Ask Me Anything And Help Me Understand: Short Term Rentals

[Joe Prillaman]

I’m in a unique situation. My wife and I have been investing in short term rentals in Carolina Beach, NC since 2019. We have 10 listings here on the island and have built the systems to run a portfolio of this size at a very high level. We are in the top 10% of my market.

Here is the situation. We currently have 991 reviews on airbnb. Every property is managed and run with the exact same systems. One of my properties is a quadplex. Each of the four units are identical! Everything from the rehab, the staging, all the way to the owners closets are the exact same. Each unit has about 50 reviews from this last season. The first 3 units range between a 4.95-4.91 rating. The last unit is currently sitting at a 4.81 rating.  I can’t figure out why this specific unit is getting roasted on Airbnb so i'm turning to you all for wisdom! 

1. Ask me anything you want to know about short term rentals and how we run our 10 unit portfolio.

AND

2. Why do you think this one unit is getting roasted with 4 star reviews.

Our profile:

The struggling unit:

See you all at BPCON2021!

[Ryan Moyer]

Originally posted by @Joe Prillaman:

@John Underwood, Most of the reviews are positive even stating they plan on booking again in the future but they leave us 4 stars! 

Do you ask for reviews?  When you ask for them do you just ask for a review, do you ask for a great review, or do you ask for a 5* review?

I don't have anywhere near 991 reviews but so far fortunately I haven't run into anyone that loves the place and then leaves 4 stars.  One thing I do is CONSTANTLY use the terminology "5 star review" in my messaging with the guests.  All of my automated messages start with some form of "I hope you're having a 5* stay".  When guests message me with an issue I specifically reference taking care of it because I want them to have "a 5* stay".  My post check-out messages specifically ask for a "5 star review".  My wifi password even has the term "5*review" in it.

I don't know if it helps or if I've just gotten lucky, but I absolutely hammer it into my guests head that I'm not looking for a good review, I'm looking for a 5* review.