Responding to reviews is a great way to learn from and build a positive relationship with your guests. Hipcamp allows Hosts to respond publicly and privately to Hipcamper reviews.
You can pick and choose to respond to your most vocal guests, or choose to respond to every review. Remember that your Hipcamp guests are paying customers and contacting them, whether public or private, should be approached with care.
Respond from your email notification
Respond from your public Property page
Tips for responding to reviews
How to respond from your email notification
If a Hipcamper leaves a public review and has also provided a private comment after their stay, you will receive an email with their review and the options to respond.
Toward the bottom of the email, you can click the appropriate link to respond publicly or privately. It looks like this:
If you click "Reply publicly" it will bring you to the review directly on your Site where you can respond to the Hipcamper's review. A text box, like the one shown below, should appear to allow you to respond publicly or via message to the Hipcamper.
How to respond from your public Property page
You are also able to respond publicly to a camper’s review at anytime from your public Property page. Please note, you will need to be logged into your Host account to respond to a review. This tool isn’t available on the Hipcamp app.
To reply to a review from your public Property page:
- Head over to your Property page
- Click on View Property towards the top right of your screen. This will open your public Property page
- Scroll down to the ‘Reviews’ section and click Show all reviews
- You will see the option to Respond to review
- This will open a pop-up where you can type your response. You can choose to send the response as a private message to the camper or to reply publicly
Tips for responding to reviews
- Responses to positive reviews should be a simple thank you to show you care. Don’t over-complicate the message by adding additional offers, mailing lists, etc. If you are thanking someone without providing new information, we recommend sending a private response instead.
- Responses to negative reviews are hard. Take a deep breath, perhaps step away for a period of time before you write your response. Try not to get defensive - get curious instead!
- Remember to be open to feedback, be empathetic, and remember that this is a chance to help the situation, improve the experience you provide as a Host, and maybe even change the reviewer’s perspective.
- Hipcamp guests are human beings with feelings and emotions, just like yourself!
- Keep it simple. A simple thank you for your patronage and feedback can go a long way.