Review Analysis: how to boost your occupancy and revenue

Rating breakdowns allow you to identify location and platform trends, while the dynamic word clouds highlight focal points of negative and positive reviews. From there, it is easy to implement effective operational changes and better direct your prospecting towards high-performing stock profiles.

And we can show you how! Read on for more info or book a quick demo with us to see for yourself at mylighthouse.com.

How do your ratings compare with your competitors?

Understanding market performance is critical to placing your own performance within a context. Using our market rating breakdown you can view exactly how your competition is fairing. Check out the rating breakdown for LA below. You can even access these listings to gain insights into high-performing or struggling listings. Filtering down to your own inventory allows you to gauge how you compare against the market.

Segmenting ratings & adapting strategy

You can go one step further too – drill down to specific locations, stock types or platforms to assess where improvements need to be made most. Take the below example:

Left: San Diego supply – linked 5* Airbnb Superhost listing, right: comparison of ratings in 92106 (top) and 91941 (bottom) zip codes.

Layering filters makes it easy to identify performance differences, across zip codes in this instance, and assess individual listings in the supply map to shape your operational goals. For example, it may be that 3 beds are rated best in your market, or a certain zip code is preferred on Airbnb but yours are underperforming. This may lead you to assess if 3 beds are profitable stock in order to prioritise your prospecting, to focus on operational shortcomings in that zip code or channel, or to align your distribution by listing 3 beds on Airbnb.

Using your reviews to improve

So let’s say you’ve identified that your ratings in that zip code or channel are depressed, wouldn’t it be great if you could aggregate all the reviews for those listings and highlight the commonalities?

Well guess what, our clever engineer Santiago has built you a word cloud feature, so you can! The positive word cloud displays high frequency words in listing reviews exceeding 4.5 star rating in your market or selection, while the negative word cloud does the same for reviews under 3.5 stars. Let’s take a look at Paris as an example.

Paris Positive Reviews Word Cloud

Most common words in positive Parisian reviews suggest that proximity to a metro and restaurants is paramount to guests’ satisfaction. Cleanliness and comfort are also strong positive feedback words.

Meanwhile, looking at negative reviews for stays in Paris below, we can see that guests have highlighted similar topics. Proximity to a metro station and well as dissatisfaction with bathrooms and general cleanliness. Communication is also flagged as an issue for many negative reviewers.

Paris Negative Reviews Word Cloud

Los Angeles Negative Reviews Word Cloud

Exploring reviews from Los Angeles above returns slightly different issues. Here, guests are emphasising parking as the major issue. We can see that issues vary from situation to situation, and by filtering the data down to understand a specific subset of the market, it is possible to further focus your prospecting. Crucially though, this enables you to segment your stock and identify the most appropriate operational improvements across your inventory.

Take the below for example; both images are negative review word clouds from LA. The left word cloud shows reviews only from VRBO, and we can see that those guests are prioritising kitchens more than parking. There is also more focus on the manager/owner.

On the right hand side meanwhile, we are looking at an individual PM in one zip code. This property manager could review automation and arrival processes in order to address these issues. Perhaps the ‘Robert’ mentioned is a team member responsible for greeting guests in this area and some improvement can be made, or there is a main building that can be brightened up.

The possibilities are endless, but in any case, it is useful to assess subsets of your stock and be specific about your operational, distribution and prospecting strategies.

Track your recent reviews

The most recent reviews from listings in your selection are also displayed in the dashboard.

The top 3 most recent reviews from Barcelona are all 5* and mention response time, cleanliness and good and quiet locations. Again, filtering down to analyse recent reviews from a particular subset, of your market or your own inventory, can quickly and easily highlight approvals and issues and inform your operation decisions.

Ultimately, identifying constructive review points for different segments of your operation is critical to the progression of vacation rental operations. Implementing timely and effective improvements will accelerate the amelioration of your listing ratings, which are a cornerstone of listing health and therefore occupancy and rate. These insights also paint a picture of the highest-performing stock profiles in your market, which will inform your prospecting.

Utilising the Lighthouse review feature will allow you to track incoming reviews and analyse the totals quickly and easily, in order to identify and prioritise actions. There are many other short-term rental market insights available to you on the dashboard, including rate, demand and distribution. If you would like to see more, we are offering a personal demo call if you book a time at the button.