence on what a guest writes. That is exactly what makes a review credible: it is guest content, and it should remain that. What the operator does control is a manager response, shown on the website alongside the guest's text.

For positive reviews, a brief response can be a valuable addition. For critical reviews, the difference becomes more pronounced. A measured response that adds context or corrects a misunderstanding often weighs more for a future visitor than the original criticism. It shows how an organisation responds when something goes wrong, and that is a signal a string of glowing reviews cannot replace. A rental website with praise everywhere but no manager responding anywhere reads as less genuine than a site with mixed reviews where each one has been answered with care.

Reviews on the rental website itself, asked for at the right moment and accompanied by a manager response, form the strongest signal a future guest can find. It is a part of the website whose impact is often underestimated in practice, while the mechanics can largely be automated.

How BonBooking handles this, with multi-criteria scores, automated invitations and a management portal for moderation and response, can be found on the reviews features page.