Most advice on Airbnb reviews is about asking guests nicely at checkout. For a holiday letting agency with many homes, the review is usually decided earlier, during the stay, when a guest finds a problem and either gets it fixed or does not. Airbnb gives both sides 14 days after checkout to review, and Booking.com gives guests three months, so an unsolved problem can follow a property for a long time. The agencies with the best scores treat reviews as an operations system: catch problems during the stay, ask once within each platform’s rules, reply well, and turn every complaint into a fix in the house.
Key takeaways
- On Airbnb, hosts and guests have 14 days after checkout to review, and reviews appear when both have submitted or the 14 days end.
- Booking.com invites guests to review about 48 hours after check-out and gives them three months to do it.
- Airbnb, Google and Irish consumer law all rule out paying or rewarding people for reviews, and pressuring guests over a review.
- Hosts can reply publicly to Airbnb reviews, and private ratings and notes from guests are visible only to the host and Airbnb.
- A holiday home cannot have its own Google Business Profile, so Google reviews belong to the agency’s office profile.
On this page
Why reviews are an operations job, not a marketing job#
A review describes what happened in the house, so most of the work happens before the guest ever sees the review form. The asking and replying matter, but they cannot rescue a stay where the heating failed and nobody answered.
The running example in this guide is a holiday letting agency in Lahinch that manages homes for owners along the Clare coast. Its owner, Darragh, sees the agency’s average rating slip on two houses and wants a system that works across all of them. Agencies that also want their reviews to help them get found on Google can look at local SEO for Irish businesses, but the steps below come first.
Darragh starts by reading the last year of reviews for every house in one sheet. The same three issues come up again and again: slow Wi-Fi in one cottage, unclear parking instructions, and a late check-in reply on Saturdays.
How reviews work on Airbnb, Booking.com and Google#
Want this done for your business? Talk to us about Local SEO
Each platform has its own timing and rules, and an agency needs to know them before it builds a routine around them.
| Platform | Who reviews and when | What the host can do |
|---|---|---|
| Airbnb | Host and guest, within 14 days of checkout | Post a public response; see private ratings and notes |
| Booking.com | Guests who stayed, invited about 48 hours after check-out, three months to reply | Reply to reviews that include comments |
| Anyone with a Google Account, on the agency’s Business Profile | Reply to each review on the profile |
According to Airbnb’s Help Centre, reviews are posted only after both sides have submitted, or once the 14 days have ended. Overall star ratings are public, while individual category ratings and notes to the host are seen only by the host and Airbnb.
Booking.com’s Partner Hub says only guests who booked and stayed can review, and reviews stay public for 36 months. Its guide to improving the guest review score adds that the score is an average of ratings from one to ten, and that reviews with a score but no comment cannot be replied to.
Google works differently for holiday homes. Google’s Business Profile eligibility guidelines list rental properties such as vacation homes as ineligible, so the reviews that matter on Google sit on the agency’s own office profile, from owners and guests alike.
The rules on asking for reviews#
Asking is allowed, but the line is clear on every platform. Airbnb’s policy on authentic and trustworthy reviews says reviews may not be given or withheld in exchange for something of value, and hosts may not manipulate, pressure or incentivise anyone to influence a review.
Google’s guidance on reviews calls incentives such as free or discounted goods or services in exchange for reviews fake and misleading content, and strictly prohibits them. Irish law points the same way. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission says businesses cannot pay for false or misleading reviews or post fake reviews themselves, and must take reasonable steps to confirm that reviews they display come from real consumers.
Watch out: A discount on the next stay in return for a five-star review breaks Airbnb’s and Google’s rules, even if it is offered in a friendly way.
In practice, one plain request is enough. A short message on checkout day thanks the guest and says that a review helps other travellers choose the house. Darragh adds one line to his checkout message and stops sending reminders after that.
Catching problems during the stay#
The cheapest bad review to fix is the one that never gets written. Booking.com’s guide suggests giving guests a way to raise urgent issues during the stay so they can be solved on the spot.
For an agency, that means a few habits across every house:
- A check-in message on the first evening asking whether everything works, with one number or chat to use.
- A reply time the team can keep, including weekends, because a slow answer often hurts more than the fault itself.
- A short list of known weak points per house, such as Wi-Fi or parking, explained before arrival.
- A log of every issue raised, with the time it was fixed.
Darragh moves the parking instructions into the booking confirmation and gives the Saturday check-ins to one named staff member. A guest messaging tool (Software that sends scheduled messages to guests and collects their replies in one inbox.) in his booking system sends the first-evening message automatically.
Replying to good and bad reviews#
Replies are read by future guests as much as by the reviewer. Airbnb lets hosts post a public response to a published review, as long as it follows the same review policy. Booking.com’s tips are to thank every guest, personalise the reply, ask for more information when something is unclear, and stay fair and objective.
Google’s review guidance adds three useful points: avoid generic thank-you replies, never share a reviewer’s private information, and do not use replies to push deals or promotions.
Tip: For a negative review, say what has changed in the house since the stay, in one or two sentences. Future guests care more about the fix than about who was right.
Darragh writes short replies that name the house and the change, such as a new router in the cottage with slow Wi-Fi. He replies to every review within a few days, good or bad.
Turning reviews into fixes in each house#
Reviews are free inspection reports, and Airbnb’s private category ratings and notes are the most useful part. An agency can turn them into work with a simple loop:
- Tag every review by house and by topic, such as cleaning, heating, Wi-Fi, check-in or noise.
- Count topics per house each month, so a repeated issue stands out.
- Create a task with an owner and a date for anything mentioned twice.
- Tell the property owner what was found and what was done, using the reviews as evidence.
This also helps with owners. A monthly note that shows complaints falling after a fix is a strong reason for an owner to stay with the agency. Darragh shares a one-page review summary with each owner every month.
Why reviews also matter for direct bookings and AI answers#
Good reviews do more than lift a listing on Airbnb. Guests who find a house elsewhere often check the reviews before they book, and the agency’s Google profile is where owners judge it before signing.
Travellers also ask ChatGPT where to stay. The Baikou guide to ChatGPT for hotels explains how accommodation businesses get named in those answers, so this guide does not repeat it.
How Baikou helps holiday letting agencies with reviews#
When Baikou’s team works with a holiday letting agency on reviews, it starts with the operation behind them: first-evening guest messages, an issue log and a monthly review summary by house. It sets up review requests within each platform’s rules, a reply routine, and the agency’s Google Business Profile so owners and guests can review the office. The team also runs a free AI visibility check, because travellers and owners increasingly ask ChatGPT for recommendations, and the check shows whether the agency is named in those answers.
Where to start this month#
Read the last year of reviews for every house and list the topics that repeat. Add a first-evening check-in message and one plain review request at checkout, with no rewards attached. Reply to every review with the change made, and send owners a short monthly summary. Baikou helps Irish businesses build local search and review routines like this as part of its digital marketing and AI automation work.
Free Business Growth Check: see where your business can grow online in 3 minutes →
Want this done for your business?
Talk to us about Local SEO: Google Maps and Business Profile.
See Local SEOFAQ#
Can an agency ask guests to change a bad review?
Airbnb’s policy says hosts may not pressure or manipulate anyone to influence a review, and Google prohibits incentives for changing or removing reviews. The safer route is a public reply that explains what was fixed.
When do Airbnb reviews appear?
Reviews are posted when both the host and the guest have submitted, or when the 14-day window after checkout ends. That is why a guest’s review can appear even if the host has not written one.
Can a holiday home have its own Google reviews?
Not through its own Business Profile, because Google lists vacation homes as ineligible. Reviews on Google belong on the agency’s office profile instead.
Should every review get a reply?
Booking.com suggests thanking every guest, and Google advises specific rather than generic replies. A short, personal reply to each review shows future guests that someone reads them.
