Quick Summary
Leaving a review on Airbnb works the same way in both directions: after checkout, hosts and guests each get 14 days to submit through the app or website. Hosts start from the Reservations or Reviews section of the hosting dashboard; guests start from the Trips tab or the email and app prompt Airbnb sends after checkout. Reviews are double-blind, remain hidden until both sides submit or the window closes, and can’t be edited after publication. If the review isn’t showing, the usual causes are an unsubmitted second review, a still-open window, or a policy removal.
You’ve got a checkout rush behind you, a 14-day clock already running on every one of those stays, and a review field Airbnb won’t let you see the other side of. Submitting reviews is one of the simplest recurring tasks in hosting and one of the easiest to fumble on deadlines, editing rules, and the “why can’t I see it yet” mystery. Here’s the complete walkthrough for both directions, host first, plus the timing rules, limits, and troubleshooting that Airbnb’s own instructions skip.
How do you leave a review on Airbnb as a host?
Hosts leave reviews from the hosting dashboard: open the completed reservation, select Leave a review, rate the guest, and write your comments before the 14-day window Airbnb gives both sides closes. Airbnb also prompts you by email and in-app notification after checkout, and either route lands in the same flow.
The steps on web or the app:
- Switch to hosting mode and open Reservations (or the Reviews section in your performance area).
- Find the completed stay and select Leave a review.
- Rate the guest with a star rating and the quick prompts covering communication, cleanliness, and house rule observance.
- Indicate whether you’d host this guest again.
- Write your public comments, add private feedback if you want it seen by the guest only, and Submit.
Timing is worth a deliberate choice rather than a default. Submitting within a day or two of checkout, while the stay is fresh, prompts many guests to reciprocate before the window closes, and a visible history of host-written reviews signals an actively managed listing to everyone browsing it.
If you’re doing this across many checkouts a week, this is a task built for review automation tooling: a PMS can queue reviews to post on schedule and leave you a one-click cancel when a stay goes wrong. Keep manual submission for the exceptions and let the routine ones run themselves.
How do you leave a review on Airbnb as a guest?
Guests leave reviews from the Trips section: open the past trip, select the review prompt, rate the overall stay and the six categories, and submit within 14 days of checkout. Airbnb’s own walkthrough confirms the alternate path too: from your profile, open Reviews, then Reviews by You, and pick the reservation under Reviews to Write. Either way the flow takes about two minutes.
The steps:
- Open Trips in the app or on the website and switch to past trips.
- Select the completed stay, then tap the review prompt (or follow the link in Airbnb’s post-checkout email).
- Rate the overall stay from 1 to 5 stars.
- Rate the six categories: cleanliness, accuracy, check-in, communication, location, and value.
- Write your public comments, add optional private feedback for the host, and Submit.
One mechanic guests consistently miss: the overall star rating is its own score, not an average of the six categories, so the number you choose on that first screen is the one that moves the listing’s headline rating.
How long do you have to leave a review?
Both sides have 14 days from checkout, the window opens when the stay ends, and there’s no extension once it closes: reviews publish once both parties submit or the 14-day period ends, whichever comes first. Airbnb’s system won’t accept late submissions, and support doesn’t reopen windows as a favor, so a missed deadline is genuinely final.
The double-blind mechanism sits on top of that clock: your submitted review stays hidden until the other party submits theirs or the 14 days expire, and then both publish simultaneously. Submitting early doesn’t expose you to anything, because the other side can’t read your review before writing theirs.
Interestingly, later isn’t always worse for guests deciding when to write. Research on more than 200,000 reviews found that ratings written a few days after a stay trend more positive than ones written immediately, as reviewers zoom out from small frustrations. For hosts, though, the operational advice stands: submit early, prompt reciprocity, and never gamble with a hard deadline.
Can you edit or change a review after submitting?
You can edit only while your review is unpublished, which means before the other side submits and before the window closes, exactly as Airbnb’s editing rules state; after publication, reviews are locked for both parties. The one asymmetry: a reviewer can remove their own published review within 30 days of publication, while the reviewed party has no edit or delete option on anything published.
That lock is why the pre-submit pause matters. Reread once for facts and tone, because the next opportunity to change anything is a policy dispute, not an edit button. Responding is the exception: Airbnb publishes no deadline for public responses to a review you’ve received, so that door stays open after everything else locks.
If a published review against you crosses into policy violation territory, the review removal process is the mechanism, with its own criteria and evidence standards. Editing rules and removal rules are separate systems, and knowing which one your situation calls for saves a lot of wasted support tickets.
What are the character limits and star categories?
Public reviews run up to roughly 1,000 characters, star ratings run 1 to 5 with no half-stars, and guests rate six categories alongside the independent overall score. Hosts rate guests on three categories Airbnb defines: cleanliness, house rules, and communication, plus the would-host-again indicator.
The two flows, side by side:
| Element | Guest reviewing host | Host reviewing guest |
|---|---|---|
| Where to start | Trips tab, or Profile > Reviews > Reviews by You | Hosting dashboard: Reservations or the Reviews section |
| The prompt | Post-checkout email and in-app card | Post-checkout email and in-app notification |
| Overall stars | 1 to 5, independent score | 1 to 5 |
| Categories | Cleanliness, accuracy, check-in, communication, location, value | Cleanliness, house rules, communication |
| Public text | Up to ~1,000 characters | Up to ~1,000 characters |
| Private feedback | Optional, host only sees it | Optional, guest only sees it |
| Where it appears | On the listing page | On the guest’s profile |
| Deadline | 14 days from checkout | 14 days from checkout |
Private feedback is the underused field on both sides. It’s where a guest can flag the dripping faucet without denting the public record, and where a host can coach a guest without warning off future hosts over something minor.
Why isn’t your review showing?
A submitted review that isn’t visible almost always has one of four causes: the other party hasn’t submitted yet, the 14-day window is still open, the review was removed for a policy violation, or you’re looking in the wrong place. Work through them in that order and the mystery usually resolves itself.
The first two are the same mechanism seen from different angles: double-blind means nothing shows until both reviews exist or time runs out, so a lone submitted review sits invisible for up to 14 days by design. For removals, you’ll generally find a notification, and the rules of the review system define exactly which content comes down.
The wrong-place cases are quick checks: host reviews of guests live on the guest’s profile rather than any listing, and a review of a cancelled stay was never eligible to exist in the first place.
Can’t find the review button at all?
A missing Leave-a-review button is a different problem from an invisible submitted review, and it almost always has one of six causes. Check them in order:
- The stay hasn’t ended yet. The window opens at checkout, not at booking or check-in.
- The 14 days have passed. The button disappears when the window closes, permanently.
- The reservation was cancelled before check-in day. Airbnb doesn’t allow reviews for stays cancelled before the day of check-in; reservations cancelled on or after check-in day may still be reviewable.
- You’re on the wrong profile or account. Reviews attach to the account that made or hosted the booking, which catches teams and couples with shared devices.
- You’re in the wrong mode. Hosts need hosting mode; guests need the Trips view.
- The app is outdated. An old app version occasionally hides the prompt; the mobile browser flow is the quick workaround.
What should you actually write?
This page covers where to click; what to write is its own craft, and the short version is: be specific, be factual, and match the review to the stay. For hosts, the fastest route to consistent quality is a rotating set of Airbnb guest review templates with one stay-specific detail added, and when you’re on the receiving end, responding to reviews of your property is a separate craft with its own wording for every scenario from glowing to hostile.
If you want incoming reviews with substance rather than “great stay, thanks,” prompt for stories. Brian, co-founder of Overlooked to Overbooked, shared the exact wording on the Hostfully webinar How (and Why) to Tell the Story of Your Vacation Rental: ask guests “do you have any fun stories from your time here?” or “describe your favorite vacation day from the week that you were here.” Questions like these turn a star rating into a narrative future guests actually read.
For guests writing about a stay that went wrong, one paragraph of guidance: wait a day so you’re reporting rather than venting, describe facts a future traveler can use, and keep people’s private information out of it. “The host took eight hours to respond to a check-in question” helps everyone; “the host is rude” helps no one and ages badly.
Either direction, the review you submit is permanent, public, and attached to your name, which is the best single filter for what goes in it.
Frequently asked questions about leaving Airbnb reviews
Why can’t I see my Airbnb review yet?
Reviews stay hidden until both parties submit or the 14-day window closes, then publish simultaneously. If you submitted and see nothing, the other side simply hasn’t written theirs yet, and it will appear when they do or when the clock expires. This is the double-blind design working as intended.
Can I leave an Airbnb review after 14 days?
No. The window is hard: once 14 days pass from checkout, the system won’t accept a review from either side, and support won’t reopen it. If you missed the window, private feedback and future stays are the remaining channels; there’s no late-review mechanism.
Do both the host and guest have to leave a review?
No, reviewing is optional in both directions. If only one side submits, that review publishes alone when the window closes. Hosts benefit from reviewing consistently anyway, since a visible review history signals an actively managed operation and prompts more guests to reciprocate.
Can I review a cancelled Airbnb stay?
Generally no. Stays cancelled before check-in aren’t eligible for the standard review flow, though reservations cancelled after the stay began may still allow one. Host-initiated cancellations trigger an automated note on the listing, which is separate from the guest review system.
How do I see reviews I’ve left on Airbnb?
Guests can find their submitted reviews through their profile’s review history, and hosts can see reviews they’ve written on each guest’s profile or via the reservation record. Reviews you’ve received appear on your own profile or listing once published.
Does Airbnb tell the other person what I wrote?
Only after publication. During the window, your review is hidden from the other party entirely, and private feedback is never shown publicly at any point. Once both reviews publish, each side sees the other’s public text and ratings exactly as future users will.
Key takeaways
The mechanics come down to a handful of rules that cover nearly every situation you’ll hit.
- Hosts review from the Reservations or Reviews dashboard, guests from Trips, and both have a hard 14-day window from checkout.
- Reviews are double-blind: invisible until both submit or the window closes, then published simultaneously and locked.
- The overall star rating is independent of the category ratings, and it’s the score that moves the listing average.
- Editing is possible only pre-publication; after that, the only paths are guest self-deletion or a policy-based removal.
- An invisible review usually means an unsubmitted counterpart or an open window, not a lost submission.
Stop writing the same review 30 times a month
Hostfully queues guest reviews from your template bank, posts them on schedule, and gives you a one-click cancel for any stay that shouldn’t run on autopilot. See how automation handles the routine.