Replying to reviews
Replying to reviews is advice everyone gives and few measure. There is one well-identified study on it, and its finding is more interesting than the advice: replying does raise ratings, but not for the reason usually claimed.
Where these numbers come from
Davide Proserpio and Georgios Zervas, Online Reputation Management: Estimating the Impact of Management Responses on Consumer Reviews (Marketing Science, 2017) — 5,356 TripAdvisor and 3,845 Expedia hotels in Texas, United States. Published 1 September 2017. Checked against the original on 10 November 2026.
BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 — 1,002 US adults, United States. Published 11 February 2026. Checked against the original on 10 November 2026.
Every figure on this page was read from the study itself, not from another article quoting it. Nothing is rounded or reworded.
Measured on hotels, comparing a platform where businesses reply against one where they rarely do.
Hotels that started responding to reviews saw their rating rise by 0.12 stars and their review volume increase by 12%.
Davide Proserpio and Georgios Zervas, Online Reputation Management: Estimating the Impact of Management Responses on Consumer Reviews (Marketing Science, 2017) — 5,356 TripAdvisor and 3,845 Expedia hotels in Texas, United States. Published 1 September 2017. Checked against the original on 10 November 2026.
Hotels that started responding to reviews saw their rating rise by 0.12 stars and their review volume increase by 12%. Source: Davide Proserpio and Georgios Zervas, Online Reputation Management: Estimating the Impact of Management Responses on Consumer Reviews (Marketing Science, 2017) (5,356 TripAdvisor and 3,845 Expedia hotels in Texas, United States, 1 September 2017). Via Climbo: https://www.climbo.com/statistics/review-response-statistics#stat-pz-rating
About one third of the hotels studied increased their rounded rating by half a star or more within six months of their first management response.
Davide Proserpio and Georgios Zervas, Online Reputation Management: Estimating the Impact of Management Responses on Consumer Reviews (Marketing Science, 2017) — 5,356 TripAdvisor and 3,845 Expedia hotels in Texas, United States. Published 1 September 2017. Checked against the original on 10 November 2026.
About one third of the hotels studied increased their rounded rating by half a star or more within six months of their first management response. Source: Davide Proserpio and Georgios Zervas, Online Reputation Management: Estimating the Impact of Management Responses on Consumer Reviews (Marketing Science, 2017) (5,356 TripAdvisor and 3,845 Expedia hotels in Texas, United States, 1 September 2017). Via Climbo: https://www.climbo.com/statistics/review-response-statistics#stat-pz-halfstar
This is the part that gets dropped when the study is quoted. The gain does not come from better service.
The rating increase did not come from better service: it came from unhappy customers becoming less likely to leave short, indefensible reviews when the business is known to scrutinise them.
Davide Proserpio and Georgios Zervas, Online Reputation Management: Estimating the Impact of Management Responses on Consumer Reviews (Marketing Science, 2017) — 5,356 TripAdvisor and 3,845 Expedia hotels in Texas, United States. Published 1 September 2017. Checked against the original on 10 November 2026.
The rating increase did not come from better service: it came from unhappy customers becoming less likely to leave short, indefensible reviews when the business is known to scrutinise them. Source: Davide Proserpio and Georgios Zervas, Online Reputation Management: Estimating the Impact of Management Responses on Consumer Reviews (Marketing Science, 2017) (5,356 TripAdvisor and 3,845 Expedia hotels in Texas, United States, 1 September 2017). Via Climbo: https://www.climbo.com/statistics/review-response-statistics#stat-pz-why
Negative reviews became rarer but longer and more detailed once hotels started replying.
Davide Proserpio and Georgios Zervas, Online Reputation Management: Estimating the Impact of Management Responses on Consumer Reviews (Marketing Science, 2017) — 5,356 TripAdvisor and 3,845 Expedia hotels in Texas, United States. Published 1 September 2017. Checked against the original on 10 November 2026.
Negative reviews became rarer but longer and more detailed once hotels started replying. Source: Davide Proserpio and Georgios Zervas, Online Reputation Management: Estimating the Impact of Management Responses on Consumer Reviews (Marketing Science, 2017) (5,356 TripAdvisor and 3,845 Expedia hotels in Texas, United States, 1 September 2017). Via Climbo: https://www.climbo.com/statistics/review-response-statistics#stat-pz-tradeoff
Replying is expected; a reply that reads like a template counts against the business.
89% of consumers expect business owners to respond to reviews.
BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 — 1,002 US adults, United States. Published 11 February 2026. Checked against the original on 10 November 2026.
89% of consumers expect business owners to respond to reviews. Source: BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (1,002 US adults, United States, 11 February 2026). Via Climbo: https://www.climbo.com/statistics/review-response-statistics#stat-expect-reply
50% of consumers are put off by templated review replies.
BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 — 1,002 US adults, United States. Published 11 February 2026. Checked against the original on 10 November 2026.
50% of consumers are put off by templated review replies. Source: BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (1,002 US adults, United States, 11 February 2026). Via Climbo: https://www.climbo.com/statistics/review-response-statistics#stat-templated-reply
Each figure lives on one page only. These cover the neighbouring questions.
Reviews and revenuewhat a higher rating is worth once it moves Fake reviewswhat you may and may not do to get a negative review removedYes, modestly and measurably. Hotels that started responding saw their rating rise by 0.12 stars and their review volume increase by 12%, according to Proserpio and Zervas, published in Marketing Science in 2017, comparing 5,356 TripAdvisor hotels against 3,845 Expedia hotels in Texas.
Not because service improves. The authors found the gain comes from unhappy customers becoming less likely to leave short, indefensible reviews once the business is known to scrutinise them. Negative reviews became rarer but longer and more detailed.
About one third of the hotels studied increased their rounded rating by half a star or more within six months of their first management response. Source: Proserpio and Zervas, Marketing Science, 2017.
89% of consumers expect business owners to respond to reviews, but 50% are put off by templated replies, according to BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 of 1,002 US adults.
The study measured hotels in Texas on TripAdvisor and Expedia. The mechanism it describes is not specific to hotels, but the exact effect size should not be assumed to transfer to other sectors.
First published 10 November 2026. Every source on this page was last reopened and its figures confirmed on 10 November 2026. That date moves when a source is checked again, not when the page is rebuilt, and a figure is replaced only if the publishing organisation has changed it.
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