We quiz Thibault Masson about the criteria that booking sites use when determining the ranking of your listing. Discover what you can do to get more eyes on your property.
Thanks for joining the conversation
Thanks for sending in your questions for our AMA: “The role of guest review scores in listing site rankings”
We’ve added a recording of the event in case you missed it or want to revisit some of the points we discussed. You can also head over to the blog to see our key takeaways: How to ace your vacation rental booking site rankings.
We’ve also picked out the AMA highlights and their timings below. Plus, find out how a digital guidebook can boost your guest review scores.
Key takeaways:
Listing sites aren’t charities – they’re going to rank those listings first that make them the most money. No surprise! We’re businesses, they’re businesses. – Thibault
Especially in the beginning, you need to delight people, you need to attract good reviews. You want to get out of that vicious circle [of not having reviews, and therefore struggling to attract guests]. It’s really gamified in a way – for each platform, know the rules. – Thibault
The two biggest pain points for the listing sites were the fact that owners and property managers didn’t keep their calendars up to date, and they didn’t respond to guests in a timely manner. That’s why those two things are so important to stay up on, and why they give you such a good push, because those are the massive pain points that travellers have with booking on listing sites. – Tyann
Knowing the rules of the game is really wise, because sometimes in doing the right thing, you fall foul because you didn’t do it in the way that the platform wants you to do it. So just doing the right thing doesn’t necessarily get you the right outcome, you need to be savvy to the rules of the game. – Andy
Reviews are influenced by two things in terms of psychology: arrival and departure. People remember the first impression, and they remember the last impression. – Thibault
AMA highlights:
- 02:07 – The myth of the first page on vacation rental listing sites
- 04:09 – The criteria which influence your listing site ranking
- 09:02 – Making your listing an asset for the platform
- 10:20 – The day-to-day tweaks which will improve your ranking
- 14:50 – Thibault’s quick-fire advice: getting the basics right, price updates & rapid responses
- 20:08 – How listing sites have changed in the past decade
- 21:07 – The impact of sub-5 star reviews
- 26:20 – How listing sites approach consistently low-scoring properties
- 28:54 – The significance of a long review history
- 35:39 – How to balance the need for positive early reviews with the inevitable teething problems of a new rental property
- 38:58 – Respond to unfair negative reviews
- 45:47 – Requesting reviews from guests
- 47:23 – Prepping your guests to leave good reviews
- 50:12 – The psychology of reviews