This article explains how to create, customize, and share surveys, as well as how to review and respond to feedback.
🎥 Video Guide: Watch this Loom video walkthrough
1. Where to Find Surveys
In the MARA menu, go to Surveys under Gather & Showcase.
Here you’ll see an overview of all surveys that have been created in your account.
The table shows:
Property the survey belongs to
Title you gave the survey (to differentiate multiple surveys)
Type (Post-stay, In-stay)
Language of the survey
Responses collected
Status (active/inactive)
From this screen, you can:
Edit an existing survey
Get the survey link or QR code to share
Export responses to Excel
Create new surveys
2. Types of Surveys
You can create two main types of surveys in MARA:
Post-Stay Surveys - Collect feedback after a guest’s stay.
In-Stay Surveys - Gather feedback during a guest’s stay. You can also set up notifications for low ratings so staff can act quickly.
Note: In-stay surveys do not count towards your analytics dashboards, but all responses are available in your survey overview.
3. Creating a Survey
Click Create Survey. There is no limit to the number of surveys you can create.
You’ll be taken to the survey builder where you can set:
Property - Choose the property the survey belongs to
Language - Select from multiple languages (English, German, Spanish etc.)
Title & Subtitle - Add a meaningful name for internal tracking
Layout - Upload an image, adjust colors, or use predefined templates
Questions
Every survey starts with:An overall rating (0–10 NPS scale or 1–5 stars)
An open text field
You can then add up to 10 additional questions, including:
Open text
Yes/No
Rating (stars or NPS)
You can also set whether questions are mandatory
💡 Best practice: Keep surveys short and simple (even a single question survey can be effective).
💬 Conversational Review Booster (New)
The Conversational Review Booster helps you gather more in-depth feedback by asking up to 3 automatic follow-up questions based on the guest’s initial response.
Once the first survey page is completed, MARA will generate and ask additional follow-up questions automatically — creating a more natural, conversational flow.
Settings
Enable Conversational Review Booster - Turn on the feature for your survey.
Maximum Number of Follow-up Questions - Choose between 1, 2, or 3.
Enable for . Select whether to use the booster for Positive and/or Negative Feedback.
⚠️ Note: When Conversational Review Booster is enabled, you can’t manually add additional custom questions.
4. Turning Feedback into Public Reviews
The main purpose of MARA surveys is to turn happy guests into public reviewers while keeping negative feedback internal.
If a guest leaves a positive rating (e.g. 4+ stars), they will be asked to publish their review on Google or TripAdvisor.
MARA auto-generates a draft review based on their survey input. They simply need to confirm and publish.
If a guest leaves a negative rating, they will not be asked to publish a review. Instead, you will receive the feedback internally so you can follow up.
You can customize:
Whether to ask for public reviews at all
On which platforms (Google, TripAdvisor)
At what rating threshold guests are asked
5. Sharing Surveys
MARA does not send surveys directly. Instead, you can share them via:
Static Survey Link - Copy the link and insert it into your post-stay or in-stay emails.
You can attach metadata (e.g., room number, reservation ID) when sending, which will appear in the survey response details.
QR Code - Place the QR code at reception or in guest rooms so guests can easily provide feedback.
6. Notifications
For in-stay surveys, you can set up email notifications when:
A response falls below a certain rating (e.g., 3 stars or less).
Specific users should be notified (you can assign users to receive alerts).
This allows you to act on feedback immediately during the guest’s stay.
7. Reviewing and Responding to Survey Feedback
Survey responses appear in your Inbox:
They are marked with the MARA survey icon.
If the guest leaves contact details, you can respond directly.
Use the “Copy & Mail” button to open a pre-filled email draft in Outlook (or your email provider) with the guest’s email and your reply.
If guests did not provide contact details, their feedback will appear in your account but you won’t be able to reply directly.
8. Survey Analytics
Survey results are included in MARA’s analytics dashboards.
You can:
Filter by reviews, surveys, or both
View survey feedback across Group, Property, and Review Insights dashboards
Analyze open text answers with MARA’s topic analysis (so you don’t have to read each response manually)
Summary
With MARA Surveys you can:
Collect guest feedback during and after stays
Turn positive responses into Google/TripAdvisor reviews
Get alerted about negative in-stay feedback instantly
Analyze all feedback in one place
Surveys are flexible, easy to set up, and a powerful way to boost your online reputation while improving guest satisfaction.