How to Respond to Guest Reviews: Hotels, B&Bs & Guesthouses
For a small hotel, B&B or guesthouse, review responses do a job the big chains can't match: they show a real person behind the property. Travellers scrolling Google or booking sites read them as a preview of how you'd treat them.
These templates cover the classics. (If your listing is on Airbnb, the tone shifts more personal still - see our Airbnb review response templates.)
What guests are really asking
Nearly every negative hotel review boils down to one question: "if something goes wrong during my stay, will they sort it?" Your response is the answer. Specifics beat apologies: what happened, what you did, what's changed.
Templates
Review: "Room was lovely but we were woken at 6am both mornings by the bins being collected right under our window."
Response: "Sorry the bins ruined two lie-ins - that's a miserable way to start a holiday morning. We've moved the collection point away from the guest rooms and we now flag the quieter garden-side rooms to anyone booking a longer stay. Wish we'd done both sooner."
Review: "Dusty skirting boards and a hair in the bathroom sink. For £120 a night I expected spotless."
Response: "You should have got spotless, and I'm sorry you didn't. We've gone through the checkout clean checklist with the housekeeping team this week and added a second check on bathrooms. If your travels bring you back this way, I'd like the chance to show you the standard we're known for."
Review: "Gorgeous old building and the hosts couldn't be friendlier, but the bathrooms are showing their age."
Response: "Thank you - the building's 200 years old and we love it, creaks and all. You're right about the bathrooms though: two are being refurbished this winter, with the rest to follow. The friendliness, happily, needs no renovation."
Review: "That breakfast! Homemade bread, local sausages, and the hosts remembered how we took our coffee by day two. Perfect stay."
Response: "This made our morning. The bread gets baked at 6am, so it's lovely to know it's worth the early alarm. And remembering the coffee order is Rob's party trick. Come back soon - the sausages aren't going anywhere."
Tips for hospitality responses
- Sign off as a person ("Anna & Rob") rather than "The Management" - it's your biggest advantage over the chains.
- Mention the fix's timeline. "Being refurbished this winter" is credible; "we'll look into it" is wallpaper.
- Reference the season or occasion where the guest mentioned it - anniversary trips and holiday stays deserve more than boilerplate.
- Keep one eye on the next guest. Every response is read by a hundred people deciding whether to book.
Frequently asked questions
Should hotels respond to every guest review?
Every review with written feedback, yes. Travellers read a property's responses as a preview of how it treats guests when something goes wrong - which is exactly what they're trying to judge before booking.
How do I respond to a review that compares us unfavourably to a chain hotel?
Lean into what you are rather than apologising for what you're not. Acknowledge the specific gap if it's fair (no lift, no 24-hour desk), and warmly restate what guests choose you for. Confidence reads far better than defensiveness.
What if the complaint was outside our control, like weather or roadworks?
Acknowledge the frustration without taking blame, and highlight anything you did (or now do) to soften it - late checkout offered, earplugs in rooms, a heads-up email about the roadworks. Reasonable readers can tell the difference.
Responses as warm as your welcome
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