> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.recepai.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Surveys
> Build the survey Star sends your guests — in your words or hers, in every language your hotel speaks.
**Surveys** is where you build the questions Star asks your guests about their stay, in their own language. A survey is written once and goes out on the moments you choose; what came back is read on its **Results** tab.
The five words this part of RecepAI uses, so the screens read the same way:
| Word | What it means |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Guest Feedback** | The whole group in the menu — everything guests tell you, directly or on a public site |
| **Direct Feedback** | What guests told you directly: a rating request answered, a survey, a suggestion, an entry your team typed in |
| **Rating request** | The one-question ask (a star rating) your AI staff make in chat, on calls, and after checkout |
| **Survey** | A set of questions you build here, sent in the guest's language |
| **Review** | What a guest published on Google |
***
## What is on the screen
### The start
With no survey yet, the page opens on the start screen. Once you have one, **New survey** opens the same screen.
At the top, **Star** offers to write the survey: *What would you like to learn from your guests?* Type a sentence the way you would tell a colleague — *a short survey about breakfast, the room and check-in* — choose the language **I'll write it in**, and select **Write my survey**. Five ideas sit under the box to start from: *After the stay*, *Food & drink*, *Check-in & check-out*, *Room & housekeeping*, *Spa & pool*.
Below Star's box, two quieter cards:
* **Use our recommended survey** — one overall question, one question per department, and one open question at the end. Opening the card shows your departments to tick (up to 10) and a length meter, then **Use this survey**.
* **Start from scratch** — a blank page with one question.
### The list
Once you have surveys, the page is a table: **Survey** (name, how many questions, the language it was written in), **Status**, **Languages**, **Last edited**. Two pills switch between **Current** and **Archived** — an archived survey is never mixed into the working list. From six surveys on, a **Find a survey** box appears; the order is *Last edited first* or *Name A–Z*.
Status is one of three words:
| Status | Meaning |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Draft** | Being written; nobody receives it |
| **Ready to send** | Can be chosen for a moment, sent by hand, or named in a broadcast |
| **Archived** | Retired; links already sent keep working |
**Languages** says *All N languages* when every translation is in place. A language that is not ready is the one coloured thing on the row — *Ready in x of N* or *Not translated yet*.
### The editor — Questions
A survey has three tabs under its name: **Questions**, **Results**, **Sending**. The **?** beside the title opens *How to read these numbers*, the rules every survey figure follows — they are written out on the [Results](/front-desk/reviews/surveys-results) page.
* **Survey name** — only your team sees it; guests see the questions, never the name.
* **The length meter** — how many questions, against the 8–12 we recommend. Beyond about 15, fewer guests finish.
* **One line per question** — its number, its type, its text, and quiet tags for what is set. Selecting a line opens its settings; one question is open at a time.
* **Add a question** — the last row of the list, wearing the number the next question would get. Choose how guests answer:
| Type | Guests answer with |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Stars** | One to five stars |
| **0–10 score** | A number from 0 to 10 — for a question such as *Would you recommend us?* |
| **Pick one** | One of the choices you write (two to eight) |
| **Written answer** | Their own words |
Inside an open question:
* **Guests answer with** — the type, changeable at any time.
* **About which department** — ties the question to one of your departments, so its answers reach that department on Results and on the alert.
* **Require an answer** — the guest cannot send without it.
* **Overall rating** — on a star question only. This question's stars become the guest's rating on your Guest Feedback list. A survey has exactly one, and it cannot be marked ready without one.
* **Recommendation question** — on a 0–10 question only. Mark the one question that asks whether guests would recommend you; its answers become your **Recommendation Score** on [Feedback Analytics](/front-desk/reviews/analytics). A survey has at most one. An unmarked 0–10 question feeds no score.
* **Ask for details at 3 stars or below** (*6 or below* on a 0–10 question) — a guest who scores this low is asked one extra question; **What we ask** holds its wording.
* **Offer "Did not use"** — offered as soon as you give the question a department. A guest who never went to the spa says so instead of scoring it low; such answers never enter an average, a total, or an alert.
* **Move up**, **Move down**, **Duplicate** (a copy lands right below, ready to reword), **Remove**.
On the right, **What your guest sees**: the survey drawn on a phone, from what you have typed, saved or not. The language picker above it shows the survey in each of your hotel's languages — the one reason to switch is to read, and correct, what a guest reads. In another language the editor becomes wording only: every question is a text field with the original as its placeholder, and a missing translation reads as missing rather than as the original pretending. A line under the phone says where translation stands; **Translate the missing languages** tries again.
The header carries one dark button for the moment you are in: **Save** while there are changes, **Save and mark as ready** or **Mark as ready** on a draft, **Choose guests** on a survey that is ready and saved. Behind **···**: **Archive this survey** and, on a draft that was never sent, **Delete this survey**.
***
## What you do here
One sentence, in the language you choose. She writes a first draft — the note above the questions says how many, and how many are about a department. **Start over** throws it away.
Nothing is saved until you select **Save**. Reword, retype, move, remove.
It is the one score every survey shares, and your reports are built on it. Without it the survey cannot be marked ready.
A department sends the answers to the right people. *Did not use* keeps a guest who never used the pool from scoring it.
Saving translates the survey into your hotel's other languages. Switch the preview language and correct any wording that reads wrong.
A ready survey can be given a moment on [Sending](/front-desk/reviews/surveys-sending), sent by hand with **Choose guests**, or named in a [broadcast](/front-desk/marketing/broadcasts).
**A survey that has been sent is archived, never deleted.** Its answers refer to it. Deleting is offered only on a draft that nobody has received. Archiving keeps every link already sent working, and an archived survey can be marked ready again.
**Editing a survey after guests have answered it.** The wording can change at any time. Results then says so beside the question — the answers were not all given to the same words — and the guest's record keeps the question as that guest saw it.
***
## What happens next
Saving translates the survey into every language your hotel speaks; the list shows which languages are ready. A language the survey is not complete in is not served to a guest at all — the guest reads it in another language until it is.
Once **Ready to send**, the survey can be chosen for *During the stay* or *After checkout* under [Guest Feedback settings](/front-desk/settings/reviews), printed as a room code, sent by hand from **Choose guests** to a guest staying with you now, or named on the rating button of a broadcast.
A guest opens one page in their own language, answers, and sends. The overall stars become their rating on the [Guest Feedback list](/front-desk/reviews/inbox), where opening the entry shows every answer question by question. Every answer lands on [Results](/front-desk/reviews/surveys-results). A low answer — the overall question, or any department question at or below your follow-up threshold — alerts the people named under [Alerts](/front-desk/settings/reviews), even under a five-star stay. Written answers are read a few minutes after they arrive; [how that reading works](/front-desk/reviews/surveys-written-answers) has its own page.