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One of the biggest issues currently facing the rental property industry can be summed up in a single stat: 86% of renters don’t trust landlords and agents to fully disclose information about a property. Online reviews exist in just about every corner of the internet, whether it’s for a £2.50 pack of ballpoint pens on Amazon or a set of clothes through any number of online retailers. The only place where reviews remain elusive is for rental properties! We don’t fully understand how this has happened, given the large amounts of cash that tenants are expected to part with on a monthly basis to live in one of these rentals. In a growing and changing digital landscape where social media and review platforms influence nearly every purchase we make, that level of transparency is non-existent in the rental industry. That’s what we’re on a mission to change.
To build transparency in the letting industry, agencies need to look towards the proprietor of reviews and ratings; the e-commerce market. Though once opaque and with no social proofing, it has grown exponentially with the rise of reviews and ratings by normal customers who buy products and use services. The UK has the most advanced e-commerce market in Europe, with the value of e-commerce sales in 2019 amounting to £693 billion. Globally, in 2021, it is expected to rise and total $4.81 trillion dollars. E-commerce is growing and shifting with the digital world, yet it appears that the letting industry is struggling to keep pace.
And it isn’t as though reviews are completely unheard of when it comes to homes and properties. Companies like Airbnb thrive on rental reviews and valuable data (with these being properties you’d only spend a few days in, as opposed to several months or years), so why can’t the UK’s letting industry get on board as well? Reviews can benefit both renters and landlords/agents. From increased transparency for renters searching for properties to improved visibility and services for agencies, renter reviews are a game-changer for landlords and agents.
In this guide, we’ll be going over exactly why you and the letting industry are in desperate need of renter reviews.
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Did you know that simply having access to reviews from previous renters can often be the deciding factor in whether or not a prospective tenant picks your property? This seems obvious when you think about it, given that an abundance of reviews are available for other products and services – these being ones that cost far less money than the monthly price of rent.
Inc.com claims that 84% of people online will treat reviews as if they were a personal recommendation from a friend. Even more importantly, Qualtrics recorded that 93% of consumers read reviews before buying a product.
Reviews are plentiful in just about every major industry outside of the property rental space. Recruitment sites like Indeed and Glassdoor provide sections where current and previous employees can anonymously review their companies and businesses. This allows job seekers to gain an insight into a company’s culture and what it’s like to work for them. People use these reviews to decide whether or not to apply for a job or accept a job offer, and the exact same concept applies to rental reviews. Of course would-be renters will be put off from parting with over 50% of their earnings on a rental property they know almost nothing about.
Five-star ratings and a few lines about how great a product is just won’t cut it for the rental market. Traditional review methods found through Google are simply not specific or detailed enough for renters to review properties. The final decision regarding a rental property is a complex one that contains many factors; property standard, landlord communication, value-for-money and more. Considering this, it’s hardly surprising that many renters need more than what they’re currently getting to make an informed decision.
36% of people say that trustworthiness is the most important factor in deciding to buy from any business. Renters want landlords and agents that will listen to them, and if that’s shown through reviews, your service is guaranteed to be thought of as trustworthy and high-quality.
Positive renter reviews are one of the most powerful weapons that a landlord or letting agency can wield. If properly implemented, then they can be a complete game-changer! Not only do happy renter reviews show what you and your agency are doing right, but they also show others just how authentic your brand is.
It takes 68% of consumers between one and six reviews to decide what they think about a product or service. Bearing this in mind, you should make an effort to get your positive reviews in as many places as possible. Add them to your property listings, your socials, and even shop windows! Because positive reviews are such great micro promoters for your agency, the snowball effect they’ll have will do much of the advertisement for you. Passively creating interest is the best way of doing so, as it requires such little effort on your part once underway.
With a handful of truthful, meaningful reviews in front of them, potential renters are far more likely to make quick and qualified decisions. Positive reviews are the best way of gaining trust and converting renters into your tenants.
Your agency definitely shouldn’t be deterred from providing reviews on the off-chance that a handful end up being quite negative. While negative reviews can be deflating, there are still plenty of positives to be found in them. People don’t just value reviews that are crammed full of plus points, they value reviews that indicate a level of honesty and transparency. A renter is obviously going to be suspicious when coming across an endless stream of five-star properties with glowing review after glowing review. In fact, 95% of people believe that businesses create fake reviews when no negative ones can be found. A few negative reviews won’t sink your agency. If anything, they’ll allow it to seem more authentic.
The most important part of highlighting your negative reviews is that it’ll help you keep on top of them. Monitoring renter reviews will naturally help your agency in responding to any serious issues that are flagged up. A quicker response means a quicker solution to the issue. A quicker solution to the issue means better trust and satisfaction between yourself and renters. This will then feed into the quality of service offered, as well as levels of trust and transparency throughout your brand.
In an industry that aims to be transparent, it’s pretty staggering that 86% of renters don’t trust agencies and landlords to fully disclose property information. Without a doubt, the best way to go about changing this is through renter reviews. What better way to highlight how much you value and care for tenants using your service? After all, reviews are 12 times more trusted than any other form of marketing material and 63% of customers are more likely to trust and buy from a company with reviews.
Reviews drive businesses, including Amazon. They even go as far as to relate customer reviews back to their mission statement:
“Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, Earth’s best employer, and Earth’s safest place to work.”
Including renter reviews has a number of benefits. One of these is increasing the visibility and levels of web traffic for your agency through improved keyword rankings. Organic traffic (appearing on Google’s results pages) is very desirable, due to being a free and almost unlimited source of eyes on your site.
Google will often pick up on various aspects of web pages and choose to display them on its results pages. One of the most common examples is reviews. There’s no guarantee Google will choose to display your reviews for relevant keywords, but simply having them present on your site provides an opportunity for far more people to click on your links than would have done otherwise.
Where Amazon is concerned (a company whose marketing practises are always worth checking out), they use star ratings and reviews to help boost product visibility and raise rankings when consumers buy a product. Customers can also ask questions and receive answers from either the seller or those who have bought the products. Amazon will often provide more information for a £1 product than many letting agents do for their £500 a month flat, so you should be aiming to match this at the very least.
Resooma’s mission is to make the renting experience simple and transparent for all young renters. Whether it’s their first time renting or they expect to rent long-term, we want to provide clear and helpful advice for generation rent.
Resooma has already conducted over 700 user sessions, where renters have validated the problem of trust and transparency that are inherent in the lettings industry, and yet, the industry is making no real moves to solve this. If 84% of customers trust product and service reviews as much as a personal recommendation, why is the UK lettings industry not utilising them?
In short, rental giants like Rightmove and Zoopla are incentivised to show minimal listing information as they operate on a lead generation model. This, in turn, encourages more enquiries and viewings for properties. We strongly believe that renters shouldn’t have to put down a deposit on a property that they barely have any information on.
For agents and landlords, renter reviews are a fantastic way of promoting your agency, increasing demand, and creating/improving valuable services for renters. Resooma believes the industry can learn much from the e-commerce space to transform the face of renting for the better.
That’s why Resooma is creating a tenant review feature for all our property listings. Renters will be asked to rate their experience with their landlord, agent, and the area they lived in, to provide feedback concerning each stage of the renter’s journey. This will include landlord communication and maintenance, property maintenance and area amenities. We’ll even be asking for feedback after viewings have taken place. We’ll use these reviews to show scores for each element, as well as putting them towards trusted tenant data to aid the search experience of our prospective renters.
Reviews for properties listed on our platform not only allow renters to understand if your property is right for them, but also help you in sourcing the very best tenants for your property. This 50-50 relationship is far more likely to create harmony between you and your tenants, so hugely matters to finding people that are willing to remain in your properties for the long run.
It’s time to make the lettings industry more transparent for renters, landlords, and agents. With renter reviews, we believe we can make that happen, by giving the very best landlords and agents the praise they deserve, while also improving the renter experience.
Check out how tenants can review properties. For each review, we’ll donate £1 to the charity Mind. Find out what Resooma can do for you and your property when you list with us.
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