What are Booking.com reviews?

Booking.com reviews are either referring to reviews of the platform itself or the reviews your property receives from guests using the platform to book a stay with you. Users, or guests, leave comments online detailing their experience and what they thought of the service. These can be positive or negative.

If travellers have a bad experience using the platform, that’s one thing. If they have a bad experience with your accommodation and leave a review on Booking.com saying so, that can have big impacts on your business.

This blog will tell you everything you need to know about Booking.com reviews, focusing on how you can boost the amount of positive reviews for your property.

Does Booking.com have good reviews?

While Booking.com is one of the biggest online travel agencies in the world, its reviews can be very mixed at times.

The platform is generally very well regarded in terms of:

  • Ease of use when searching and viewing travel options
  • Simplicity when comparing rates and features
  • Good support for multiple languages and currencies

But the reviews are not always good, with users citing negatives such as:

  • Bad customer service experiences
  • Credit card and payment issues
  • Cancellation problems

However, with millions of travellers booking hotels via the site every year, these reviews won’t impact your property’s success on the site or the longevity of the platform.

Are Booking.com reviews real?

Booking.com tries to guarantee real reviews on its site, but there is always risk of fake or manipulated reviews popping up.

The platform has security and fraud departments, so any suspicious activity on either the hotel or guest side is investigated fairly quickly.

If you think a review for your property may not be real, contact Booking.com directly to help you resolve the issue.

Image showing example of Booking.com review
Here’s what a Booking.com review could look like for your property

Why are reviews on Booking.com important for your property?

Reviews on Booking.com are a big part of the way your hotel or B&B can win bookings on the site. Just like reviews on Airbnb, your own website, or on social media, guest feedback lets other travellers know whether it’s a good idea to book with you or not.

Potential guests will read the reviews for your property to find out if previous guests had a positive or negative experience. This can be in regards to a whole range of factors, such as your:

  • Customer service
  • Check-in/check-out processes
  • Payment and cancellation policies
  • Amenities
  • Food and beverage
  • Room quality
  • Accuracy of your descriptions 

Regardless of whether the customer is right or wrong in your view, their review matters. If negative Booking.com reviews start to build up, guests will steer away from you to book other properties. This leads to lost revenue and a downturn in the overall performance and reputation of your business.

With 28 million accommodation listings on the site, Booking.com is the most visited travel and tourism website in the world. Any edge you can get is crucial for getting more bookings. So it’s very important to try your best to get positive reviews, minimise bad reviews, and resolve any negative feedback that you do receive peacefully.

What are the benefits of responding to Booking.com hotel reviews?

Responding to Booking.com hotel reviews is not just about maximising positive comments and limiting negative comments. It also offers a valuable feedback loop, allowing you to learn and improve your business further.

By reading and responding to reviews for your hotel on Booking.com you’ll learn:

  • What guests love about your property
  • What aspects of your property could be improved
  • The difference between valid feedback and fake or irrelevant comments
  • How travellers perceive your staff and service
  • The ways that you compare or contrast with your competitors

All of this information gives you a chance to take actions that create a stronger brand, build better relationships with guests, and ultimately win your more bookings.

Booking.com reviews complaints: What upsets guests?

Generally, the things guests complain about when staying at a hotel are the same across the board, no matter what platform they have booked on. So on your Booking.com reviews you might encounter complaints about:

  • Poor housekeeping / unclean rooms
  • Uncomfortable beds or pillows
  • Disturbances from other guests
  • Negative interactions with staff
  • Slow or unsatisfactory service
  • A lack of communication
  • Not enough toiletries or sub-par amenities

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list, but it’s a good indication of the complaints you are likely to see from guests who book you via Booking.com.

Many of these complaints will be perfectly valid and require you to reach a resolution and/or make adjustments at your property. Others might simply be a misunderstanding. There’s also the rare occurrences where a guest will make a complaint that is totally irrelevant to you, such as complaining about the weather or traffic. In these instances, you should try to get them to change or remove their review.

How often should you manage your Booking.com host reviews?

While it might seem tempting to respond to all your host reviews on Booking.com, all the time, it’s not strictly necessary.

Responding to every review is going to be time consuming and your responses could come off as quick and generic. You don’t want to be viewed as a host that isn’t genuine.

You’re better off responding to all of your negative or mixed reviews, since resolving these will have the biggest impact on your overall rating and reputation.

Otherwise, you can aim to respond to 40-50% of your reviews – especially ones that give you glowing feedback. You might be able to turn these into guaranteed return stays.

How to respond to Booking.com customer reviews

There’s certainly right and wrong ways to respond to Booking.com customer reviews. Being rash or too impulsive can make things worse for your business. By the same token, being too slow to respond can also have harmful consequences.

We have full guides on how to respond to positive and negative reviews, including examples, but we’ll give you some key pointers below.

Managing positive Booking.com customer service reviews

When you are responding to a positive customer service review, make sure the whole team shares the glory by using ‘we’ in your comment.

Other things to keep in mind include:

  • Personalising your comment with the guests name
  • Thanking the guest and wishing them the best
  • Emphasise what they enjoyed and invite them back for another stay

Remember that when you respond to a review, potential guests will also read your comments as well that of the reviewer. So it’s a chance to further ‘sell’ your hotel.

Managing negative Booking.com feedback

The number one rule when responding to negative feedback is to remain calm and definitely don’t engage in insults or arguments with the guest. This is a bad look for other traveller reading your comments who might want to stay with you.

Here are some other tips to follow:

  • Always be genuine (don’t copy and paste)
  • Be fair and take responsibility if you need to
  • Always address the issue that has been brought up and thank the reviewer for their feedback

How to integrate reviews from other sites on Booking.com 

If you want to consolidate the reviews for your property, there are a few ways to do this.

On one hand, you can include your Booking.com reviews and scores on your own website via widgets. You can do the same thing for other external sites. This will help you secure direct bookings on your website, as people can get all the information they need right then and there.

You can also get review scores on your Booking.com listing from other travel sites, such as Airbnb. If you are new to Booking.com and don’t have reviews yet, Booking.com will automatically give you a review score based on what guests say about you on other sites. Booking.com will only use sites that it trusts and that have similar standards.

By Dean Elphick

Dean is the Senior Content Marketing Specialist of Little Hotelier, the all-in-one software solution purpose-built to make the lives of small accommodation providers easier. Dean has made writing and creating content his passion for the entirety of his professional life, which includes more than six years at Little Hotelier. Through content, Dean aims to provide education, inspiration, assistance, and, ultimately, value for small accommodation businesses looking to improve the way they run their operations (and live their life).