How to reply to guest reviews on Booking.com
Booking.com lets a property reply to each written guest review, and the reply is shown under the review for every traveller who reads it. You reply from the extranet on a computer or the Pulse app on a phone, within Booking.com's rules for what a reply may say, and Booking.com checks each reply before it appears. A good reply is short, names what the guest said, and says what you did about it.
Also called: Booking.com review response, Booking.com extranet, guest review management, online reputation management.
A OneHorizyn guide. Updated .
Where to reply
- 1Log in to the Booking.com extranet.
- 2Open Guest reviews, then Guest reviews again.
- 3Find the review and click Reply under it.
- 4Write your reply and click Send.
You can reply from the Pulse app on a phone as well, but a reply can be changed or taken down only in the extranet, under “View your approved response”.
Booking.com's rules for replies
- Booking.com checks every reply before it is published, which can take up to 72 hours.
- Write in the review's own language or in English, or the reply won't be published.
- You can reply only to reviews with a title or a comment, not to a score on its own.
- No adverts or self-promotion, no contact details given to sell something, and no personal details such as card or ID numbers and addresses: replies follow the same content rules as reviews.
- Never offer a guest anything for a review, or post one for them.
Which reviews to answer first
- Low scores with a comment, newest first. Since January 2025 Booking.com weights your score by how recent each review is, so the newest are the ones that count most.
- Anything about safety, hygiene, health, theft or harassment, the same day.
- Then the rest, good ones included. A thank-you takes a minute and shows somebody reads them.
The share of 23,292 Tripadvisor users in 12 countries, India among them, who told Ipsos MORI in 2019 that they were more likely to book when the owner gives personal replies to reviews.
What a good reply says
Booking.com's own advice is to make a reply personal, polite, short, true and specific, and for a low score to say you understand what happened and what you are doing about it.
Thank you, Rohan, for telling us about your stay. You are right that the room wasn't ready when you arrived at three, and that waiting an hour after a long journey spoiled the start of your weekend. We have since moved our housekeeping rota so that rooms are ready by two. We would be glad to welcome you back. Meera, Front Office Manager.
How your review score works
Only guests who booked through Booking.com can review you, and Booking.com may accept a review only within three months of check-out. It may stop showing a review once it is 36 months old, or after the property changes hands. Since January 2025 your overall score counts newer reviews more, and a good score also helps you qualify for Genius and the Preferred Partner Programme.
The stars hotels gained in their ratings, and 12% more reviews, after they began replying to reviews, in a study of hotel reviews published in Marketing Science in 2017.
Sources
- Tripadvisor: research by Ipsos MORI, 12 December 2019, read
- Proserpio and Zervas, Online Reputation Management, Marketing Science, 2017, read
- Booking.com Partner Hub: responding to guest reviews, read
- Booking.com: content guidelines, read
- Booking.com: guidelines and standards for reviews, read
- Booking.com Partner Hub: improving your review score, read
- Booking.com: How we work, read
