Online reviews are an excellent way for property owners to get feedback on their vacation rentals. Reviews from past guests — especially five-star ones — are one of the best ways to attract new renters and keep your rental booked all season.
But there are a lot of vacation rental sites out there, and you’ve likely got your rental property listed on several of them. That means your reviews are scattered across the internet, making it difficult to see at a glance to see whether your property is a hit with renters. A review aggregator can make a world of difference in your vacation property bookings.
What is a review aggregator?
A review aggregator is a digital tool that gathers reviews of a product or service from all corners of the internet. For real estate investors who specialize in vacation rentals, this involves collecting all the reviews left by previous renters on any of the many listing sites your property might appear on. An aggregator brings all of those reviews into one place for easy analysis.
Revyoos is one such review aggregator, marketed as the only all-in one tool property investors can use to analyze renter feedback on their short-term rentals. At this year’s Vacation Rental World Summit, it won the VrTech Startup Competition, which recognizes the most innovative startup focused on the vacation rental industry.
Revyoos helps property investors by aggregating review data, which they can then upload as a widget on their own website. Collecting all those reviews in one spot improves SEO rankings, increases credibility, and tracks conversions — which can lead to more renters.
Social proof for your property
Online reviews provide the valuable social proof you need to attract people to your vacation rental. Social proof is the idea that people will buy or do things — like book a vacation — based on what people have done before them. That’s why online reviews are so powerful and it’s so important to aggregate your reviews in one place.
For example, a single five-star review on 50 different sites doesn’t pack the same punch as seeing all of those 50 great reviews in one setting. If you’ve got mixed reviews, a review aggregator could be your saving grace — bringing the reviews together for an average rating might, in essence, cancel out those not-so-great experiences.
And here’s something to consider: Even a less-than-glowing review can lend credibility to the other reviews your listing has. Stellar ratings might give renters peace of mind they’ll have a pleasant stay, but the occasional lackluster review might lead them to believe the reviews are written by “real” people and not paid for.
The benefits of using an aggregator
If you have a fully booked vacation rental based on word of mouth and returning vacationers, you likely aren’t relying on property listing sites to begin with. But if you’re newer to the short-term rental game or have multiple properties available, listing sites like Airbnb, VRBO, and others are your lifeline. Here are some reasons you’ll want to collect all those reviews with an aggregator:
- “Own” your reviews: It’s great to get five-star reviews across the internet, but those review sites may not remain live forever. An aggregator allows you to claim and archive your reviews so you can maintain your reputation even if a listing site closes down.
- Build trust and a credible reputation: By gathering reviews in one spot, renters will feel the feedback about your property is more genuine.
- See where you need to improve: If you’ve got some poor reviews or complaints with a common theme, you can take action to improve your property for future renters.
- Solicit more reviews: Again, it’s all about social proof — people might want to leave a review, but they don’t like being the first one to do it. By aggregating your reviews on the site, people will feel more comfortable adding a review to the growing list.
- Improve SEO and increase web traffic to your property site: Search engine optimization (SEO) is everything in the online marketing world. The Google algorithm rewards reviews and will send more traffic to your listing website.
- Increase conversion: All those additional eyes on your property listing can lead to better conversion, meaning lookers turn into bookers.
The bottom line: Long-term benefits for your short-term rental
A review aggregator is an essential tool for the success of your vacation rental. By collecting reviews in one place, you can create the social proof people need before they feel comfortable booking their getaway at your property.
