hello youtube this is richard founder of
short-term rental secrets and
Airbnb super host last week's video we
talked about how not to take negative
reviews and problems that you may face
up personally if you haven't watched it
go ahead and watch the videos up here on
this week's video I want to talk to you
about what I do about bad reviews in
writing and turning that negative review
into an actual marketing piece that's
gold so what to do when you face a
negative review so let's start with the
little story and this one happens to be
on vrbo vacation rentals by owner and
not air B&B but the same concept you
know people come and stay in your home
and a short-term rental and then when
they check out they can go ahead and
leave positive review or negative review
right we all know the drill as I
indicated this one happened to be in a
property that I own down south and on
vrbo and the guests left a two-star
review which is like I don't know that
that's ever happened to me and basically
the gist of their commentary was that
they had planned on going fishing and
that the pier was the boards were kind
of loose and there was a lot of bird
poop on the walkway out to the pier and
that you know it was not safe and not
usable and couldn't be like you know
more disgusting and whatever it was
right to stars and you know when I first
read that i was shocked again that's
never really happened to me and then i
paused as i always do i think it's
really important to like stay calm and
collected and think this thing through
and if you need to sleep on it we all
know that old adage but like there's a
reason for it so get yourself into the
right space read it think about it I
contacted my cleaning team down there
and I asked them I read them the review
I shared it with them I asked for their
feedback about it and then I processed
all of that and formulated a marketing
response because when you reply to
review it does two things one it pushes
their complaint further it compresses it
if it's really really long it compresses
it down to like a line or two and then
it highlights yours so you want to make
a really long response to share your
positive message and hide the negative
message right like just do that but in a
nutshell what my team said was rich
birds are common problem anybody that
has outdoor space down south is going to
have bird poop on the boardwalk on the
lawn there's just nothing you can do
about it except clean it and we tend to
do that at spring cleaning furthermore
most people aren't using the boardwalk
and the boathouse and going fishing in
the middle of winter it tends to be they
go out there take a look at it maybe
take a photo have a cup of coffee or
something but very few people are
actually looking to use the space the
outdoor space during the dead of winter
and so what my team basically said was
we do a spring opening which I was aware
of and that's when we clean everything
and if there's any storms and loose
boards we have a crew come in and we've
replaced boards and we tidy it all up
such that when we get to spring and
people are starting to use the outdoor
space it's in perfect shape and so
that's basically what I highlighted in
the review you want to be very
professional do not name call do not get
negative do not say like you know that
there anything other than just a
reasonable response and so I like to say
things like whatever it was dear Donna
thanks so much for your stay really
appreciate your candid feedback what I'd
like to do is discuss it in greater
detail and explain to you you know the
situation and then that explanation is
not defensive it's not like what were
you thinking or why were you out there
in winter it's more just like you know
it is outdoor space and it's subject to
birds and bird droppings are a common
problem what we do and every other
homeowner we know is we have a spring
cleaning which is when we take care of
that and unfortunately your stay was a
few weeks before that spring cleaning
had I known that you were going to use
the outdoor spaces extensively had you
let me know I might have warned you in
advance that it's not clean nor could it
be because it's winter and then as a
regard to the loose boards you know this
winter was particularly difficult there
was a lot of storms and boards wiggle
and nails come out and that's why we
also during our spring cleanup come in
and replace all of that and the good
news is for anybody who's renting on a
go-forward basis we've done all that we
just replaced 10 boards and we nail down
everything so anybody who's looking to
stay and use
Pierre not only has it been washed of
the bird poop but also the nails have
been hammered down in the board to
replace and it's like brand-new now stop
and think about that I've addressed the
complaint I've thanked them for their
feedback it's very professional I've
also given a very rational explanation
for the circumstance and the timing so
anybody who needs that can say is this
reasonable do i understand it doesn't
make sense can I live with that and more
importantly what's the condition when I
check in next week next month or in six
months oh it's clean and it's brand-new
and Richard and his team have a whole
program together they do regular and
routine maintenance right that's a sub
message that we're delivering and so in
a nutshell when you go ahead and take
that negative review or a two-star
review in this case and you write a long
response that's professional and you use
it as a marketing tool you can get your
message across you can get your message
that you care you can get your message
that you actually maintain the property
you can get your message across that you
have a team of people that you do this
ordinarily and that it's unfortunate in
this case that they were here a little
bit before that happened but you know
it's been taking care of on a go-forward
basis and these little things really
make a huge difference because what we
find is responding to the negative
reviews in a positive way generates
trust and generates a desire for people
to stay in a place where there's
responsible actions taken and
maintenance and so on so I hope you
found this helpful I hope you go ahead
and use it but you definitely want to
reply to every single review that
especially the negative ones and even
the positive ones and we'll do another
video about that later in the meantime
if you found this helpful go ahead and
like the video share it to all your
friends about it subscribe and really
appreciate your time and your energy and
happy hosting have a great day