If you thought guest reviews did not matter much, consider this: some of the world's largest hotel brands — including Starwood, Marriott, Four Seasons, Hilton, and Holiday Inn — have added verified customer reviews directly to their own websites. The hospitality industry's most sophisticated operators did not invest in review infrastructure because it was a nice-to-have; they did it because reviews directly influence whether a traveller books or moves on.
For a holiday home or homestay, guest reviews matter even more than they do for a hotel. Reviews impact your listing in two distinct ways. First, they help prospective guests make a decision — peer feedback from real travellers carries more weight than any description you write yourself. Second, they directly influence how platforms rank your listing in search results. The more high-quality, recent reviews your property accumulates, the higher it tends to appear — which means more views and more bookings in a compounding cycle.
How Easy Is It for a Guest to Leave a Review?
Before you start asking guests for reviews, understand what the process looks like from their side. Most major platforms make it straightforward: after their stay, the guest receives an automated email with a direct link to the review form. They rate their experience across a few dimensions, write a short comment, and submit. The whole process takes less than five minutes. Reminding guests of this — and making it easy by sending them a direct link — removes the main barrier to getting it done.
Proven Strategies for Generating More Reviews
Collect contact details from all adult guests. For group bookings in particular, try to obtain the email address of every adult in the party, not just the person who made the reservation. This allows you to follow up individually with each adult after the stay, multiplying the number of potential reviewers from a single booking.
Prompt guests proactively. Reviews rarely appear without encouragement. As an owner, you need to be proactive. During the stay, show guests existing reviews on your listing — the context naturally prompts them to think about leaving one themselves. On the day of check-out, mention briefly that you would appreciate their feedback and that it only takes a few minutes.
Send a thank-you email after check-out. Within 24 to 48 hours of a guest's departure, send a warm, personalised thank-you email. Thank them for staying, ask if everything was to their satisfaction, and include a direct link to the review form on the platform. Keep the tone conversational and genuine — not transactional. Guests who have had a positive experience are usually happy to leave a review when asked directly and promptly.
Redirect email feedback to the platform. Occasionally, satisfied guests will send you a glowing email privately rather than leaving a public review. When this happens, reply warmly, thank them for the kind words, and ask them to post their comments on your listing page — include the direct link. Email feedback from a past guest is valuable only if it helps future guests make a decision.
Leave business cards in the property. A simple card in the welcome pack or on the kitchen counter — with your property name, a brief thank-you message, and a QR code or short URL linking to your listing's review page — is a low-cost, high-impact nudge. Guests who take the card with them are reminded when they get home to leave their feedback.
How to Respond to Reviews
Responding to guest reviews — both positive and negative — is one of the most underutilised tools available to holiday home owners. Research has consistently shown that travellers have a more positive view of properties whose owners actively respond to reviews. A platform study found that over 76% of travellers are more likely to book a property when they can see that the owner engages thoughtfully with guest feedback.
For positive reviews, a brief, warm acknowledgement is enough — thank the guest by name and express that you hope to welcome them again. For negative reviews, respond calmly and professionally: thank the guest for the feedback, acknowledge any shortcoming honestly, and explain what you have done or will do to address it. Potential future guests reading your response will judge your professionalism as much as the original complaint.
The Compounding Effect of Reviews
The best way to accumulate reviews is simply to deliver an exceptional guest experience, every time. Clean the property to a high standard, provide a thoughtful welcome pack, ensure all appliances work properly, respond quickly to any issues that arise during a stay, and make your guests feel genuinely welcome. A guest who has had a wonderful experience does not need to be convinced to leave a review — they want to. Make earning those reviews the foundation of your approach, and use the strategies above to make it as easy as possible for that goodwill to translate into public feedback that works for your business long after the guest has gone home.