In many ways, reviews are the bread and butter of our business. Travelers rely on reviews to make their final decisions. Reviews create trust.
The more happy reviews you have, the more competitive your vacation rental property will be. And that usually translates to more bookings and also being able to charge more per night.
So let’s dive in. A little bit of knowledge can go a long way.
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1. Owner & Traveler Have Up To a Year To Be Rated
If neither the Owner nor the Traveler leaves a review, they each have up to a year to rate each other.
It seems unlikely that someone will leave a review after a month, much less a year.
But for some reason, if neither the owner or the traveler leaves a review, the VRBO reviews window stays open for a year.
2. The Review Time Timespan Can Be Shortened To 14 Days
If either the Owner rates the Traveler or the Traveler leaves a review, the other party has 2 weeks to leave a review or rate the traveler.
After the 14 days, the window will close. The other party that did not rate or leave a review will lose their opportunity.
3. VRBO Has A Double-blind Review Period
The Owner or the Traveler cannot see each other’s reviews or ratings until they submit their own review or rating.
After 14 days, the review or rating will become public, even if the other party didn’t submit their review.
If you forgot to post your rating, after 14 days you’ll lose your opportunity.
So, if you (the owner) submits a Traveler rating, and the Traveler didn’t submit a review, your review of the Traveler will post on the their profile after 14 days, and the Traveler loses their chance to review their stay.
4. There Are Instances When A Traveler Can’t Leave A Review
A traveler cannot leave a review on the VRBO if they book through Expedia.
HomeAway/VRBO said they are working on this but as of this article that is still the case.
2022 Update: Recently we had a guest that came in from Expedia and they were able to leave us a review… but we couldn’t rate them! VRBO said they’re working on expanding that, but as of right now, when it comes to Expedia bookings – only the travelers can leave a review.
Additionally the VRBO reviews are moderated. If there’s something in the review that VRBO doesn’t like then the review will not post.
5. VRBO Has An Extortion Policy
If a Traveler contacts you and tries to get something in exchange for a review, or worse, threatens to leave a bad review if you don’t give them something… that’s called extortion.
Having your business threatened like that feels horrible (Ask me how I know that). but it’s reassuring to know that HomeAway/VRBO has your back.
HomeAway has an extortion policy, if you feel like that is happening to you reach out to support and let them know. They’ll remove the bad review and ban the person from the platform – Nice!
Tips For Increasing Your VRBO Reviews!
These are the steps we take to get more reviews:
- Rate your Travelers, and they will automatically receive a reminder to rate their stay
- If after a couple of days there’s no review, send them another review request
- Still no review, send them one more a few days after that
Following this process will increase your chances of receiving reviews. Make sure to make the review request personal, lively and fun – and mix it up. Each review request in the series should be different.
You should have your review request messages setup as templates, that alone will save you a ton of time. No need to re-invent the wheel every time you ask someone for a review.
Check out the article How To Create Your VRBO Email Templates and How To Create Airbnb Email Templates for details on setting up your message templates.
Tip: Don’t forget to publicly respond to the reviews you receive. This will let future guests know that you’re a communicative, involved host! And added bonus, the VRBO algorithm loves it too.
Save Time – Create VRBO Review Request Templates
For the love of all things holy, you should really create templates!
You should have your review request messages setup as templates, that alone will save you a ton of time. No need to re-invent the wheel every time you ask someone for a review.
Check out the article How To Create Your VRBO Email Templates and How To Create Airbnb Email Templates for details on setting up your message templates.
Tip: Don’t forget to publicly respond to the reviews you receive. This will let future guests know that you’re a communicative, involved host! And added bonus, the VRBO algorithm loves it too.
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