Hosting standards and the review process

What we expect of every host

Being a Good Finds host is a privilege, not a right. Guests are trusting you with their time and money, and Good Finds's reputation rests on every experience delivering what it promises.

These are the standards we hold every host to.

Accuracy

Your listing must accurately reflect what guests will experience. The description, photos, duration, group size, and meeting details must be honest and current. Update your listing when anything changes.

Reliability

Confirm bookings and honour them. Respond to guest messages within 24 hours. If something changes, communicate early. Cancelling a confirmed booking is a serious matter and affects your standing on the platform.

Communication

Guests should feel informed and welcomed before, during, and after their experience. That means a warm acceptance message, a day-before confirmation, and a genuine experience on the day.

Safety

Your experience must be run safely, with appropriate insurance, risk management, and a completed Health and Safety checklist. See the Health and safety guide for full details.

Respect

Every guest should be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their background, where they're from, or how much they know about your subject. Discrimination of any kind is grounds for immediate removal from the platform.

How the guest review system works

After an experience is marked complete, Good Finds invites guests to leave a review. Reviews are:

• Written by guests only - hosts cannot write reviews for guests
• Verified - only guests who completed a booking can leave a review for that experience
• Public - visible to all future guests on your listing
• Permanent - Good Finds does not remove reviews except in specific circumstances (see below)

Guests rate their experience out of five stars and can leave a written comment. Both the star rating and the comment appear on your listing.

What makes a great review score

Your overall rating is a rolling average of all reviews. New hosts start with no rating visible until they have at least three reviews.

The most common reasons for lower ratings:

• The experience didn't match the listing description
• Poor or slow communication before the experience
• The host wasn't present or engaged during the experience
• Practical details (meeting point, duration, what to bring) weren't as described
• The experience felt rushed or didn't have a clear shape

None of these require exceptional effort to avoid - they just require honesty in your listing and care in your hosting.

Responding to reviews

You can respond to any review your guests leave. Your response is public.

Responding to positive reviews: A brief, warm thank-you is enough. Guests who read your reviews see how you communicate. Being genuine and specific is better than generic gratitude.

Responding to critical reviews: This requires care.

• Respond calmly and without defensiveness. Guests reading reviews are watching how you handle criticism.
• If the guest's feedback is fair, acknowledge it briefly and explain what you've changed or will change.
• If there's a factual error, correct it politely and once - don't argue.
• Don't attack the guest's credibility or suggest their experience was their fault.

Example response to a difficult review:

Guest wrote: "The meeting point was hard to find and we wasted 15 minutes."

Good response: "Thank you for the feedback - you're right that the meeting point instructions weren't clear enough. I've since updated the listing with more specific directions and added a what3words reference. I hope the rest of the experience was worthwhile."

When reviews can be removed

Good Finds will remove a review only in limited circumstances:

• The review contains content that violates Good Finds's community guidelines (hate speech, explicit content, personal attacks unrelated to the experience)
• There's clear evidence that the review was left for the wrong listing
• The review was left by someone who did not complete a booking

Reviews that are simply negative, unfair, or with which you strongly disagree do not meet the bar for removal.

What affects your standing as a host

Good Finds monitors host performance and may take action in the following situations:

• Repeated guest complaints - about accuracy, communication, or quality
• Cancelled confirmed bookings - particularly if patterns emerge
• Safety incidents - any incident involving guest injury
• Violations of the host agreement - accepting payment outside the platform, engaging in discriminatory conduct, providing false information in your listing

Action can range from a warning and listing suspension to permanent removal from the platform.

How to improve your score

If your rating is lower than you'd like, the path forward is straightforward:

1. 1Read your reviews honestly - what themes come up?
2. 2Update your listing to address accuracy issues
3. 3Improve your communication: faster responses, warmer messages, better day-before prep
4. 4Refine the experience itself based on feedback
5. 5Ask happy guests (offline, after the experience) if they'd be willing to leave a review

Quality on Good Finds is a collective effort. When you host well, every guest leaves with a better impression of what the platform offers - and that brings more guests to every host, including you.