How do you want to share guest reviews with your owners?

As a Realtor, this topic is very similar to the idea of sharing feedback with sellers after potential buyers come through for a showing. Sometimes sellers need to hear negative feedback from the buyers directly in order to really hear it. And sometimes the agent has trouble being the “bad guy,” so sharing buyer feedback with sellers helps to say, “don’t shoot the messenger.” If guests consistently complain that a bed is uncomfortable, you’ve got the ammunition and the proof that the owner needs to do something about it. 

That said, our MLS (multiple listing service) lets the agent decide whether they want feedback shared immediately and automatically with their seller clients, vs. whether the agent should get the chance to moderate / package / summarize / soften the feedback through ad-hoc reporting. 

So at a high level it seems like it would be a good thing to have at least a high-level toggle for whether reviews should even be shown on the owner portal at all. 

As for whether to filter or screen what’s shown to the owner… to me that’s straying too far away from accountability. If you ARE sharing guest reviews with your owners, I wouldn’t want it to seem like I was hand-picking only the good feedback and suppressing the bad feedback. I’d hate for an owner to get accustomed to seeing feedback on every stay, and then suddenly there’s a stay with no feedback, and to get grilled on why, and have to explain that we hid it from them because it wasn’t a perfect review. 

The private feedback is often much more valuable than the public feedback. Many guests are kind enough to leave the negative stuff in the private remarks. But again, a toggle for letting us control whether to show that detail, would let us decide on a case-by-case basis whether it’s appropriate.

I would NOT want owner statements cluttered with detailed reviews, UNLESS it’s just a column showing the number of stars that the stay received. Which like most other columns on the statements, could be turned on or off. 

Personally, I’d rather the reviews just be shown on the portal rather than having them pushed as notifications in real-time. If it was just on the portal, they can self-service at whatever frequency they care to check. This avoids having to explain to owners how to unsubscribe from all the noise. 

As for highlighting great reviews, there’s probably not enough granularity to separate the great ones from the not-great ones. We’ve never gotten anything but 5-stars, so they’re ALL great. You’d have to be analyzing the content of the review to decide whether it’s great or not, and I’m not sure how much value could be extracted from repeatedly saying “yup, another great stay”… “another great stay”… “ANOTHER great stay!” Eventually it could get tiring… “Okay, I get it, they’re all great stays :-)”

Glad this is in the pipeline. Here are my thoughts:

Ideally managers would be able to approve or reject sharing each review individually, rather than owners seeing everything automatically.

It would be great to have a separate toggle for private feedback. Sometimes it’s about the property itself, which owners should see directly from the guest. But when it’s about management, we may not want to share it.

A Reviews tab on the Dashboard makes the most sense to me. Highlighting a few of the best reviews on end-of-month statements would also be a nice touch for owners.

It’s worth pointing out that for the co-hosting model, the owner will be able to see EVERYTHING. So any attempts at filtering could potentially get noticed, and questioned. 

I think it would be a great idea to share the reviews with the owner. If we could notify our clients when a booking happens or cancels, I think would also be a great feature. 

1. I think they should be able to see all reviews, it's public knowledge now. 
2. I think the private feedback should be an option.
3. Yes
4. Should be part of the dashboard.
5. Maybe have this as an option. 

I woukd LOVE to have reviews linked to the monthly Owner Statements! Reading great reviews is a little dopamine rush!  It could also be a good time to discuss needs, if there are reviews that mention feedback.

​@dana This is possible already. You can configure SMS messages and/or emails to be sent to the “Owner” role when a reservation is created or cancelled. 

To create it, go to:
Operations > Task Management > Notifications > Add New 

Example of what I use as the message template:

Hi %teammate_first_name%! We got you a new booking for %nights% at %property_name%! %platform% #%reservation_code% | Check-in: %check_in% | Check-out: %check_out% | Proceeds: ~%payout% (minus %%commission%%⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ & pass-through fees/taxes). Woot! -- %primary_host_name%

And for cancellations I use:
Hi %teammate_first_name%! Just a heads-up that %platform% booking %reservation_code% at %property_name% has been canceled (Check-in: %check_in% | Check-out: %check_out%). We'll let you know if/when these dates get rebooked. -- %primary_host_name%

I’d love for owners to be able to see the reviews. The more transparency the better.  My preference is a section on the dashboard, that way the owner can choose what information they want to see rather than cluttering up the owner statement with non-financial information.

Love this idea.

1. Should owners see all reviews, or a highlight of the best reviews in a time period?
   I would prefer to choose, if it has to be one, best reviews in time period.
2. Should owners see just public reviews, or also private feedback? Again prefer to choose but default to public
3. Should they see your review replies? Not by default don’t see a use for this
4. Would you prefer this be a part of the Dashboard, or embedded on monthly Statements/Invoices, or entirely separate? Probably its own tab
5. Should we notify owners of great reviews? Prefer to enable but yes I dont see why not
    

Side note I would love to show/hide other sections that we don’t use in the owners portal such as: statements 

Love the idea; feedback is for improvements. Sometimes owners are skeptical about a suggestion. This can help a lot

1. Should owners see all reviews, or a highlight of the best reviews in a time period? all reviews, transparency is a key
2. Should owners see just public reviews, or also private feedback? Yes and yes. Some guests are more cruel and realistic in the private feedback; we already took screenshots of those and sent them to the owners.  
3. Should they see your review replies? it is a public reply, why not?
4. Would you prefer this be a part of the Dashboard, or embedded on monthly Statements/Invoices, or entirely separate? Dashboard and a separate tab. Nonfinancial information in the invoices is essential for clarity. 
5. Should we notify owners of great reviews? No, if they want to see it, they have an option. For transparency purposes, only receiving a notification when there is a great review would be a red flag for me. 
   
   My 5 cents. 

I don’t think it needs to be over complicated, but should be transparent. As I co-host my owners see their airbnb reviews, and love getting those 5* so being able to see all reviews from all platforms in the owners portal would be a plus for me. To simplify I think it would be value add to be able to show a summary of all reviews for the month and call out key themes/trends in the reviews, good or bad. For example if we’re seeing a spike in more negative comments about something not working it can help us to justify the case for the owner to invest in fixing it (I have a unit where the washer/dryer has been broken for months and guests are always bummed that it’s in the apartment but they can’t use it. When I show owner that feedback it helps my case that guests want it and we need to prioritize it’s repair!)

Transparency is the only answer. Owners need to see every type of review, and it should on demand.  There is absolutely no reason an owner should not have full transparency to their property and renters.  If the    
 

1. Should owners see all reviews, or a highlight of the best reviews in a time period? all reviews and on deman, transparency is a key
2. Should owners see just public reviews, or also private feedback? Yes & yes - full transparency is a key. 
3. Should they see your review replies? absolutely - the owner deserves full transparency  
4. Would you prefer this be a part of the Dashboard, or embedded on monthly Statements/Invoices, or entirely separate? Dashboard and a separate tab. 
5. Should we notify owners of great reviews? No, it should be on demand.  If they want to schedule a report to run and email them once a month, that is on them.

I agree with Glenda’s feedback. 

Transparency is always the best policy. I would prefer that you concentrate on Direct booking reviews.  How they can be gathered and displayed.  My owners all see our reviews by going to Airbnb and seeing their property like a traveler and they can see them.  If VRBO and Bookindotcom doesnt do that then they should.  We have guests that repeat, use the Direct site, and they would like to leave a review and dont because it isn't essy to find for them. If you want to make it easier for owners, it is a nice touch. But show app platforms including Direct and make a Reviews section of their portal, show it all, all dialogs, review responses and replies. 

Thanks

Ted Stephens

Tree Frog Getaways

I'd just like an easy way to send booking notifications to our owners. 

​@Emily Tunggala Is this rolled out already? Just noticed this checkbox, but when I preview the owner portal it doesn’t seem to affect what’s shown.

1. Should owners see all reviews, or a highlight of the best reviews in a time period?

We should be able to choose which owners can see them, just like the current permission system inside Hospitable. Some owners are more hands-on than others.

Personally, I think owners should be able to see all public reviews, ideally showcased newest first. Reviews are one of the clearest indicators of property performance and guest satisfaction.

2. Should owners see just public reviews, or also private feedback?

Public reviews only. Private feedback is usually more operational and internal between the host/operator and the guest.

3. Should they see your review replies?

I don’t think it’s necessary. It could add noise more than value. But at the same time, there shouldn’t really be anything to hide either.

4. Would you prefer this be part of the Dashboard, embedded on monthly Statements/Invoices, or entirely separate?

Honestly, both.

A clean section inside the Owner Portal would be great so owners can browse reviews anytime, but I’d also LOVE the option to automatically include selected reviews inside monthly statements/invoices.

That becomes very powerful for owner retention because it constantly reinforces:
“Guests are loving your property.”

🚨 And one more thing I think MANY hosts would love:

A SHARE button for reviews.

Right now most of us just take screenshots and post them on social media, but it never looks polished.

Imagine being able to instantly generate a beautiful branded review card optimized for:
• Instagram Stories
• Facebook posts
• Reels/TikTok screenshots
• Owner updates
• Marketing material

Reviews are one of the strongest forms of social proof we have as hosts/operators. It feels like a huge missed opportunity not to leverage them better inside Hospitable.

Hi everyone!

Thanks for the excellent feedback here. I wanted to report back with some concepts we’re working on, and get your feedback before we start building.

There are a lot of things we can (and want to!) do with reviews, but our immediate goal is to highlight performance...

• … of the property, through stats
• … of you the manager, also through these stats and guest reviews
• … of the owner, through revenue breakdown

Ideally this is helping to build the owner’s confidence. One look at the dashboard, and they should think “Wow, I hired a great property manager.” 

So, with that in mind, I’d love your input on this potential direction.

• The dashboard will have a new Review spotlight card that highlights the best recent review. We’ll identify the best recent review for that property/properties. 
• The owner will be able to dig in if they’d like, by clicking More reviews → maintaining full transparency without the risk of bringing a negative review to the forefront
• Opening More reviews brings up a full screen modal where the owner can see all reviews, including private feedback and review replies. There’s simple sort functionality where they can sort by most recent, or by best.

This would be permission based, similar to owner stays.

• New portals would show reviews by default, but can change the permission at the business or owner level
• Managers would need to explicitly opt in for portals that already exist (we don’t want to surprise you, you should stay in control)

These are just sample designs to help frame our discussion; nothing is set in stone. We’d love to hear what you think!

Side note: We believe there’s opportunity to do a lot more with reviews in time. For example: we can use content from reviews, messages and more to suggest tasks for you which you can assign to a teammate or an owner and attach the “evidence” to it. For example, maybe you’re trying to advocate for new paint because it’s starting to chip, but the owner isn’t budging. Perhaps reviews mentioning this would help you advocate for the improvement. What’s designed below will not solve that, but we definitely still have it in mind!

My replies:

1. Should owners see all reviews, or a highlight of the best reviews in a time period?  
   >> Currently, I email my owners to let them know that their statement is ready. I include a link to the Airbnb reviews, and a link to the VRBO reviews. “See what guests are saying.”
2. Should owners see just public reviews, or also private feedback?
   >> I recommend only showing what is seen on the public listing profiles of Airbnb and VRBO (reviews & host responses). Absolutely NO private feedback should be shown. That area is where guests leave maintenance issues or room for improvement which is my responsibility in how I manage those responses. As the Property Manager, I inform the owners of maintenance issues, not the Guest. It is not helpful for owners to see private feedback before I do. 
3. Should they see your review replies?
   >> Yes, absolutely. For example, say there is a 3-star review, this is where I have the “power” … in how I respond (especially seeing AIRBNB will no longer delete most retaliatory reviews). I like for owners to see my responses. 
4. Would you prefer this be a part of the Dashboard, or embedded on monthly Statements/Invoices, or entirely separate?
   >> Part of Dashboard » a Tab. Show how many reviews for each platform, overall star rating ONLY (no need to include category breakdown), and any badges like Superhost and Premier Host, etc. The Statement already has too much going on. 
5. Should we notify owners of great reviews? 
   >> No. However highlighting a few great reviews at the top, or in bold in the owner portal, could be nice. 
    

   Ultimately, we need control over what is displayed within the owners' portal. Providing this level of customization would be incredibly valuable.

   
   Thank you, Emily! 

​@Emily Tunggala Is this rolled out already? Just noticed this checkbox, but when I preview the owner portal it doesn’t seem to affect what’s shown.

 

Hey Tom, apologies for the late reply, I though I already did reply 😅.

I’ve hidden this, until we release this feature. Thank you for initial input, that helps a lot!