How Landlords Should Handle Negative Online Reviews

Nobody wants to read a negative review about themselves or a service or product they offer online. Unfortunately, this is one of the expectations business owners and even landlords should have when conducting business.

Many tenants nowadays research the landlord of the property they are interested in renting from before signing a lease. The first thing they’ll do is search for reviews from previous tenants and learn about their experience. There are even websites specifically for landlord reviews where tenants can write about and search for specific landlords.

How should you handle a negative review online about yourself and your service as a landlord? By the end of this article, you’ll know what you should do and how to turn a negative review into a positive experience.

Handling Negative Reviews as a Landlord

If you’ve ever written a bad review about a restaurant or product, you were probably writing it in the heat of the moment with anger rushing to your cheeks, turning them red. At this moment, you aren’t necessarily thinking clearly and may be exaggerating just a bit, whether you know it or not.

When you read a negative online review about yourself or your service, try to picture the reviewer at the moment they’re writing the review. They are utterly biased and looking to damage your reputation. Don’t take it personally; they’re making the situation seem much worse than it is.

It is okay to feel hurt or angry about the review, but don’t act on those emotions just yet.

Digest the Negative Review

After reading the review once or twice, step away from your computer and really think about what the reviewer was saying. Understand the situation fully and recall key details about your experience with the tenant writing the review.

Examine and identify your emotions at this point and try to suppress your anger. You definitely do not want to respond to this person in an angry tone, as that can backfire even more.

Take your time, but not too much time as we’ll discuss next, to process the review and think about how you would like to respond to it.

Respond Promptly and Respectfully

As a landlord, you can’t just let a bad review sit on the internet for everyone to see without responding to it. It’s your responsibility as a good, reputable landlord to acknowledge the review and try to remedy it.

Try not to leave the review unanswered for more than a couple of days. When you do respond to it, be respectful and let the review know that you hear their complaints and are ready to find a solution.

It’s a great time to start crafting the perfect response as you digest the review and lose your anger towards it. Before posting your response, ask a friend or two to read it and get their opinion.

Never Attack the Reviewer in Your Response

It’s tempting to try and blame the reviewer or tell your side of the story, but it’s best to avoid this. As a landlord running a rental business, it’s your duty to stay professional with your tenants.

Take the Conversation Private

The best thing you can do is to take the conversation with your previous tenant privately offline. People don’t need to see the back and forth between you two about their issues.

If you still have the tenant’s contact information reach out to them, letting them know you read the review and want to fix the problem. If you don’t have it, ask them to contact you in your response to their review.

This is where you can discuss and clearly understand why they are upset about their experience renting from you. Sometimes all it takes is a sincere apology for them to feel better.

Offer a Solution

If it’s possible to solve the issue at hand, do it as quickly as possible. Maybe the tenant had an issue with the security deposit amount you returned to them. If this is the case, go over the itemized receipt you sent them line by line and explain everything. Or, if it really was a mistake on your end, give them the correct amount.

Improve from Negative Reviews

Sometimes negative reviews can hint at a bigger problem going on with your rental business and operations, especially if you have a partner or team members. While you can’t take a single review too seriously, if you have consistent complaints about a certain thing, you should look into it.

Use these reviews to improve your business and how you act as a landlord. We aren’t perfect, and becoming a great landlord can take some time, and you may make mistakes.

Ask Tenants to Leave Reviews

You can’t necessarily delete all of the bad reviews people leave you, which hopefully there aren’t too many. To push these reviews out of view and drown them out, ask your current tenants to leave a review. You could even offer an incentive such as a gift from a local decor shop or café.

Be sure to ask tenants who you get along with as they’re more likely to write a good review. Tenants who have renewed leases with you are also great people to ask.

Get More Positive Reviews with Stratton Vantage Property Management

Being a landlord is difficult, especially if it’s something you do on the side. You’ll make plenty of mistakes as you learn the ropes of renting properties in Carefree, AZ.

What if you could increase your chances of getting positive landlord reviews without ever making another repair at your rental property?

With Stratton Vantage Property Management you can!

As an experienced Carefree property management company, our professional team of property managers is the best in the area. We’ll manage your property as if it were our own and treat tenants with only the most respectable customer service.

Contact us to see how we can help you get more positive landlord reviews today!