In today’s competitive vacation rental and lodging landscape, one bad review can cost a rental thousands in lost bookings, but what if you could stop that review before it posted? Given travelers increasingly relying on reviews to make booking decisions, reputation management has become a critical component of successful property management operations
For BeachsideVR, a vacation rental management company hosted over 37,000 guests in 2024, a strategic integration of Guesty’s property management system with SuiteOp’s guest operations platform completely transformed how they manage and grow their reputation, ultimately helping them build trust, boost direct bookings, and position themself as a market leader.
Why vacation rental reputation management matters
Reputation management isn’t just about damage control – it’s about proactively building a brand that guests trust when they book with and return to. For vacation rental managers, reviews impact everything from search rankings to booking conversions.
“By the time this article is published, we’ll have reached 1,000 Google reviews, which has helped us dominate our local market,” says JJ King, Co-founder of BeachsideVR.
Effective reputation management matters for several key reasons:
- OTA algorithms favor highly-rated properties – Both Airbnb and Booking.com prioritize listings with consistent positive reviews in their search results
- Competitive advantage – In crowded markets, review quality and quantity often determine which properties get booked
- Inventory growth – BeachsideVR has experienced increased owner lead generation through improved Google Business visibility
- Brand building & direct booking growth – Strong reviews build the trust that many guests need before booking direct. They break down the “OTA safety net” hesitation, bringing in new guests, encouraging returns, and sparking valuable referrals
Business impact of reputation management
BeachsideVR’s systematic approach to reputation management, powered by SuiteOp and Guesty, has yielded impressive results:
- Growth from less than 100 to nearly 1,000 Google reviews in less than 18 months
- Average of 55 five-star reviews on Google per month
- Increased owner lead generation through improved Google Business visibility
- Enhanced team efficiency through automated workflows and notifications
- Improved guest satisfaction through proactive issue resolution
Proactive reputation management with SuiteOp
The most effective reputation management strategy doesn’t just react to reviews – it prevents negative experiences before they happen and encourages positive feedback. BeachsideVR leverages several key features of SuiteOp’s proactive platform, integrated with Guesty, to accomplish this.
The cost of negative reviews
The cost of a negative review goes beyond a ratings drop: it deters potential guests and damages long-term reputation. BeachsideVR uses several SuiteOp features to catch issues before they turn into public complaints:
“The check-in and check-out surveys flows embedded in the portal are huge for reputation management,” explains King. “Just collecting bad reviews before they go public, notifying the team of issues, and making sure you can address them so they don’t keep happening — that alone has transformed our business.”
SuiteOp check-in pulses. These lightweight post-check-in surveys provide an early opportunity to identify and resolve issues. Unlike traditional surveys that guests often ignore, SuiteOp’s check-in pulses have a completion rate of nearly 90% because they’re simple, quick, and appear at just the right time in the guest journey. When a guest indicates a less-than-perfect check-in experience, the system can trigger immediate notifications to staff for quick resolution.
Guest portal experience. A seamless guest experience is fundamental to preventing negative reviews. SuiteOp’s guest portal serves as a digital concierge guest experience platform, providing guests with property information, local recommendations, smart device access, and easy communication channels – preemptively answering common questions that might otherwise cause friction.
SuiteOp checkout pulses with intelligent workflows. The checkout pulse is BeachsideVR’s secret weapon in preventing negative experiences from being posted publicly. These satisfaction checks at the end of a stay allow management to catch issues before they become public complaints.
“I think the checkout pulse is super relevant because you can catch a negative review before it happens,” King notes. “You can contact a guest to address their concerns, or avoid asking that guest to leave a review. It gives guests a place to vent their frustration before posting online.”
The system allows for intelligent workflows that can trigger personalized responses based on guest feedback, transforming potentially negative reviews into recovery opportunities.
Promote positive reviews
BeachsideVR doesn’t just prevent negative feedback: they actively encourage satisfied guests to share their experiences:
Smart review redirection. One of SuiteOp’s small but mighty features is its ability to automatically redirect guests who leave positive checkout pulses directly to review platforms.
“It’s a mix of how we changed our auto-messaging in Guesty to ask for Google reviews and the checkout pulse redirecting them to Google in SuiteOp only if the guest leaves 5-stars there,” says King. “The combination of the two makes a big difference.”
For guests who rate their stay 5 stars, the system automatically redirects them to Google reviews, even copying their feedback to their clipboard so they can paste it directly into their review. This seamless process significantly increases review conversion rates to get more guest reviews.
Conditional messaging in Guesty. By leveraging the integration between SuiteOp and Guesty, BeachsideVR implements conditional messaging based on guest satisfaction. When a guest leaves a 5-star checkout pulse, the system can trigger appropriate follow-up messaging in Guesty, increasing the chances of capturing positive reviews.
Address reviews regularly
Even with the best prevention systems, reputation management requires ongoing attention to the reviews you receive. BeachsideVR has established a comprehensive review monitoring and response system:
Team communication via Slack integration. SuiteOp’s Slack integration keeps the team updated on guest feedback in real-time, with separate channels for positive reviews and improvement opportunities. This integration includes AI analysis of review content, providing additional context for the team to understand common themes or one-off concerns.
Review analytics in SuiteOp. BeachsideVR uses SuiteOp’s review analytics dashboard to track reviews across platforms and monitor response status. The system provides vacation rental review management for insights into review patterns, helping management identify trends and address recurring issues.
AI-powered opportunities. One of SuiteOp’s newest features is the AI-powered opportunities system, which identifies actionable insights and measures their impact on your business directly from reviews.
“I’m really excited about the opportunities system,” King noted. “I especially like how it stacks similar, repeating issues on top of each other, so you can see that three different guests complained about the same issue. That’s definitely been a gap in our current processes.”
The system intelligently groups similar issues, helping management identify patterns that might otherwise be missed in individual tasks.
Getting started with reputation management
For property managers looking to enhance their reputation management strategy, the combination of Guesty and SuiteOp provides a powerful foundation:
- Set up a branded SuiteOp guest portal that creates a seamless experience from booking to checkout
- Implement check-in and checkout pulses to catch issues early and encourage only positive reviews
- Create conditional messaging in Guesty based on pulse responses
- Establish a review monitoring system using SuiteOp’s analytics dashboard that keeps your team informed and accountable
- Use AI-powered tools like SuiteOp opportunities to identify patterns and opportunities for improvement
By implementing these strategies, you can build a sterling reputation that drives bookings, attracts property owners, and sets your business apart in a crowded marketplace.
Ready to take your reputation management to the next level? Learn more about how Guesty and SuiteOp can work together to power your vacation rental business.