Review Guidelines for Hosts

Guest reviews are essential for building trust and helping future guests choose the right property. As a host, understanding how reviews work on our platform is crucial for managing your property's reputation effectively.

Understanding Reviews and Responses

It's important to distinguish between two key concepts:

• Writing a review about a guest: Feedback you provide about the guest's behavior (available on select channels)
• Replying to a guest review: Your public response to what a guest wrote about your property (available on Booking.com, Airbnb, Vrbo, and Holidu)

How Our Rating System Works

The rating system is designed to be straightforward and transparent. Guests rate their stay on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest. Your overall property rating is calculated as the average of all scores received.

Guests can provide detailed scores in key categories:

• Location
• Cleanliness
• Description accuracy
• Value for money

Additionally, guests may leave written comments providing more context about their stay.

Who Can Leave Reviews

Holidu guests who book directly through our platform can leave a review once their stay is completed. Partner channel guests who booked through Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, or other distribution channels can also leave reviews, which are managed according to each channel's specific rules.

For more information on how specific channels calculate review scores, see our Booking.com review score calculation guide.

Manual Bookings and Reviews

Manual bookings—those entered directly by hosts or property managers rather than coming through Holidu or a connected channel—cannot generate guest reviews. Only bookings made through our platform or connected distribution channels are eligible for reviews.

Types of Reviews Displayed

Your property may display reviews from multiple sources:

• Reviews submitted by Holidu guests
• Reviews from connected channels such as Booking.com, Airbnb, and Vrbo

Reviews appear as individual comments, aggregated rating scores, or additional details such as reviewer location and group type. Our system prioritizes reviews with written content and sorts them primarily by booking date. Note that negative reviews only appear if your property has at least two total reviews.

Accessing Your Reviews

All reviews are visible in your Holidu Host account under the Reviews section. To view your reviews:

1. Log in to your Holidu Host account
2. Navigate to Properties
3. Select Configuration, then Reviews

Reviews can take up to 14 days to appear after a guest submits them. On Holidu, you'll see the overall score displayed. The full review text is only visible if the booking was made directly on Holidu. For partner channels, only reviews from bookings made through that specific channel are shown.

Review Compliance Standards

We display all legitimate reviews—both positive and negative—as long as they meet our compliance standards. We do not allow reviews containing:

• References to illegal activity
• Politically or religiously sensitive content
• Promotional material or external links
• Personal details such as names, contact information, or payment details
• Profanity, hate speech, threats, or sexual content
• Spam, fake reviews, or impersonation

All reviews must be truthful, travel-related, helpful to other guests, and written by the actual guest who stayed at your property.

Responding to Reviews

Depending on which channel a review appears on, you may have the opportunity to respond publicly. Responses are available on Booking.com, Airbnb, Vrbo, and Holidu. This is an excellent opportunity to provide context for future guests and express appreciation for positive feedback.

Learn more about how to write effective review responses with examples and FAQs.

Reporting Problematic Reviews

If you believe a review violates our guidelines, contact our Customer Service Team. Our local teams can assist you in your preferred language and help address any concerns.

For more information, see our guide on what to do when guests leave negative reviews.

Editing and Deleting Reviews

Review modification policies depend entirely on the booking channel. Holidu does not control whether or how guests can edit reviews on external platforms.

• Holidu: Reviews cannot be modified. If a guest wishes to change their review, our team must delete it and send a new review link
• Booking.com: Guests can edit their review anytime from their account until it is automatically deleted after 2 years
• Airbnb: Guests can edit their review only before publication
• Vrbo: Guests must contact Vrbo directly to edit or delete their review

Improving Your Property's Reviews

Ready to boost your property's rating? Check out our comprehensive guide on how to get good reviews as a Holidu host and learn why reviews are important for your hosting success.

Review Translation

Some reviews may be automatically translated using DeepL technology. While we work to ensure accuracy, Holidu and DeepL do not guarantee perfect translations. Original review content should be considered when making important decisions.

Important Legal Notes

• Guest reviews reflect the opinions of guests and not the views of Holidu
• Holidu acts as a distributor, not a publisher, and accepts no liability for review content
• Hosts and partners may not post reviews on behalf of guests or offer incentives for leaving reviews