Getting Five-Star Reviews: A Short-Term Rental Strategy

Airbnb guests give an overall star rating plus separate ratings for cleanliness, accuracy, check-in, communication, location, and value, and guest and host each have 14 days after checkout to review. Superhost, Airbnb's badge for top hosts, requires a 4.8 overall rating; Guest Favorite, its badge for the most-loved homes, has no published cutoff. To earn five stars, fix problems while the guest is still there, ask every guest for an honest review without offering anything for it, and answer a bad review with a short public response, since Airbnb removes a review only when it breaks the reviews policy.

How Airbnb and Vrbo reviews work

On Airbnb, the overall rating is its own question, not an average of the six categories, and your average overall rating appears in search and on the listing once 3 guests have rated the home. Category averages show beside your reviews, so the lowest one tells you where to start. For the rest of running a listing, see starting an Airbnb business.

What Superhost, Guest Favorite, and Premier Host require

When Airbnb launched Guest Favorites in November 2023, it said those homes were rated above 4.9 stars on average. Among eligible homes, the top 1%, 5%, and 10% now get a gold trophy and a label above their reviews. The bottom 10% get a label above their reviews too, but only after Airbnb has contacted the host about quality.

Where stars are lost and how to fix them before checkout

Each rating category asks the guest one question, and each points to something you can fix while the guest is still there:

When guests rate check-in low, Airbnb offers them feedback choices such as "Hard to locate" and "Unclear instructions." A message on the first evening lets the guest report a problem while you can still fix it, ideally the same day. If a partial refund for a real problem is fair, give it without any mention of the review, for the reason in the next section.

How to ask for reviews within policy

1. Review the guest on checkout day. Airbnb prompts you both that day, and the guest sees your review once they submit theirs or the 14 days end.
2. Send one short request to every guest. Ask for an honest review, not a star rating.
3. Offer nothing for it. Airbnb's reviews policy bars giving or withholding a review in exchange for anything of value, such as a discount or refund, and bars pressuring or coordinating with guests to shape what they write.
4. On Vrbo, watch the 14-day clock. Guests have up to 180 days to review, but once you review them, they have 14 days to review you, and both reviews go live when they do or when the 14 days end.

Responding to a negative review

Airbnb lets you post a public response to a review left for you, as long as it follows the reviews policy, and Vrbo lets owners respond with the steps they have taken or will take. Write for the next guest:

• Thank the guest and name the problem in one sentence.
• Say what you fixed and when.
• Leave out arguments and the guest's personal details.

Thank you for staying with us. The Wi-Fi outage on [date] was a provider fault, and we have since added a backup connection. We are sorry it affected your stay.

When Airbnb or Vrbo will remove a review

Airbnb removes a review that breaks its reviews policy, such as one that:

• is not based on the stay, such as a review from a guest who never arrived;
• is fake, meaning not tied to a real reservation;
• came from extortion or an incentive, such as a guest threatening a bad review to get compensation they are not owed;
• was written by a competitor or by someone affiliated with the listing;
• is retaliatory, meaning the guest broke a policy, was told about it, and then left a biased review because it was reported.

Airbnb does not remove a review because you disagree with the star rating or because it states an opinion, and a review that discusses a Resolution Center or AirCover claim (a request for payment for damage or another problem) is not automatically retaliatory.

To ask for removal, go to Airbnb's remove or dispute a review page, choose the review and the reason, explain it, and upload evidence, such as the message in which a guest demanded a refund for a better review. You can ask at any time, up to two times for the same review, and Airbnb usually decides within 48 hours. Airbnb may withhold Superhost status from hosts with high review removal rates and counts the rate toward Guest Favorite, so request removal only when a review clearly breaks a rule.

Vrbo reviews cannot be edited once submitted, and owners cannot remove a review that meets Vrbo's content guidelines; to ask for a removal, contact Vrbo Customer Service. For guests who threaten reviews or cause other trouble during a stay, see handling difficult guests.