Airbnb Communication Strategy: 7 Rules for Glowing Reviews

Communication with Airbnb guests is an art. In order to get reservations, your Airbnb communication strategy has to be impeccable. That’s because your tone, urgency in responding, and ability to deliver valuable responses will determine whether guests want to book with you or not.

Successful Airbnb hosts are prompt, courteous, and knowledgeable. If you want to deliver a great customer experience for your guests every time and maximize your bookings, follow these tips to craft your Airbnb communication strategy.

“Please” and “Thank You”

Always remain professional in your discussions with guests, whether or not they are offering the same level of courtesy in return. When interacting with guests, you should always first thank them for contacting you.

If you do not have accommodations available or you will not be able to proceed with a guest’s request for any other reason, make sure to wish the guest good luck with their search and offer them some alternative solutions that might meet their needs.

While you should try to personalize your responses to your guests as much as possible, don’t be overly casual. You are running a business and you should always manage your Airbnb communication strategy as though you are a representative of Airbnb as a company.

Answer Questions Fully

Guests often ask hosts for help in lieu of contacting Airbnb support. As a result, you want to make sure that you are capable of answering all of a guest’s questions or directing them to the proper resources where they can get assistance.

It’s extremely important that you stay on top of the latest Airbnb news and updates to the support section so that you are always able to give guests the answers that they need. Make sure that you know the answers to any question that a guest might easily find the answer to in the Airbnb support section of the Airbnb website.

Start the Conversation

If a guest books your property and doesn’t initiate a conversation after confirming the reservation, don’t hesitate to start the conversation. By doing so, you can show that you’re a welcoming and attentive host.

In addition, it also gives you an opportunity to share house rules or any other details about your listing that the guest may have overlooked. Let your guest know that you are looking forward to their stay and you’re always available to help if they need it.

Starting the conversation also encourages the guest to keep the reservation, even if they book well in advance of their travel dates.

Respond Promptly

Prompt Airbnb guest communication isn’t only important for customer service, it also impacts your Airbnb ranking. As a result, you want to make sure that you respond to all guest questions in one hour or less.

Hosts who respond promptly land more bookings. A Homeaway study found that a guest is more likely abandon booking a listing if the host fails to respond within 24 hours of an initial inquiry about the availability of the listing. In fact, 57 percent of guests said that they would book with a competitor instead if they don’t receive a prompt response.

A prompt response also helps to diffuse a situation before it escalates to the point of a disagreement or results in Airbnb’s support team getting involved. Don’t leave guests to fend for themselves when concerns arise. It is up to you to be their first point of contact when it comes to customer service matters.

Create a Sense of Urgency

A typical message that you might receive from a guest is a question about whether or not your listing is still available. If you want guests to book quickly, make sure to create a sense of urgency.

Try responding by saying: “It is right now. But I’ve talked with another person who is interested but hasn’t yet confirmed their reservation yet.” Another option is to suggest a special offer for booking immediately.

Not only does this approach push the guest to book their reservations right away, it also makes them less likely to try and ask for a discount.

Upgrade Your Airbnb Communication Strategy by Setting Up Automatic Messages

To help improve your response rate and to ensure that you can deliver top-notch customer service at all times, you should set up automatic messages to respond to guests. These automatic messages can include a simple ‘Thank you for booking with me’ message after a guest book your property or a friendly follow up a message if you haven’t heard back from a guest that asked a question but didn’t book.

Automatic messages save you time and prompt guests to provide you with real-time feedback on their Airbnb experience. Automatic messages also allow you to interact with guests when you’re physically unavailable to do so.

Ask How You Can Help

Asking for feedback is one of the most important parts of your Airbnb communication strategy. Not only it is a great way to close more bookings, but it’s also the only way that you’ll be able to maximize the number of 5-star reviews that you receive.

If you want 5-star reviews, you need to know what guests are unsure about or dissatisfied with when it comes to your listings before they book. As a result, your Airbnb communication strategy should be used to uncover these issues so that you can make changes to your listing, your house rules or the property itself.

If you do this, you’ll be able to maximize your bookings and reduce the chances that your guests use reviews as a way of venting about the problems that they encountered with your listing or with you as a host.

Now that you know what goes into a great Airbnb communication strategy, you can now craft your Airbnb messaging to meet your guests’ needs more effectively.