Guest Experience · playbook
Recovering a stay before it becomes a review
Service recovery is a time-limited operation. The playbook for the first two hours, what to offer, and the language that keeps a four-star from becoming a three.
Key takeaways
- Speed outperforms generosity: acknowledgement within 30 minutes changes the review more than the size of the refund.
- Set compensation bands in advance so nobody negotiates under pressure.
- Close the loop before checkout — recovery after departure is damage control, not recovery.
A guest who has a problem and is helped quickly frequently leaves a better review than a guest who had no problem at all. A guest who has a problem and waits four hours for a reply has already written the review in their head.
The first two hours
- 0–30 minutes: acknowledge, take ownership, state what happens next and when. Do not diagnose yet.
- 30–120 minutes: resolve, or provide a concrete interim (a fan, a hotel night, a partial credit) with a fixed follow-up time.
- Before checkout: confirm the resolution in writing and ask directly whether anything is still unresolved.
Compensation bands
| Severity | Example | Band |
|---|---|---|
| Minor inconvenience | Missing amenity, late cleaner | Apology + amenity credit |
| Comfort affected | AC down in shoulder season, slow wifi | 10–25% of the affected nights |
| Stay materially degraded | No hot water, no AC in peak heat | 50–100% of affected nights |
| Uninhabitable | Flood, no power, safety issue | Full refund + rehousing |
Draft the reply in seconds
The recovery prompt produces an ownership-first reply grounded in the actual reservation and property facts.
Should I ask the guest to remove a bad review?
No. Respond publicly, once, factually, and with the fix. Future guests are the audience, not the reviewer.
COOChief Intelligence Desk
Executive research team
The Intelligence Desk studies how the best short-term rental operators make decisions — pricing, staffing, maintenance, guest recovery — and turns those patterns into operating standards you can run tomorrow morning.