Seventeen reviews you have not replied to
You know replies matter. When you are choosing a place to stay, you read the owner's replies too. But between the season starting and the washing machine breaking, you have not replied to anything for three weeks. There are new reviews on Booking.com, a few on Google, two on TripAdvisor and one on Airbnb.
Most are lovely: the breakfast, the view, the dog. One says the room was small and the shower was 'temperamental'. That one sits in your head. You want to reply properly, without sounding defensive, and you keep putting it off because you are tired when you finally sit down.
Why replying falls behind
Reviews for a B&B are spread across several sites. Each has its own app, its own login, its own notification settings and its own way of replying.
- Four sites, four logins, and notifications that go to different email addresses.
- Replies need to be personal, or they read as copy and paste.
- Negative reviews need care, and care needs time and a clear head.
- Some sites only allow replies within a certain period after the review.
- The job has no deadline, so it always comes after the jobs that do.
What unreplied reviews cost
Future guests read replies. A B&B where the owner thanks people warmly and responds calmly to a complaint looks like a place that cares. A page of unanswered reviews looks like nobody is paying attention, even when the opposite is true.
A negative review without a reply stays as the last word. A good reply to a fair complaint often reassures future guests more than the praise does, because it shows how you handle a problem.
There is also a cost to you. An unanswered complaint tends to sit in your head for days, and the longer you leave it, the harder the reply becomes to write. Owners who run the place alone often take reviews personally, because in a small B&B they are personal. Having a calm first draft to work from takes some of the sting out of it.
How we build one place for your reviews
- New reviews are collected from the sites you use, through each site's official connection or notifications where available.
- Each review appears in one list on your phone, with the site, the rating, the guest's words and the dates of the stay.
- For each review, a reply is drafted in your voice, based on examples of replies you have written and the details the guest mentioned, such as the dog, the walk they did or the breakfast.
- Reviews with complaints are flagged, and the draft is careful and calm. You are prompted to add what you actually did about the problem.
- You edit and approve. Where a site allows replies through a connection, the reply is posted for you. Where it does not, it is copied ready for you to paste in the site's app.
- A monthly summary shows what guests praise and what they mention as problems, so you can spot patterns.
| Review | Draft reply mentions | Flag |
|---|---|---|
| Five stars, loved the breakfast and the dog | Their stay, the dog's name, a hope to see them again | None |
| Four stars, room small, shower temperamental | Thanks, honest note on room size, what you have done about the shower | Needs your input |
| Five stars, walked the coast path | Glad the walk was good, a suggestion for next time | None |
The drafts are a starting point. Your own words are what guests respond to, so you always have the last say.
Ten minutes on a Sunday evening
Once a week, or whenever you have a moment, you open the list. Most drafts need a small change or none. The shower review gets a proper reply that you write with the draft to start from, mentioning the new thermostatic valve. Everything is posted or pasted, and the list is empty.
The monthly summary tells you that several guests mentioned the steep stairs, which gives you a good reason to add a line about them on your website.
Are reviews piling up?
- You have reviews on several sites that you have not replied to.
- Replying means logging into several apps.
- You put off replying to negative reviews.
- Your replies end up short and generic because you are tired.
- You do not look at patterns in what guests say.