Airbnb Review Request Message Template

You are 11 days past a guest’s stay. They were great. They left the place spotless, they were friendly when you texted at check-in, and you were sure they would leave a glowing five-star. The Airbnb review window closes in 72 hours and your inbox is silent. You scroll back through the message thread and realize you never actually asked. You just assumed they would do it.

Now you have a choice: send a clunky "hey, mind leaving us a review?" that screams desperation, or use a clean airbnb review request message template that does the work without making either of you feel weird. The hosts I know who consistently sit above 4.9 are not lucky. They send the same three sentences after every stay, with two small tweaks per booking. That is the whole secret. This page gives you the templates, the timing, the automation setup, and the small mistakes that quietly tank reply rates.

When to send the request

Timing matters more than wording. Send too early and the guest has not unpacked yet. Send too late and the review window is closing and your message feels pushy. The window I use:

For stays of one to two nights: send the request 18 to 24 hours after checkout. The trip is still fresh.
For stays of three to seven nights: send 36 to 48 hours after checkout. They have driven home and decompressed.
For long stays of two weeks or more: send 72 hours after, but write something more personal — a generic template feels off after a long stay.

Always send before day 10. Airbnb sends its own automated review prompt around day 12 to 14, and you want yours to land first so the guest has the friendly version on their mind, not just the platform’s blunt "rate your stay" email. If you have automation set up via Airbnb’s scheduled messages or a PMS like Hospitable, Hostaway, or Guesty, schedule it to send 24 hours after checkout for everyone, then manually edit longer stays. Pair that with a same-day farewell using the short term rental checkout message so the goodwill is already warm by the time the review ask lands.

The short version (best for most hosts)

This is the airbnb review request message template I use as a default. Three sentences. No emojis except optionally one at the end if the guest used them first.

"Hi [Guest first name], thanks again for staying with us — really enjoyed having you. If you have a few minutes, a quick review on Airbnb would mean a lot to us as a small operation. Hope your trip back was smooth, and the door is always open if you find yourself in [city] again."

What works: the "small operation" framing reminds them you are not a hotel chain. Even if you manage 30 properties, this language nudges the guest to feel like leaving the review is a personal favor rather than feeding a corporate algorithm. The closing line "door is always open" lands as warm without explicitly asking for a repeat booking, which would feel transactional.

The warm version

Use this when the stay had a real moment — you helped them with a flat tire, you remembered the kid’s birthday, they sent you a sweet check-in message. Reference the actual moment by name. Generic warmth reads as fake.

"Hi [Guest first name], hope you all made it back to [home city] safely. It was great hosting you and [partner/kid name] — [specific detail, e.g. the kayak trip on Saturday sounded amazing]. If you have a moment to leave a quick review on Airbnb, I would be so grateful. It makes a real difference for hosts like me. Thanks again, and you are welcome back any time."

The specific detail is the whole point. Without it, this version is just longer than the short one. With it, it is the version that gets you private feedback like "you were the most thoughtful host we have stayed with all year." If your checkout script already references that same detail, the warm version will feel consistent rather than tacked on.

The luxury version

For properties over $400 a night or anywhere with concierge-level expectations, the language has to match the price. Drop "us as a small operation" — that undercuts the brand. Use it instead for the boutique hotel you are pretending to be.

"Dear [Guest first name], it was a pleasure hosting you at [property name] this week. We hope every detail of the stay met your expectations. If you have a moment, a review on Airbnb sharing your experience would be truly appreciated — it helps future guests find us and helps us continue refining the property. Wishing you safe travels, and we look forward to welcoming you back."

The phrasing is more formal but still warm. "Refining the property" signals that you take feedback seriously, which subtly invites a higher-quality review than "please leave a quick review."

How to customize each one for your property

Open Airbnb scheduled messages, or the template library in Hospitable or Hostaway, and create three versions: short, warm, and luxury. Tag each booking with which template should fire. Variables you should always personalize manually before sending:

Guest first name — never use "Hi there" or "Hi guest."
One specific detail from their stay — the activity they mentioned, the late check-in you accommodated, the dog they brought.
City or hometown — subtle but adds personalization and shows you read their profile.

Things to never include in any review request: the words "five star," "5 star," or any direct ask about rating. That is against Airbnb’s policy and can get your account flagged. Just ask for "a review" or "a quick review" and let the guest pick the rating themselves. If you want to combine the ask with checkout reminders, the checkout checklist for guests covers the trash, dishes, and key prompts so you do not collide them with the review thread.

Where to send it from

Always send through the Airbnb in-app messaging system, not by text or email. Two reasons. First, it is on-platform, which Airbnb’s algorithm rewards. Second, the guest will tap the same message thread to leave their review, so the chronology stays clean. If you have collected the guest’s personal email or phone for things like a WiFi welcome from a TP-Link Deco router or an Eero mesh node, do not use those channels for the review ask — that crosses into "feels stalkerish" territory and Airbnb explicitly forbids steering off-platform.

Automating the send without sounding robotic

Airbnb’s native scheduled messages will fire on a fixed delay after checkout. That is fine for the short version. For the warm or luxury version, the personal detail is the whole point, so a fully automated send will feel hollow. The pattern that works:

Auto-send the short version 24 hours after checkout from a Hospitable or Hostaway template.
For stays you flagged as "great" in your PMS, override the auto-send with the warm version and add the specific detail by hand.
For stays at a luxury property tier, send manually only — the price point does not forgive the autopilot tone.

If you also use an Echo Dot 5 or Echo Show 8 in the unit to deliver checkout reminders by voice, do not push the review ask through the speaker. Voice prompts to leave a review feel intrusive and most guests have already left the property by the time the request makes sense. Voice is for in-stay nudges — the Alexa checkout reminder page covers what to say through the speaker and what to keep in the messaging thread.

When to follow up — or not

If you have not heard back by day eight, do not send a second nudge. Two requests in a 14-day window reads as desperate and risks the guest leaving a passive-aggressive review just to get you off their back. The exception: if the guest privately replied with something like "loved it, will leave a review!" and never did, you can send a casual "just bumping this up in case it got buried" message on day 11. That works because they already verbally committed.

Pair the review request with a thank-you message

The strongest pattern I have seen: a separate, simpler thank-you message sent right at checkout (no review ask), then the review request 24 to 48 hours later. The thank-you primes the guest to feel positively. The request follows up on that goodwill. If you mash both into one message, the thank-you feels conditional and the request feels like the actual point. See the thank you message template for the standalone version that pairs cleanly with everything above.

Frequently asked questions

Should the airbnb review request message template mention specific things to review?

Avoid steering. If you ask "could you mention the hot tub in your review?" you risk Airbnb flagging the message as gaming the rating system. The guest will mention what stood out to them naturally. If certain features are getting overlooked, fix the marketing copy in your listing rather than coaching reviewers. The exception is professional photographers or content collaborators who are explicitly there to produce content — that arrangement happens off-platform.

Can I offer a discount on a future stay in exchange for a review?

No. Airbnb’s terms explicitly prohibit incentivizing reviews. Discounts can be offered for repeat bookings — that is fine — but they cannot be conditional on a review being left. If you want repeat bookings, send a separate "welcome back" offer message a month later that has nothing to do with the review request. Conflating the two gets your listing demoted in search.

What if the guest had a complaint during the stay?

Send the review request anyway, but rewrite the opening to acknowledge the issue. Something like: "Hi [name], thanks again for staying with us, and again my apologies about the AC issue on Friday — I have already had the technician out and replaced the unit with a new Ecobee Premium thermostat. If you have a moment, I would still appreciate honest feedback in a review." That kind of accountability often turns a 4-star review into a 5-star one because the guest sees the issue was taken seriously.

Should I send the request before or after I write my review of the guest?

Write your review of the guest first — ideally on day one or two after checkout — then send your review request to them on day two or three. Once you have submitted yours, your review of them is locked in but not yet visible to them. They cannot see what you wrote until they leave their own review or the 14-day window closes. That asymmetry keeps both reviews honest and prevents tit-for-tat retaliatory ratings.

Next steps

Pick the version that fits the typical guest at your property, paste it into Airbnb scheduled messages with the right send-time, and run it for two weeks. You will see your reply rate climb from somewhere around 30 to 40 percent up to 60 to 70 percent. Then layer in the warm version for the stays that deserve it. For the broader workflow, head back to the checkout and review messages cluster, or step up to the full guest scripts pillar to see how messaging connects to access codes, WiFi welcomes, and noise rules across the rest of the stay.