# Reply to Hostelworld reviews with an AI agent

> Your agent finds Hostelworld reviews without a reply, drafts each in the review's language or English, and submits them for Hostelworld's check.

Source: https://cotlet.dev/integrations/hostelworld-api-mcp-server/reply-to-guest-reviews

On Monday the manager opens Reports > Customer Ratings and finds a week of new reviews, some in Spanish or German, a few with low scores. Each one needs its own reply, so the short positive ones and the hard ones in another language keep slipping to next week.

Cotlet does it in your own Hostelworld account with list\_reviews, reply\_to\_review and query\_review, called by your AI agent, an n8n workflow or a script.

[Request access](https://cotlet.dev/app/signup?app=hostelworld) [All Hostelworld tools](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/hostelworld-api-mcp-server)

Hosted · nothing to install or maintain

Official options

## Can Hostelworld do this on its own?

Hostelworld has no API for reviews (checked 12 Oct 2026). Owners read reviews only under Reports > Customer Ratings and reply to or query each one from its booking reference in Inbox. The Hostelworld help pages we checked describe no bulk reply and no reply templates.

By hand

## How you do it in Hostelworld today

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.

With an agent

## How to reply to Hostelworld reviews with an AI agent

Prompt

```
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.

### What you get back

Example data

```
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
```

### Other ways to ask

- Reply only to Hostelworld reviews rated below 7 since 1 September, and show me the issue each guest raised next to the draft.
- Every Monday, draft replies to last week's unanswered Hostelworld reviews and post them after I approve.
- Find reviews from the past year that mention noise and tell me how many still have no reply.
- This review says we charged a hidden fee at check-in. Draft a query to Hostelworld with our booking terms as evidence.

Before you automate it

## What Hostelworld allows, and what to know first

- 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](https://support.hostelworld.com/knowledge/how-to-post-a-reply-to-a-review-or-query-the-review-with-hostelworld) · [Hostelworld Help: Guidelines for replying to customer reviews](https://support.hostelworld.com/knowledge/guidelines-for-replying-to-customer-review) · [Hostelworld Help: How long does a review stay on my page](https://support.hostelworld.com/knowledge/how-long-does-a-review-stay-on-my-page) · [Hostelworld: Review Guidelines](https://www.hostelworld.com/legal/review-guidelines/)

REST

## Call reply\_to\_review from a script

curl

```
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."}'
```

Example response

```
{
"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.

[Schedule it in n8n, Make, Zapier or cron](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/hostelworld-api-mcp-server#automations)

Tools

## Hostelworld tools this automation uses

__Cotlet Hostelworld tools used to reply to Hostelworld reviews with an AI agent__
| Tool | Parameters |
| ----------------- | ---------------------------------- |
| list\_reviews | from, to, unanswered\_only, cursor |
| reply\_to\_review | booking\_ref, body |
| query\_review | booking\_ref, reason |

[All 15 Hostelworld tools with descriptions](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/hostelworld-api-mcp-server#tools)

## Frequently asked questions

### Can the agent get an unfair review removed?

It can send it to a Hostelworld moderator with query\_review and your evidence. Hostelworld decides, and it removes a genuine unfavorable review only with sufficient evidence of a breach of its Review Guidelines.

## More Hostelworld automations

- [Answer Hostelworld guest chats with an AI agent](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/hostelworld-api-mcp-server/answer-guest-chats)
- [Mark Hostelworld no-shows automatically](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/hostelworld-api-mcp-server/mark-no-shows)
- [Reconcile Hostelworld PayNow payouts](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/hostelworld-api-mcp-server/reconcile-paynow-payouts)
- [Hostelworld API and MCP server: every tool](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/hostelworld-api-mcp-server)
- [All use cases](https://cotlet.dev/use-cases)

## Give your agent access to Hostelworld.

Free 7-day trial with 5,000 credits, no card needed. Cotlet is independent and not affiliated with Hostelworld.

[Request access](https://cotlet.dev/app/signup?app=hostelworld)