Most owners write one reply and paste it into whichever platform the review came from. That works until a reply is rejected, sits in moderation for three days, or quietly breaks a rule the owner never knew existed. Each platform checks replies before they go live, and each checks for different things.
Here is what Booking.com, Google and Tripadvisor say about owner replies, in their own help pages, as of November 2026.
Booking.com
- Language. You can reply in the language of the review or in English. Replies in any other language are not published. A German review answered in Greek will simply never appear.
- What you can reply to. Only reviews that have a title or a written comment. A bare score has nothing to answer.
- Moderation. Every reply is checked by Booking.com before it is published, and this can take up to 72 hours. An edit goes through the same check again.
- Editing. You can reply from the Extranet or the Pulse app, but you can only edit or remove a reply in the Extranet.
- Why it matters more since 2025. Booking.com weights the overall Guest Review Score by recency, so the most recent reviews have the biggest effect on your score. The reviews from this month are the ones guests read first and the ones that move the number.
In practice: reply in the guest’s language when you can write it well, in English when you can’t. Never reply in your own language to a foreign guest.
- You need a verified Business Profile before you can reply.
- Moderation. Google checks replies against its content policies. It says most replies are reviewed within about ten minutes, but a check can take up to 30 days. If a reply is not approved, you are asked to edit it.
- How it appears. The reply is published as the business, not under your personal name.
- The guest is notified when you reply, and can still change their review afterwards. Guests do sometimes raise a score after a calm, specific answer.
- Editing. You can edit or delete your reply at any time from your Business Profile.
In practice: Google is the platform where AI assistants and Google’s own AI features read your reviews and your replies most directly. A reply that adds a fact (“the pool is heated from April”) is read by more than the guest who wrote the review.
Tripadvisor
Tripadvisor publishes the most detailed guidelines for owner replies, and enforces them. Its Management Response guidelines ask for responses that are:
- Original. No quoting the guest’s emails, other correspondence, or snippets of other reviews.
- Non-commercial. No promotion of any kind. Offers of gifts, services or money are removed. Links are not allowed unless they are relevant to the review.
- Respectful of privacy. Do not identify the reviewer or other guests with details the review did not already include, and do not name staff. Refer to the role (“our night receptionist”) instead.
- Easy to read. Ordinary sentences, no formatting tricks, no capitals for emphasis. Machine-translated replies that are unreadable are not accepted.
Other points from Tripadvisor’s owner help:
- One response per review. Coordinate if more than one person answers for the hotel.
- No character limit, but Tripadvisor itself advises keeping it short.
- Moderation usually takes up to two days, longer if the reply needs a closer look.
- Your display name and role appear under the reply, so choose them once and keep them.
In practice: the most common rejection is an owner answering a complaint with “we offered you a free night”, which counts as an incentive, or naming the employee involved.
One reply, three versions
The same complaint needs a slightly different answer on each platform:
| Booking.com | Tripadvisor | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Review language or English | Any | Any, readable |
| Typical wait | Up to 72 hours | Minutes, up to 30 days | Up to 2 days |
| Edit later | Extranet only | Yes | Treat as final |
| Offer compensation in reply | Avoid | Avoid | Not allowed |
| Name staff | Avoid | Avoid | Not allowed |
What a good reply does on every platform
- Thank the guest for something specific they wrote, not for “taking the time”.
- Answer the complaint with a fact: what happened, what changed, from when.
- Do not argue the guest’s experience. You can correct a fact; you cannot correct a feeling.
- Write for the next guest. Most people who read your reply are deciding whether to book, not the person who complained.
- Stop there. Three to five sentences is usually enough.
Hotelhand drafts each reply in the hotel’s voice and to each platform’s rules, and nothing is posted until the owner approves it. The rules above are built into every draft.
Sources
- Booking.com for Partners: Responding to guest reviews
- Google Business Profile Help: Manage customer reviews
- Tripadvisor Trust & Safety: Management Responses posting guidelines
- Tripadvisor: How to add management responses
All pages read on 4 November 2026. Platforms change their rules; check the page before you rely on a detail.
