Listing reviews are an important part of Hipcamp. They let Hipcampers share their experiences with other people looking to make a booking. Reviews often provide information that potential Hipcampers wouldn’t have otherwise known about from the listing’s details. Both positive and negative reviews are an opportunity for you as a Host to attract new Hipcampers to your property.
If you happen to get a negative review, it’s understandable to feel upset at first. Hosts work hard to provide great experiences for Hipcampers, and it can be tough to get negative feedback after a completed trip. We recommend you take a bit of time to absorb what the Hipcamper is saying and then address the negative review in a way that will enhance your listing and encourage people reading the comments to make a booking.
Some things to consider when you get a negative review on Hipcamp:
- Most negative reviews from disappointed Hipcampers are because of mismatched expectations. Negative reviews are an opportunity to clarify your listing to attract people that are excited about exactly what you are offering. Are there any learnings you can take away from a negative review to update your listing to make things more clear?
- When you reply to reviews, Hipcampers see that you really care about the experience people have when they visit your land. If you write thoughtfully in a professional tone, address issues that Hipcampers bring up, and offer additional information in your reply, you will attract new Hipcampers that see you are engaged and reliable. See more of our tips for responding here.
We will remove reviews that contain the below criteria:
- Inaccurate Reviews: Reviews should be truthful. If there is a fact of a review that you disagree with, you will need to provide photographic proof or other evidence to Hipcamp Support. If there is no definitive proof, we cannot remove any content, but we recommend you reply publicly to the review thoughtfully to share your side of the story.
(Note: We will not remove details that relate to someone's personal perspective on something in a review. Opinions do not fall under the label of inaccurate content, as they are subjective. We would recommend that you reply publicly to the review to share your perspective with future readers.)
- Biased Reviews: Reviews created that are posted to elicit a refund, present a conflict of interest, are posted by competitors, or are posted with incentive are all subject to removal.
(E.g. A Host reviewing their own list, a Hipcamper threatening to leave a bad review if they don’t receive a refund, a review posted by another Host to lower another’s search rank, a review posted with the expectation of a future discounted stay)
- Vulgar Reviews: No review should contain threats, hate speech, or name calling.
(E.g. A review that contains violent, malicious, or profane language)
- Irrelevant Reviews: Reviews should be on topic, related to your camper’s stay at your Hipcamp, and limited to the property, people, and experiences while on site. Reviews based on or related to experiences with the Hipcamp product, other services, platforms, or entities are subject to removal
(E.g. A review based on your camper’s experience on roads not owned and maintained by you, a review based on an issue your camper ran into when trying to book)
- Defamatory Review: Reviews should not contain disparaging remarks toward Hosts, other Hipcampers, or the greater community. Reviews found to contain this kind of language are subject to removal.
(E.g. Reviews attacking the personal character of a Host or Hipcamper, Reviews based on a Host or Hipcamper’s political views)
Outside of these cases, we, unfortunately, cannot remove reviews. As a marketplace based on trust and openness, we need to honor Hipcampers’ experiences, both good and bad. We suggest addressing the feedback with the Hipcamper directly, and we are able to edit reviews if the Hipcamper would like to make any changes.
Responding to the review publicly is the best way to ensure future Hipcampers know that you take Hipcamper experience very seriously, which speaks volumes!
Here are some additional articles that cover this topic that you may find helpful:
What to do about negative reviews?
The anatomy of a good response to a negative online review
Research shows impact of responding to reviews on reputation and revenue