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Build the Ideal Vacation Rental Listing Part 2 – Guest Reviews: Post ‘em or weep!

Written by Elizabeth Weedon
4.5/5 - (20 votes)

They’re everywhere and have revolutionized the way we all shop online. Reviews.  We consumers are increasingly basing our purchasing decisions on what complete strangers have to say about a product. Your rental home is no exception, and vacationers are demanding independent feedback from prior guests. So, if you don’t currently have any guest reviews posted on your online listing – including at least one from the most recent season – you may discover that vacationers are opting for your competitor’s listing, which boasts a list of rave reviews about their property.

A different perspective

In addition to the obvious benefits of guest reviews providing persuasive compliments and votes of confidence in your property, they also offer unique and valuable perspectives on your home and location.  Often guests will wax poetic about a special experience they enjoyed at your place, an activity that your location offered, or an aspect of your home that particularly resonated with them.  Inevitably, they offer insights about your property that either you didn’t think to include on your listing or are articulated in a different, more vacationer-centric way.

Download the Ideal Listing eBook!A marketing boost

Guest reviews provide an invaluable marketing strategy – more credible, as they don’t come from the homeowner, and more unique, as the property’s seen through vacationers’ eyes. And, mark my words, guest reviews are here to stay.  Thus, second only to pictures, providing as many guest reviews as possible is critical to creating the ideal listing.

And remarkably easy

There are myriad ways to solicit guest reviews from your past tenants – by emailing them after their departure, leaving a guest book in your property, or, easiest by far, using your WeNeedaVacation.com listing’s Guest Review Request feature. The important thing is to make it as easy as possible for your tenants to give you their valuable feedback.

Read Part 3 of the Ideal Vacation Rental Listing series focused on marketing advice about how to craft a creative, effective title and property description for your listing. In case you missed it, see Part 1 for ways to build visual appeal with pictures, videos and captions.

Do you agree with the importance of guest reviews as they rise in popularity? Would you say your listing has been more successful as a direct result of your guest reviews?

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About the author

Elizabeth Weedon

Elizabeth Weedon - Although I’ve worked for WeNeedaVacation.com since 2008, I’ve been a loyal homeowner on the site since early 1998, just a few months after the website was launched by the Talmadges. I grew up summering on the Vineyard and managed my family's rental home there since the mid-1980’s. I’m passionately devoted to the Vineyard – and to WeNeedaVacation, which I credit with enabling me to hold onto the special property that has been in our family for nearly a century. An enthusiastic member of the WNAV Homeowner Support Team, I endeavor to keep my finger on the pulse of the Cape and Islands vacation rental industry so that I can provide homeowners advice about how to ensure their booking success with us. With owner Joan Talmadge, I am also responsible for editing and writing much of the text on our website, our monthly newsletters, and Homeowner Blog posts.

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