What Can You Do to Improve Airbnb Ratings?
Do you rent out your property through Airbnb? Attracting guests is essential and when they arrive you need to make sure they have the best experience possible. A happy guest is likely to leave with a positive opinion of your accommodation (and will want to share it with friends, family, acquaintances and hopefully lots of others).
When guests appraise Airbnb accommodation they provide written reviews and star ratings. They rate all sorts of factors including their overall experience, cleanliness, and how well they felt their host communicated with them.
This gives an indication as to how much a guest enjoyed their stay. If you want your guests to tell the world how wonderful your accommodation is then make your place and the experience you provide worthy of praise.
What Makes Guests Give Bad Ratings?
If your guests haven’t had a good time they will leave feeling disgruntled, and ready to share their disappointment with a host of other potential guests. Your reputation is everything and negativity can spread like wild-fire.
Guests want to stay in accommodation that lives up to their expectations, that means your abode should be comfy and spotlessly clean. Give your place a thorough going over prior to each new guest arriving. Go from room to room and be thorough - guests hate dust, dirt, cobwebs and (this is a biggie) hair. Make sure there are zero hairs floating about!
When you walk into your accommodation does is it feel fresh and appealing? We are not just talking about how it looks but also how it smells. Old cooking smells, pet pongs and stale smoke are all a no-no.
Guests do not want to be greeted by a musty, fetid pong - not the best way to provide a warm welcome! Air every room If you can – bathrooms have a tendency to get damp if not taken care of - a dank bathroom can be really off-putting.
Guests also like to feel relaxed – they do not want to have to wrap up indoors because it’s too chilly. Similarly, being too hot can leave your guests feeling just as uncomfortable – no-one likes to sleep in a stuffy room.
Another bugbear for guests is noise, many people take a break to get away from the hubbub of day-to-day living, so they will want a calm, relaxing atmosphere. A rumbling boiler, creaky doors, noise from neighbours, or too much traffic noise from an overly busy road can have an impact on your guest’s experience.
The outcome of all of these problems? A poor guest experience which equals poor ratings, and less people likely to book your accommodation.
How Can I Improve My Ratings?
Want to improve your ratings? Then you need to improve your accommodation.
You can start by giving your whole place a bit of a spruce-up. It doesn’t need to be spring to indulge in a bit of a spring clean! Repair anything that needs to be fixed and give soft furnishings and carpets a deep clean.
Got everywhere looking good? Great! Next step is to control the environment to make sure your guests enjoy their experience – but how do you do this without being intrusive? You can’t really nip in to check if your guests are too hot or cold, or if they are being disturbed by next door’s barky dog!
Investing in a tool that could help you measure the environment and relay information to you about temperature, humidity, lighting, noise, and air quality will provide you with the insight you need to ensure an optimal experience. You can audit your space and make sure it offers the optimum comfort for your guests. GreenMe have developed a clever cube, a “connected multichannel datalogger for indoor comfort assessment.” The cube gives you the information you need and points you in the right direction as to the adjustments you can make to give your guests the optimum environment - ensuring they enjoy their stay.
The connected cube is an internet connected device and is part of the IoT (internet of things) revolution. IoT is big news, so big that the number of connected devices is expected to reach the 200 billion mark by 2020.
As well as data collected thanks to technology, you could also draw on written client feedback. As well as anything the Airbnb platform offers, preparing and asking guests to fill in a short survey on their leaving day could give you precious information on what to polish up on.
To ensure your competitors don’t get the edge, get connected, provide a better environment, make your guests comfy and get rave reviews. Great feedback leads to more bookings. Put your holiday accommodation firmly on the map.
Add comment