Have you ever wanted to write a negative review for a guest on Airbnb but were worried that the guest would see you wrote a review, pushing them to write their own negative review first? Sometimes, owners and property managers decide to not write reviews at all as a sort of "let sleeping dogs lie" measure against getting negative reviews in return.
If only there was a way where you could write a negative review for a guest but wait to post it until right before the 14-day window expired. By the time the guest saw that you wrote one, it would be too late for them to write their own. Airbnb allows the host and guest to write reviews within 14 days from departure only.
Well, now you can! We've designed a "delayed posting" feature that will take your Airbnb reviews and wait to send them to Airbnb until 3 minutes before the 14-day deadline expires. You can also cancel an automatic review by following the instructions in the Cancel an Automatic Review support article.
Navigate to an Airbnb booking in OwnerRez and start writing a review. At the bottom, under Delay Posting select the This is a negative review; delay it being posted... option and save.
Our system will then delay sending it to Airbnb until 3 minutes prior to the 14-day review period expiration time.
A couple of common questions on delayed reviews:
- Can I delay posting a good review? Yes, technically you can, but it doesn't make any sense to do that. If it's a good review, you should send it right away to encourage the guest to write their own in return. Only negative reviews (ie. reviews with low star counts or that mention bad things that the guest did) should be delayed so that the review isn't read by the guest until it's too late for them to write their own. If for some reason you want to delay posting a good review, simply select the "negative review; delay it being posted" option.
- Will this prevent the guest from writing a review? No. All Airbnb guests are free to write reviews whenever they want. If they write a review first (before you send yours) then this delay feature doesn't really matter. Their review will still post the same as always. Your review will still be delayed (if you select that option) but it won't have any effect on whether the guest writes one. This delayed-posting feature is basically a timing trick to sneak a review in before the guest has remembered to write their own. If they remember to write one on their own, then delayed posting does you no good.
- Does this change how my review is shown on Airbnb? No. It's just like any other review you would post, only we wait a certain length of time before sending it.
- What if I write the review on Airbnb? This feature only works on the OwnerRez side using API integration. If you write a review on Airbnb's control panel directly, it will be posted immediately.
- How much time will the guest have to write their review after the delayed one is posted? Not much. Technically, we send delayed reviews about 3 minutes before the 14-day window has expired. From that point, Airbnb has to notify the guest, the guest has to be near their phone and see that one was written, open up the review window and write their own - all within a 3 minute time period. They might be able to do that, but we think it's unlikely most of the time.
- Can you shorten the buffer time at the end? Make it 1 minute before the review period ends? Computer networks and servers are not always exactly aligned, and the review process might be queued on Airbnb's side. Depending on how Airbnb's systems are configured, we feel like a 3-minute time window is warranted. That gives the host review enough time to get in on time without being so close to the end that it fails. However, we are closely monitoring this feature it to see where it succeeds and fails. If you run into situations where your guests are seeing negative reviews and responding before the 14-day period expires, let us know.
Learn more about the power of reviews by reading our Reviews Overview support article.