1. Why Reviews Matter
Positive reviews build trust with future guests and increase the likelihood of bookings. They signal that your home is well cared for and that guests have had great experiences. Homes with strong, recent reviews often appear higher in Airbnb and Vrbo search results, which helps you attract more guests.
Benefits of great reviews:
Higher visibility in search results
Increased booking confidence
Better chances of becoming a “Guest Favorite” on Airbnb
Insights into what guests love—or think could improve
Improvement feedback from guests:
Pay attention to written feedback and review scores
Use it to identify ways to improve the home or amenities
Consider updating your listing description to better set guest expectations
2. How to Respond to a Review a Guest Left
If a guest leaves a review about their stay, you’ll have the option to publicly respond through the Fairly platform. This can be a great way to thank them or to clarify any misunderstandings. Only users with Owner-level access have permission to post public responses to reviews. If you are logged in with a different role, such as a caretaker, the "Write a public response" button may appear but will remain inactive. You can grant permission to the Caretaker to write these public responses.
To respond to a review:
Go to the Performance section of your Fairly dashboard
Find the review you wish to respond to
Click “Write a public response” and enter your reply
Tips for responding:
Stay professional and courteous
Keep it short and focused
Don’t argue or get defensive—your response shows future guests how you handle feedback
When addressing issues, we recommend only writing a response once the issues have been addressed. For example if something broke, respond when it has been fixed so that future guests see that you are proactive in resolving issues.
3. When Reviews Appear on Your Listing
Airbnb and Vrbo will publish reviews after both the guest and host have submitted them, or after 14 days—whichever comes first. This ensures that neither party can influence the other’s review based on what was written.
Once published:
The review appears on your listing publicly
Ratings count toward your overall average
4. How to Leave a Review for a Guest
After each stay, you’ll be able to rate and review your guest directly within Fairly. Reviewing guests is a great way to encourage them to also review your home. Guests will be notified via the channel they booked on that they received a review.
You can leave a review in two places:
Mark the home clean – You’ll be prompted to rate the guest as part of your post-stay workflow. You’ll also be able to send a message to the guest asking them to leave you a review and encouraging them to put any improvement recommendations in private feedback.
From the Reservation details – Find the reservation from the Calendar or Messages, and click on "Review this guest"
Fairly will ask whether the stay was great or not so great:
Great — opens the public review form and submits your review to the channel.
Not so great — the public review is skipped, and you’re given the option to send a private message directly to the guest with any feedback you’d like to share. You can also skip the review entirely from the Mark-as-Clean workflow.
After “not so great” is selected, the public-review action is no longer available on that reservation. The private message remains the place to share anything you’d like to address with the guest directly.
Keep your review professional, honest, and helpful for future hosts. You can mention things like communication, cleanliness, and whether the guest followed house rules.
5. If you want to remove a review you left for a guest
If you submitted a public review of a guest and want it taken down — for example, if the underlying issue was resolved with the guest afterward, or the review was written by mistake — email [email protected] with the reservation details. Support can ask the channel to delete the review on your behalf.
6. If a guest’s review of your home violates channel policy
Both Airbnb and Vrbo will remove reviews that violate their policies, but the bar for removal is specific — channels will not remove a review simply because it’s negative or because you disagree with it.
Reviews that may qualify for removal include:
Airbnb (see Airbnb’s Review Policy) — irrelevant content (e.g., political commentary, weather complaints unrelated to the home), hate speech or discriminatory language, harassment or personal attacks, disclosure of personal or confidential information, reviews from someone with a conflict of interest, or fake reviews from non-guests.
Vrbo (see Vrbo’s Content Guidelines) — profanity or offensive language, inaccurate or misleading claims, comments unrelated to the actual stay, personal or private information, or references to disputes still under investigation.
If you believe a review qualifies, email [email protected] with the reservation details, the channel, and a clear description of which policy you believe was violated. Include any supporting evidence — screenshots of guest communication, listing photos, or anything else that shows the review is off-policy. Support will work with the channel on your behalf.
The channel makes the final decision and it typically takes a few business days to a couple of weeks.
Need help with a specific review situation?
Reach out to Fairly Support anytime. We’re here to help you navigate reviews and keep your listing strong.
Common questions
A review was removed from Airbnb or Vrbo, but it’s still showing on my Performance tab in the Fairly app. Why?
Channels don’t notify Fairly automatically when they delete a review. Once you’ve confirmed the review is gone from the channel listing, email [email protected] and Support will arrange to have it removed from the Fairly app as well.
Can I leave a bad public review of a guest?
No — public reviews of guests on Fairly are positive-only. If you have negative feedback for a guest, the care team is encouraged to share it with them directly through the messaging thread, or skip the review during Mark-as-Clean.