How to reply to hotel reviews

What changes when a hotel replies

Replying to reviews is the most visible part of a hotel's online reputation: the guest who wrote reads it, and so does everyone who comes after. These are the studies with hotel data and the latest consumer survey:

What we at Polargate take from these studies: replying to negative reviews helps, a specific reply counts for more than a generic one, and if guests write because they believe the hotel is listening, replying without fixing anything uses up that trust. What improves reviews most is still fixing what causes the complaints.

How to reply to a negative review

1. Read the whole review and pull the complaints apart. A 6 out of 10 usually mixes two or three things: the hot water, the pillows, the location. Every serious complaint deserves its own sentence.
2. Find out what happened before you write. Ask the front desk, maintenance or the night shift. Do not reply in the heat of the moment, and do not state anything you have not checked.
3. Open with something specific the guest mentioned, not a stock thank-you. If they praised something, name it in one sentence and move on to the complaint.
4. Own what went wrong, with no excuses and no arguing. If something was out of your hands (roadworks, the weather), explain it calmly and say what you do about it. Never call a guest a liar in public.
5. Say what you have changed, only if it is done, and when. "We had the water heater checked on 3 October" is convincing; "we have taken note" says nothing. If it is not done yet, only promise what you will deliver.
6. Leave out what should not be public. No full guest name, room number or stay dates. No gifts, services or money: TripAdvisor removes replies that offer them. Our advice is to leave out discounts and invitations to book direct as well.
7. Offer to continue in private if needed (a contact email, not a personal phone number) and sign with your name and role. A person's name carries more weight than "The Management".
8. Fix the cause. If the same complaint keeps coming back, a reply is not enough. The guide on what to fix first according to your reviews explains how to decide where to start.

Some reviews need a different reply. If one mentions food poisoning, an allergy, an injury, theft, harassment or a threat ("refund me or I post a review"), do not post a long reply: a short acknowledgement, with no admission of fault and no details, inviting the guest to talk in private. The rest is for management to decide, sometimes with their insurer or lawyer. If you think a review is fake, ask the platform to review it instead of arguing in your reply.

A generic reply next to a specific one

Illustrative example. A Booking.com review scored 6 out of 10, and two possible replies.

The second one works because it answers both complaints, says what was done and when, promises nothing that does not exist and is signed by a person. The generic one would fit any review of any hotel, and that is exactly what guests notice.

How to reply to positive reviews

Positive reviews deserve a reply too, just a short one: a sincere thank-you in one or two sentences and, if the guest names someone on the team, pass the thanks on. Do not use the reply to sell: Google asks you not to offer deals or promotions, and in the Wang and Chaudhry study replying to positive reviews goes with slightly lower ratings afterwards, more so the more tailored the reply. So it is best not to repeat the praise point by point or turn it into an advert for the hotel.

Google also suggests not sending the same "thank you" to everyone and replying mainly where you can add something. If you cannot get to every review, go in this order: recent negative reviews first, then reviews that ask a question, then positive reviews with text.

The rules on Google, TripAdvisor and Booking.com

Each platform has its own rules for hotel replies. This is what each one says in its official help pages as of 23 October 2026:

For how much each review weighs in each platform's score, see the guides on the Booking.com review score and ratings on Google and TripAdvisor.

AI tools to reply to hotel reviews

Nearly every hotel review management tool now drafts replies with AI. This table shows what each tool says about replies on its official website as of 23 October 2026. Prices are shown as each tool publishes them; PolarPuffin's exclude VAT, and the others do not say on their pages whether tax is included. The other tools list their prices in euros; PolarPuffin's are in US dollars, with the same figures as in euros.

AI tools to reply to hotel reviews: who each one is for, its published price and what it does with replies, according to its official website as of 23 October 2026

Tool	Who it is for	Published price	What it does
PolarPuffinpricing	Independent hotels and groups of up to 10 hotels that want to know what to fix first.	$79 (Hotel) and $149 (Hotel Pro) per hotel a month, excluding VAT, no minimum term; billed yearly, $63 (Hotel) and $119 (Hotel Pro) a month. 30-day trial, no card.	Reads Google, TripAdvisor and Booking reviews and suggests up to five small, cheap changes every week, each with an owner, a cost and the reviews behind it. Checks at 4 and 8 weeks whether they worked. Hotel Pro adds draft replies the hotel can post to Google from the app, and a comparison with 3 competing hotels.
TrustYou CXPsource, 23 October 2026	Hotels and groups that want reviews, surveys and competitor benchmarking in one dashboard.	From €75 (Lite), €130 (Essential) and €180 (Professional) per property a month, billed annually. It also lists the same figures in US dollars.	AI replies (Response AI) come with Professional, with no limit. Lite and Essential do not include them on its pricing page.
MARAsource, 23 October 2026	Lite for a single independent hotel of up to 50 rooms; Core for hotels and small groups that want to connect it to their systems; Intelligence for hotel groups and portfolios.	Per property a month, paying yearly or monthly: Lite €70 or €100, Core €130 or €160 and Intelligence €210 or €290. Includes 150 (Lite) or 500 AI replies a month and charges €0.30 for each extra reply. Two-week trial, no card.	One-click replies to Google, Booking.com, Expedia and TripAdvisor in the brand's voice. It can prepare drafts every morning and post replies on its own for reviews that match its rules, such as 4 or 5-star Google reviews with no text.
GuestRevusource, 23 October 2026	From guesthouses and B&Bs (Core) to boutique, luxury and resort hotels (Pro+), and groups (Group+).	Lite is free. Core €34.99 per property a month. Pro+ from €93 to €348 a month depending on size and rooms. Group+ is custom. No long-term contracts: cancel any time, and paying a year upfront gives two months free.	AI replies are included on Pro+; it also sells them as a paid add-on (without publishing the price or which plans can add it). Core includes email alerts and one-click responses.
Customer Alliancesource, 23 October 2026	Independent hotels, hotel groups and chains, and hotel management companies, according to its solutions pages.	Core €108, Growth €217 and Pro €257 a month for one unit, plus €29, €78 or €98 a month for each extra unit (a restaurant or spa measured on its own counts as a unit). 12-month minimum contract.	AI replies from Core to answer reviews from the main platforms.

A general AI assistant such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini will also draft a reply if you paste in the review. The catch is that it does not know what happened at your hotel: whether the water heater has been fixed, your opening hours or who signs, and it may make those up. It is fine for a first draft, as long as you check every fact.

Before choosing a tool to reply to reviews, check:

• That nothing is posted without a person checking it, or that you decide what it can post on its own.
• That it does not make up facts. A reply promising a service the hotel does not have is worse than no reply.
• That it writes in the guest's language and follows each platform's rules, such as not quoting the review on TripAdvisor.
• That it does not sound like a template: each reply should mention something from its review.
• How many replies the plan includes and where it posts them: one click on the platform, or copy and paste.

The review management software page compares these tools on everything else, and the alternatives pages compare each one with PolarPuffin.

Where PolarPuffin fits

PolarPuffin is not a reply inbox: it is a weekly report that tells a hotel what to fix first based on its Google, TripAdvisor and Booking.com reviews, then checks whether it worked. Replies come out of that same work:

• With Hotel Pro, PolarPuffin writes a draft reply for every review, in the guest's language.
• Drafts only state what the hotel has confirmed. When the hotel marks a change as done, the reply can say what was changed; anything still to be confirmed is flagged so it gets filled in before posting.
• The hotel checks every draft and posts it. On Google, with the listing connected, it is posted from PolarPuffin; on TripAdvisor and Booking.com, you copy it and the platform opens.
• It emails you about negative reviews with no reply. Sensitive reviews (health, safety, threats) do not get a standard reply: they are flagged "for a person", with a short acknowledgement draft.

Hotel Pro costs $149 a month per hotel, excluding VAT, with no minimum term, and you can try it free for 30 days with no card. The Hotel plan ($79) includes the changes and alerts, without draft replies. Details are on the pricing and how it works pages.

PolarPuffin does not reply on Expedia or other platforms, and it does not send surveys. If what you need is to reply to a high volume of reviews across many platforms with automatic rules, another tool in the table is a better fit.