Short-term rental reviews: how to respond and protect your reputation

Before they book, guests read reviews. A survey cited by the European Commission shows that 71% of consumers consider them important when choosing holiday accommodation. In 2026, reviews are no longer read only by people: Airbnb, which has more than a billion reviews, summarises them automatically for each listing, and since January 2025 Booking.com has given more weight to recent ones. A negative review does not disappear just because you disagree with it, but the way you respond and what you change afterwards matter to every guest who comes after. This guide shows you how reviews work on both platforms, how to respond to criticism, when you can ask for a review to be removed and what the law prohibits.

In brief

On Airbnb, you and your guest have 14 days after check-out to review each other, and the reviews are published at the same time. The overall rating is not the average of the six categories, and the listing’s average appears after three reviews.
On Booking.com, guests have three months to leave a review. The score from 1 to 10 is calculated from reviews over the last three years, and since January 2025 recent ones have carried more weight.
Neither Airbnb nor Booking.com removes a review just because you disagree with the rating or with a subjective opinion. You can ask for removal when the review breaks the rules, for example if the guest did not stay with you, is retaliating or is blackmailing you.
You write your public response for future guests, not for the unhappy one: short, polite, factual and saying what you have changed.
Since 28 May 2022, fake reviews and publishing only positive ones have been prohibited by consumer law, and misleading practices are fined 20,000–100,000 lei. Airbnb and Google also prohibit any reward offered for a review.

Why reviews matter more than ever

Reviews influence not only who books your home, but also who sees it. Airbnb states that it may use information from reviews for search results and to identify the homes guests love most. For Superhost status you need an overall rating of at least 4.8, and the Guest Favorites collection brings together homes with an average above 4.9 and high ratings in all six categories. To be eligible for the Guest Favorite label, a home needs at least 5 reviews in the last 4 years, at least one of them in the last 2 years.

What is new in 2026 is artificial intelligence. With its summer release on 20 May 2026, Airbnb introduced automatically generated summaries: the company’s models synthesise each listing’s reviews and highlight what matters most to guests, from location and amenities to how suitable the home is for families. The summaries are built from what guests write, so a problem raised by several of them, such as weak Wi-Fi, noise or complicated access, can end up in exactly the information a future guest reads first.

For hosts, Airbnb launched review-based tips (reviews insights) on the same day. If a guest writes that the kitchen did not look like the photos, you may get a tip to update your photos, and if someone had trouble getting in, a suggestion to review your check-in instructions. The other new features for hosts in this release are covered in our guide to the Airbnb 2026 summer release.

Reviews are also one of the few signals a guest can check for themselves. In an increasingly regulated market, they confirm what you promise in your listing; you can read more about the other signals that set you apart in our guide to standing out in a regulated market.

How reviews work on Airbnb

After check-out, you and your guest have 14 days to review each other. Reviews are published once you have both submitted them or when the 14 days are up, whichever comes first, so neither of you can read the other’s review before writing your own. If the booking is cancelled before check-in day, no reviews are left. The guest has two channels: a public review, shown on your listing and your profile, and a private note that only you and Airbnb can see. Authors can remove their review up to 30 days after it is published.

Besides the text, guests give ratings from 1 to 5 stars for the overall experience and for six categories:

Cleanliness: how clean the home was on arrival.
Accuracy: whether the home matched the expectations set by the listing.
Check-in: how easy it was to find the home and get inside.
Communication: how you communicated, from booking to departure.
Location: how the guest felt about the area.
Value: whether the home was worth the price.

The overall rating is not the average of the six categories but a separate rating. The listing’s overall average appears in search results after the first three reviews, and only you and Airbnb can see the category ratings and private notes. Guests can also select tags: for 4- and 5-star ratings, for example, “Easy to find” or “Personal welcome”, and for low ones, “Hard to locate” or “Unclear instructions”. You will find them, together with the ratings, in the Insights section of your host account, and they are the most precise diagnosis you get for free.

The order in which reviews appear also matters. By default, Airbnb shows the most relevant ones for each guest, based on how recent they are, language, the reviewer’s country, length and search filters: a French traveller sees reviews in French higher up, and someone looking for a month-long stay sees reviews of stays of 28 nights or more higher up. Guests can, however, search reviews by keyword, such as cleanliness or internet speed, and sort them starting from the lowest rating. Your weakest review is only a click away.

How reviews work on Booking.com

Booking.com emails the guest 48 hours after check-out, and the guest has three months to leave a review. The only required question is the overall score, from 1 to 10. Ratings for cleanliness, comfort, value for money, facilities, location and staff are optional and do not count towards the overall score.

The property’s score is calculated from reviews over the last three years and is shown from the first review. Since January 2025, it has taken into account how recent reviews are: the newest one has the biggest impact. Reviews stay on the property page for 36 months, after which they are archived automatically and the score is recalculated. If your property does not yet have a score on Booking.com, the platform imports your score from other travel platforms with similar standards and removes it once you receive your first score of your own.

You can respond from the extranet or the Pulse app, but only to reviews that have a title or comments. Your response is checked before publication, which can take up to 72 hours, and must be written in the language of the review or in English. You can edit or delete it only in the extranet.

Feature	Airbnb	Booking.com
Review window	14 days after check-out, for both guest and host	3 months, for the guest
Scale	1–5 stars: overall rating and 6 categories	1–10: overall score; category ratings are optional
Displayed rating	Average of overall ratings, after 3 reviews	Reviews from the last 3 years, with more weight for recent ones; from the first review
Host response	Public, published immediately, below the review	Public, after a check of up to 72 hours, in the language of the review or in English
Review removal	Only if it breaks the platform’s policy; at most 2 requests for the same review	Only in the situations listed by the platform

When you can ask for a review to be removed

Airbnb states explicitly that its reviews policy is informed by consumer law, so reviews are removed only in limited situations. You can ask for a review to be removed if:

it is not based on first-hand experience: the guest never arrived or cancelled for reasons unrelated to the home;
it is fake: there is no real booking behind it;
it involves extortion, pressure or rewards: for example, the guest threatens you with a negative review to obtain unwarranted compensation;
it comes from a competitor or from someone directly connected to the listing;
it is retaliatory: the guest broke a rule, was notified and then left a biased review for that reason, for example after you claimed compensation for damage or for an unauthorised party;
it breaks the content policy: for example, it contains discriminatory, explicit or illegal content.

Reviews are not removed, on the other hand, when you only disagree with the rating (a guest writes “nice home, great stay” but gives 3 stars), when they mention things you do not control, such as a noisy neighbourhood, or when they express subjective opinions, such as “the kitchen was small”. Be careful with compensation too: a review discussing the facts or the legitimacy of an AirCover reimbursement request is not automatically considered retaliatory.

You make the request through the review dispute tool, at any time after publication: you select the review and the reason, explain the situation and upload evidence, such as photos or your conversations with the guest. Airbnb emails you its decision, usually within 48 hours, and you can make at most two requests for the same review. Keep all communication in Airbnb Messages, where the support team can check it. Bear in mind too that Airbnb may suspend or withhold Superhost status for hosts with a high rate of removed reviews, so the tool is meant for clear violations, not for every criticism.

On Booking.com, the situations are listed more strictly. A review can be removed if the guest cancelled and confirmed they did not arrive, if you cancelled at least 24 hours before check-in, if the guest was a no-show and the review does not describe a stay, if you cancelled on the day of check-in because of an invalid card, if the review is about another property or if the guest blackmailed you and you have written evidence. The platform also removes reviews with offensive, illegal or fake content, spam or personal data published without consent. A guest who arrived but did not stay can still leave a review, as can one whose booking you cancelled less than 24 hours beforehand because of an overbooking. Sometimes the text is removed but the score remains.

When a review does not break the rules, your tool is the public response. Airbnb states that, in general, it does not mediate disputes about the accuracy of reviews and leaves hosts the option to respond.

How to respond to a negative review, in five steps

On Airbnb, your response is published immediately and appears on your listing, below the review. On Booking.com, it first goes through the platform’s check. In both cases, it will be read by guests who have not booked yet, and they will judge above all its tone.

Wait and check. Do not respond in the first few minutes. Reread the review, then check the facts: the messages, the cleaning team’s report and photos, the booking history.
Thank the guest and acknowledge the specific problem. “We are sorry for the inconvenience” sounds generic; “you are right, the air conditioning filter should have been cleaned” shows you have read the review. Booking.com recommends responses that are personal, polite, short and truthful.
Calmly correct only inaccurate facts. If the guest writes that there was no parking and your listing clearly said you do not offer parking, you can point this out in one sentence, without reproach. Do not argue with opinions.
Say what you have changed. For future guests, this is the most important part: it shows the problem was fixed, not just regretted.
Close briefly and protect data. Do not publish the guest’s personal data, details of payments or compensation, or excerpts from private conversations.

Illustrative example. The review: “The apartment looks like the photos, but we found dust under the bed and the Wi-Fi dropped out several times.” A suitable response: “Thank you for staying with us and for your feedback. You are right about the dust under the bed: we have added this area to our cleaning team’s checklist, and they now photograph it at the end. We have also replaced the router, and the connection is tested after every stay. We would be delighted to welcome you again.”

Respond to positive reviews too, briefly and personally. Booking.com recommends original responses, not the same text copied under every review, and a response that mentions a detail from the review shows you read it carefully. Do not forget Airbnb’s private notes either: guests who do not want to criticise you publicly tell you there what could be improved.

What the law says about reviews

Directive (EU) 2019/2161, known as the Omnibus Directive, introduced specific rules for online reviews. Romania transposed it through Government Emergency Ordinance (OUG) No. 58/2022, published in Romania’s Official Gazette (Monitorul Oficial) No. 456 of 6 May 2022, which amends Law No. 363/2007 on unfair commercial practices and has applied since 28 May 2022. In short, the law prohibits:

stating that reviews come from consumers who used the service without taking reasonable and proportionate steps to check this;
posting or commissioning fake reviews or endorsements, or presenting reviews in a misleading way, to promote your services.

The European Commission’s guidance on unfair commercial practices gives concrete examples of misleading presentation: publishing only positive reviews and deleting negative ones, pre-filled positive review templates, offering consumers benefits to change or withdraw their negative reviews, and aggregate ratings calculated using opaque criteria. Deleting fake negative reviews remains allowed.

The rules apply to “traders”. The Commission explains that trader status is assessed case by case, using criteria such as a profit motive, the number and frequency of transactions, turnover, how the activity is organised and legal status. A company or a professional manager clearly falls into this category, and a host who lets regularly for profit very probably does too. Platform policies prohibit the same practices for everyone anyway.

The fines are high: misleading commercial practices, including those on the law’s blacklist, are fined 20,000 to 100,000 lei. And the authorities do check: in a screening coordinated by the Commission, with results published in January 2022, authorities from 26 Member States, Iceland and Norway checked 223 websites and could not confirm, for 144 of them, that they were doing enough to make sure reviews were authentic.

If you show reviews on your own website. The law requires you to say whether and how you ensure that reviews come from real guests, and the Commission specifies that this information must be accessible from the same page as the reviews, for example through a visible link. Reasonable steps can include asking for the booking number, verifying the email address, clear rules for authors and a procedure for complaints about suspicious reviews. Do not write “verified reviews” if you do not verify them, and do not publish only positive reviews: the Commission gives exactly this as an example of a prohibited practice.

If your property has a business profile on Google Maps, Google’s policy applies as well. It prohibits rewards of any kind (money, discounts, free products or services) for reviews or for removing negative ones, discouraging negative reviews or selectively asking for positive ones, pressuring customers on the premises and requesting specific content. You can, on the other hand, ask for honest reviews, without rewards and without influencing them.

How to prevent negative reviews

Most negative reviews start with an unmet expectation. The rating categories show you where to look:

Category	What affects it	What you can do
Cleanliness	Dust, hair, stained linen, odours	A shared checklist, with photos at the end, and enough time for every clean
Accuracy	Old photos, missing amenities, unmentioned drawbacks	Update your photos and description and honestly mention stairs, noise or the lack of parking
Check-in	A hard-to-find address, codes that do not work, unclear instructions	Step-by-step instructions, with photos, tested by someone who does not know the building
Communication	Late replies, contradictory information	Quick replies (for Superhost, 90% of new messages within 24 hours) and scheduled messages
Location	Noise, transport, parking	A realistic description of the area, including its drawbacks
Value	A price above what the home offers at that moment	Prices adjusted by season and amenities that work

For accurate photos and descriptions, read our guide to listing photos and descriptions; for a smooth check-in, our guide to digital check-in and compliant operations; and for what you never cut from cleaning, our guide to cutting costs without lowering quality.

During the stay. A short message on the first evening (“Have you found everything you need?”) brings problems to light while you can still fix them. It matters for money too: on Airbnb, guests can report problems within 72 hours of discovering them and may get a refund, and a problem fixed in time is less likely to end up in a review.

How to ask for a review. Send all your guests a single neutral message after check-out, thanking them and asking for their opinion. No rewards, no “only if you enjoyed it” and no telling them what to write. On Airbnb, the review you leave for your guest also reminds them to leave one for you.

Your reputation routine: what to do and when

When	What you do
After every check-out	Leave your review of the guest on Airbnb within the 14 days and read the private note, if there is one
For every new review	Respond within one or two days; on Booking.com, allow for the check of up to 72 hours
Monthly	Read all of the month’s reviews, note recurring themes, check the category ratings and the tips in Insights, and update your listing or instructions
Quarterly	Before the Superhost assessments (1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October), check your overall average, response rate and cancellations over the last 12 months
Annually	Retake your photos and revise your description so that they match what guests find now

Common mistakes

Responding in anger or point by point. Future guests judge the tone of your response more than the details of the dispute.
Offering a discount or a refund so the guest changes their review. Airbnb prohibits reviews given or withdrawn in exchange for a benefit, and the European Commission gives exactly this as an example of a misleading practice.
Asking friends for reviews or reviewing competitors. Reviews without a real stay are fake, and the law prohibits them.
Copying the same response under every review. Booking.com recommends original responses, and a generic text does not show you have read the review.
Disputing every negative review. Reviews are not removed just because of a rating or an opinion you disagree with; your time is better spent fixing the problem.
Asking only happy guests for reviews. Google prohibits selectively soliciting positive reviews.
Ignoring category ratings and private notes. That is usually where you learn about a problem before it appears in a public review.

Frequently asked questions

Can I ask for a negative review I think is unfair to be removed?

Only if it breaks the platform’s rules. On Airbnb, for example, fake reviews, reviews without first-hand experience, reviews involving extortion or rewards and retaliatory reviews are removed, but not those you disagree with as a rating or an opinion. On Booking.com, the situations are listed by the platform, from cancellations and no-shows to blackmail proven in writing. In all other cases, respond publicly, calmly and specifically.

A guest is threatening me with a negative review unless I refund them. What should I do?

Do not give in, and keep the whole conversation on the platform. Airbnb prohibits threatening a negative review to obtain unwarranted compensation, and such a review can be disputed, with the messages as evidence. On Booking.com, blackmail is one of the grounds for removal, provided you have written evidence. If the guest has a real problem, resolve it through the platform’s channels, not in exchange for a review.

Am I allowed to offer a discount in exchange for a review?

No. Airbnb does not allow reviews to be given or withdrawn in exchange for a benefit, such as a discount or a refund, and Google prohibits any reward for reviews. You can, however, ask all your guests for an honest review through a neutral message after check-out.

Can I show reviews from Airbnb or Booking.com on my own website?

If you show reviews, the law requires you to explain, right next to them, whether and how you check that they come from real guests, and the European Commission considers publishing only positive ones misleading. Also check the terms of the platform you take them from. How to build a website for direct bookings is explained in our guide to having your own website.