Your newest guest reviews change your rating the most
The season is winding down, and the guests who stayed with you in August and September are writing their reviews right now, if they have not already. Most owners treat them as an impression that sits somewhere on the side, something nice to read and then forget until spring.
In reality, reviews are an input for three different systems, and each one uses them in its own way. Booking.com calculates the overall score the guest sees next to your property, Airbnb uses them both as a ranking signal and to summarise guest impressions, while Google takes them into account only if the property meets certain conditions for showing a profile.
You can no longer do much about how many guests will still arrive before the season ends, but you can influence the trace their reviews leave behind. Three things are worth understanding first:
- A review has a shelf life - newer reviews carry more weight, and after 36 months they are archived and the overall score is recalculated without them.
- The display threshold is not the same on every channel - Booking.com shows the score after the first review, while Airbnb shows the average only after at least three.
- Google runs two separate systems - Business Profile and the display of accommodation in search results follow different rules, so the answer depends on which one you appear in.
We covered the wider picture of positioning on OTA channels in a separate blog on your property's position on Booking.com and Airbnb. This article deals with reviews only.
1. Why do reviews from the end of the season carry more weight than older ones?
Most owners picture the score as an average of everything the property has ever received, and assume a new review barely moves that average. Booking.com does not calculate the score that way.
On its page about review scores, Booking.com states that the overall score uses a weighted calculation, so every new review is more important than the existing ones, and the importance of a single review goes down as it gets older.
The consequence matters more than it first appears. A review a guest leaves this September affects your score more than one from last season. That makes the end of the season an opportunity to repair the result relatively quickly. If your score dropped over the summer, the last guests can lift it before the property goes into winter with a number that stays there for months.
The same rule can work against you. One poor review in September has more impact than an identical one from June, precisely because it stays among the newest for longer.
On top of that, the window in which a guest can still leave a review is longer than most people think. Booking.com states that a guest has 90 days after checkout to leave a review, which means a guest who stayed in early September can write one in December.
Reviews also have an expiry date. They stay visible on the property page for 36 months, after which they are archived and the overall score is recalculated from the reviews that are still active.
Check the following:
- How many reviews can still reach you? Look at how many guests checked out in the last 90 days, because each of them can still leave a review.
- When did your score last drop? If the drop happened mid-season, newer reviews can soften it faster than you expect.
- Which reviews are about to disappear? Reviews older than three years move to the archive, and the overall score is then recalculated without them.
What to do specifically:
Ask your last guests for a review while the stay is still fresh.
A guest who left a week ago still remembers the details and will find it easier to write a specific review. If you remind them only in November, they are more likely to recall nothing but a general impression. A short message after checkout is enough, with no pressure and no request for a particular score.
Settle a complaint before checkout, not after the review is published.
If a guest mentions during the stay that something is wrong, that is the last moment when you can still influence the experience and the final score. After checkout, all that is left is a public reply to the review.
A review from September affects your score more than one from June. That makes the last guests of the season your last chance this year.
2. How many reviews does it take before the score appears?
The answer depends on the channel, and the difference between them is larger than it first appears. Booking.com states that it displays the overall score as soon as a property receives its first review, while Airbnb states in its own guidelines that the average rating next to a listing's title appears only after at least three guests have rated it.
What is a Guest Review Score?
The Guest Review Score is a property's overall rating on Booking.com, on a scale from 1 to 10. It is based on the individual scores guests leave after their stay, with newer reviews carrying more weight than older ones. It is also the only question a guest has to answer in order to submit a review at all.
For a property that has just started operating, those two numbers mean two completely different situations. On Booking.com the very first review becomes the public score. If that first one is a seven, that is the number sitting next to your property until the next review arrives. On Airbnb you have more room because the rating appears only from the third review onward, but until you cross that threshold, a guest sees no rating next to your listing at all.
In both cases the first reviews of the season carry far more weight than later ones. Not because the platform counts them differently, but because there are still too few of them for one weaker review to be diluted.
On Booking.com the first review immediately becomes your score. On Airbnb there is no score at all until the third.
3. Why do category ratings not lift your overall score?
When a guest rates cleanliness, location or value for money, it is easy to assume those ratings add up into the final number. Neither Booking.com nor Airbnb calculates the overall score that way.
Booking.com states that ratings for cleanliness, comfort, value for money, facilities, location and staff are optional and do not count toward the overall score. A guest can skip them, and even when they fill them in, they do not change the number next to your property. Airbnb applies similar logic: the overall rating is the guest's own separate rating, not an average of the ratings for individual categories.
That does not mean the categories are unimportant. Their role is simply different. They are a good diagnostic tool because they show which parts of the experience guests see room to improve, but on their own they do not raise the overall score.
This is easiest to see in a concrete example. If a property consistently earns excellent cleanliness ratings but its overall score is weaker, the cause probably lies somewhere else. It could be communication, the expectations the listing created, the arrival experience, or something the guest did not clearly assign to any of the offered categories.
Categories tell you where the problem is. Only what the guest enters as an overall impression changes the overall score.
4. How does Airbnb's AI read your reviews instead of the guest?
Until recently, a guest who wanted to find out what others thought of your property had to work through the reviews themselves. Since May 2026, Airbnb summarises them with AI and pulls out the themes a guest might care about. In its announcement of the change, Airbnb states that the platform holds more than a billion guest and host reviews and that its models extract information from reviews about location, amenities, family suitability and other characteristics of a property.
For you this means a guest no longer has to read dozens of individual reviews to form an impression. Airbnb now does part of that work, so what previous guests wrote can shape the way the AI presents your property.
That is why the rating is not the only thing that counts, the wording does too. A review that says only "great, all good" gives very little concrete information. A review mentioning that the beach is a five minute walk, that the air conditioning is quiet, or that there is parking in front of the house contains specific details Airbnb can recognise and highlight. The rating can be identical while the content of the review is not.
Reviews also affect how visible a listing is in Airbnb search. Airbnb states in its explanation of search that the algorithm assesses quality using listing content, photos and videos, ratings and reviews from guests, communication between hosts and guests, and the characteristics of the listing itself. Listings with better ratings and reviews tend to appear higher in the results.
We wrote about how Airbnb search has changed in our blog on Airbnb and AI, and about how guests increasingly use AI tools when looking for accommodation in our article on AI-assisted accommodation search.
Check the following:
- Do your reviews mention specific things: distance to the beach, equipment, quiet, parking or other details a guest might care about.
- Do the reviews match what you highlight in the listing: if guests consistently praise something your listing barely mentions, there may be room to present the property better.
- Do you reply to reviews: your reply is public and appears next to the review, so future guests can see it too.
What to do specifically:
Give the guest a reason to write something concrete.
After checkout you can simply ask the guest to share their experience while the stay is still fresh. Do not suggest what they should write and do not ask for a particular rating. The goal is an authentic review that says more than a general impression.
Reply to reviews while they are new.
Your reply is public and gives you the chance to thank a guest for praise, answer a complaint, or add context that could help future guests. On a weaker review it is also the only place where you can publicly put your side of the story.
A guest no longer has to read dozens of reviews. Airbnb's AI pulls out the themes that matter to them.
5. How does Google treat vacation rentals and their reviews?
With Google, the first thing that matters is telling apart two things that are often confused: Google Business Profile, the profile that appears in Google Search and on Maps, and the display of accommodation within Google's travel results.
For a classic Google Business Profile the rules are fairly clear. Google requires a business to make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours, while at the same time listing rental or for-sale properties, including vacation homes and vacant apartments, among ineligible businesses. That means a private short-term rental does not automatically become eligible for a Business Profile just because the host greets guests personally.
A separate system exists for vacation rentals. Google recognises categories such as apartment, house and villa there, but that is not the same as a Google Business Profile. There are two routes to appearing in Google's vacation rental results: through a partner or a booking platform integrated with Google, or as a registered property management business with its own booking website. Google also states that peer-to-peer rentals, shared rooms and partial houses are not currently eligible for direct integration.
If a property does have a valid Google Business Profile, reviews can affect its visibility. Google states that local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and that more reviews and better ratings can help local ranking. Replying to reviews can also help a profile stand out.
A vacation rental on Google and a Google Business Profile are not the same thing. The rules depend on which Google system the property appears in.
6. So what are reviews for outside Booking.com and Airbnb?
Once you set aside the effect on scores and OTA positions, what remains is perhaps the most important job a review does: helping the guest decide. Booking.com itself states that guest reviews are an important factor when travellers choose accommodation.
On your own website and social media their role is different. There, reviews serve mainly as confirmation of what previous guests experienced. Someone who found your property on an OTA channel and then opened your website to check it before booking is looking for one more reason to trust you.
If there are no guest experiences on the page, you miss the chance to give them that confirmation on your own channel. Instead, they may go back to the OTA channel for everything they need to decide, where a booking also means a commission for you. We wrote about why building your own sales channel pays off in our article on direct bookings.
Check the following:
- Does your website have a single review: if a guest finds no previous experiences there, price is all they have left to compare.
- Are the reviews specific: the guest's name, the time of the stay and a detail about the experience say more than an anonymous "everything was great".
- Do you use them anywhere besides the OTA channel: a good review also works on your website, on social media, or in communication for next season.
What to do specifically:
Move a few reviews from the OTA channel to your own website.
Pick three to five reviews that speak about different parts of the experience. One may mention the location, another cleanliness, a third communication or a detail that makes a guest want to return. A guest choosing between properties does not need five near-identical compliments, but answers to the questions they have before booking.
Use the end of the season while you have the most fresh material.
Right now you have new reviews from guests who stayed recently. Pull out the best while they are at hand and prepare them for your website and for next season's communication.
On your own channel a review is not just praise. It gives a future guest one more reason to book with you.
Check this today
If you have half an hour today, work through it in this order:
- Look at how many guests checked out in the last 90 days, because they can still leave a review on Booking.com.
- Check whether any reviews are without a reply, starting with the newest.
- Compare the category ratings with the overall score and see where the gap is largest.
- Read the last five reviews and check whether they mention anything specific about the stay.
- Check whether any guest reviews are visible on your website.
- If you do not have a Google profile, first check which type of Google display your property belongs to and whether it meets the conditions.
- Send a short message to the guests who left in the past week and ask them to share their experience.
Conclusion
A review arriving this week can do several jobs at once. On Booking.com a newer review affects the overall score more than an older one, on Airbnb ratings and reviews feed into ranking signals, and their content can end up in the AI summaries Airbnb shows guests. On your own website the same review gives a future guest additional confirmation that they chose the right place.
None of that has to wait until spring. The end of the season, while guest experiences are still fresh and new reviews are still arriving, is the best time to check what stays online about your property and how you can use it for the bookings ahead.
More than 1,700 properties across the region already use Rentlio. Try Rentlio One and keep guest communication, rates and your calendar in one place.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
How many reviews does it take before the score appears on Booking.com?
One is enough. Booking.com states that it displays the overall score as soon as a property receives its first review. That is why the first review of a new property immediately becomes its public score and stays that way until new ones arrive.
How many reviews does Airbnb require?
Three. Airbnb states that the average rating next to a listing's title appears in search results and on the listing after at least three guests have rated the property.
How long does a single review affect the score?
On Booking.com a review stays on the property page for 36 months, after which it is archived and the overall score is recalculated from the reviews that are still active. The impact is not equal throughout that period, because newer reviews carry more weight than older ones.
Until when can a guest leave a review?
On Booking.com a guest has 90 days after checkout, while on Airbnb both the guest and the host have 14 days to review each other. Because of that difference, a guest who stayed with you in September can still leave a Booking.com review in December.
Do cleanliness and location ratings count toward the overall score?
No. Booking.com states that ratings for cleanliness, comfort, value for money, facilities, location and staff are separate and do not count toward the overall score. Airbnb also states that the overall rating is its own category, not an average of the others. Category ratings therefore show you which part of the experience has room to improve.
Is it worth replying to reviews?
Yes. On Airbnb a host's reply appears next to the public review, so future guests can see it. Google also recommends replying to reviews, because it shows that you value guest feedback.
What if a review is untrue?
Booking.com states that by law it has to allow every guest who stayed at a property to leave a review, and that in some cases guests who booked but did not stay have that right as well. There is a process for requesting the removal of reviews that break the rules, and guest misconduct is reported through the extranet or the app. If a guest made a mistake while writing a review, they can correct it through their own account or through customer service.
Can a vacation rental have a Google Business Profile?
Not automatically. Google explicitly lists rental properties, including vacation homes and vacant apartments, among ineligible businesses. Google requires a business to make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours, while apartments, houses and villas can also appear through Google's separate vacation rentals system. A Google Business Profile and the display of accommodation on Google are not the same thing.
Do reviews affect search position?
On Airbnb, yes. Airbnb states that its ranking takes listing quality into account, including guest ratings and reviews, and that listings with better ratings and reviews tend to rank higher. Booking.com's page on the Guest Review Score does not explain how reviews affect ranking, so no such effect is assumed here.
Daniel Herman is a growth marketing enthusiast with 10 years of marketing experience who enjoys thinking strategically and seeing the bigger picture. He writes about everything related to developing marketing activities and KPIs, branding, and taking a long-term approach to success, always with the goal of sharing useful ideas and inspiring action.
