Reply to Hostelworld reviews with an AI agent

1. In Hostelworld Inbox, open the Reports tab and choose Customer Ratings.
2. Customer Ratings takes a date range of up to one year at a time: pick the dates and click GO to list the reviews received in that period.
3. Click the booking reference of a review to open it, then choose to reply, or to query it with Hostelworld when the review breaks the Review Guidelines.
4. Write the reply in the language of the review or in English, leave out the guest's name and read it twice, because Hostelworld does not let you edit a reply once it is submitted.
5. Repeat for every booking reference in the range. Reviews in a language nobody at the desk reads, and the short positive ones, are the ones that end up without any reply.

Find Hostelworld reviews from the last 30 days that I have not answered. Draft a reply to each in the guest's language or English, low ratings first, and show me the drafts before posting.

1. 01

   Pick the window and skip what is answered

   The agent calls list_reviews for the period you name, by default the last 30 days, with unanswered_only on. A request for more than a year is split into yearly ranges, the way Customer Ratings requires.

2. 02

   Handle the low scores first

   Reviews with a low rating or a concrete complaint (cold showers, noise from the bar, a rude check-in) go to the top. For those the agent asks you what has changed since the stay instead of promising a fix you never made. Positive reviews get a short reply that picks up a detail the guest mentioned, so no two replies read the same.

3. 03

   Write inside Hostelworld's reply rules

   Each draft is in the review's language or in English, names your property and never the guest. When you do not want to answer in the guest's language, the agent writes in English, because Hostelworld does not translate replies.

4. 04

   Query instead of reply when a review crosses the line

   A review with offensive or threatening language, an allegation you can show is false, or from someone you say never stayed gets a draft query_review with the evidence, not a public reply. A review that is only unfavorable is answered, because Hostelworld keeps genuine negative reviews.

5. 05

   Show the batch, then submit one by one

   You see every draft next to its rating and the guest's words. Each reply_to_review call waits for your OK, since a submitted reply is locked, and the agent reports which replies now wait for Hostelworld's check.

Reviews 12 Sep to 12 Oct: 23, of which 9 had no reply
Low ratings first: 412-305871264 (6.2, cold showers in dorm 3), 412-305990118 (5.8, noise from the bar)
Submitted, waiting for Hostelworld's check: 7 (English 5, Spanish 1, German 1)
In English instead of the guest's language: 1 review in Korean
Held for you: 412-306004412 uses offensive language about a staff member, query draft ready

• Hostelworld reviews can stay visible on the property profile for up to 3 years, so a reply sits under that review for as long.
• The Hostelworld overall rating is updated daily from the reviews of the past 6 months, falling back to 12 and then 24 months when there are none.
• Only guests who booked the property through Hostelworld.com and stayed there can leave a Hostelworld review.
• Hostelworld's reply guidelines ask owners to include the property name, to avoid one-word "Thank you" replies and to make each reply unique; replies that insult a guest are not published.
• Hostelworld removes a genuine unfavorable review only with sufficient evidence of a Review Guidelines breach, such as offensive language, unsubstantiated allegations or a reviewer who did not stay.

reply_to_review and query_review ask for your OK by default. To run it weekly without you, switch confirmation off for those tools in your dashboard.

Sources: Hostelworld Help: Reply to or query a review · Hostelworld Help: Guidelines for replying to customer reviews · Hostelworld Help: How long does a review stay on my page · Hostelworld: Review Guidelines

curl https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/hostelworld/reply_to_review \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COTLET_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"booking_ref":"412-305871264","body":"Thanks for choosing Casa Verde Hostel. You were right about the hot water in dorm 3: we replaced the boiler in September, and showers now run hot all morning."}'

{
  "booking_ref": "412-305871264",
  "status": "pending_moderation",
  "submitted_at": "2026-10-11T14:22:05+02:00",
  "editable": false
}

MCP: add https://cotlet.dev/mcp/v1 with the same key; the tool is hostelworld_reply_to_review. Example data.

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