What I told Airbnb about quality at scale

Two exceptional results, together, at scale

About 70% of our guests leave a review, by our count. And 95.1% of our overall Airbnb ratings are five-star. At 120 homes, both results are exceptional. Keeping them together while doubling our inventory without losing the standard is what I was there to discuss.

AirDNA puts the average rating for managers our size at 4.71; only about 6% reach 4.9. We're at 4.94. From my conversations at Host Week, the combination of review participation and guest satisfaction put us among the strongest operators in the room.

The review starts with a relationship

In our latest twelve-month review analysis, 98.1% of communication ratings were five-star. That's 7,400 reviews giving our team the highest mark for how we communicate.

Guests know there's a person paying attention. We believe that rapport is a big reason they take the time to write a review: they've had a relationship with our team and our brand throughout the stay. The review comes out of that experience.

We are obsessive about data

The score is where we start reading. By our internal assessment, about 80% of reviews with a perfect overall score still contain something we can act on. Praise tells us what matters to a guest. An observation tells us where we can make the next stay better. Five stars doesn't mean the work is finished.

We look across the review categories together. How did the presentation shape expectations? Did the guest feel supported? Did the home deliver enough value for what they paid? Accuracy, communication, cleanliness, check-in, and value all contribute to the same experience. Treating each score as an isolated number misses the relationships between them.

Our internal feedback loops turn those observations into changes in the homes and the operation. Then we look at the results and keep improving. That is how we keep finding and closing gaps as the portfolio grows. We're building tools, including AI-assisted analysis, to help us see patterns faster. People decide what to do and follow through.

The stay starts on the listing page

I direct how our homes are presented, working with our photographers and team. We test what helps guests understand a home and decide to book it. A listing has to earn the booking and set up a stay the house can actually deliver. Those are parts of the same job.

Someone still has to go to the house

Information moves a problem to the right person. Our local team does the work. We have full-time managers, cleaners, and maintenance staff, long-standing local cleaning partners, and someone on call overnight with backup.

Growing from one home to 120 meant building an operation where knowledge gets shared and improvements carry across houses. Our people live, work, and play here. We invest in them because their judgment and follow-through are what turn the data into a better stay.

Quality and revenue belong in the same conversation

The stay earns the review. Strong reviews help earn visibility and guest confidence. Airbnb reports our listings drawing more than a million more page views a year than similar listings. Our pricing team works to turn that demand into revenue, with a fractional revenue manager, regular strategy meetings, and testing on our own homes before bringing successful ideas to the wider portfolio.

The result is a calendar that sells 80% of its nights when the market sells 43%, and nearly four times the market's occupancy in February. That is why we're so serious about what happens between the booking and the review.

Back to Estes Park

It was a good room to be in. The work is here: in the homes, with the team, and in the next round of decisions about how to make this business better. If you own one of those homes, I'd like to talk.

What could your home do with The Wolf?

Send us the property. We’ll look at the opportunity and follow up by email.