7 New Ways to Improve Your TripAdvisor Rating

In the year when we rarely go anywhere without our smartphones, online reviews are likely the first interaction a potential customer has with your restaurant.

In fact, rankings on review sites matter so much that 33% of customers won’t eat in restaurants with an online rating lower than 4 stars on TripAdvisor, Google, or Yelp.

As of 2022, TripAdvisor reached over 1 billion user reviews, which made it one of the most relevant review sites in the field.

Glowing reviews and high ratings are helping you build brand trust, but at the same time, customer feedback is crucial for improving your service and stepping up your restaurant management game.

Read on for tips on getting more TripAdvisor reviews and improving your restaurant's reputation online.

Do higher TripAdvisor ratings increase bookings?

The short answer is, yes. As the second most visited travel and tourism website in 2023, TripAdvisor holds great power in influencing customer behavior, and positive reviews on your TripAdvisor page increase the number of direct bookings.

If you make the process easy - enable the customers to make the booking straight through the TripAdvisor listing, the chances for conversion are even higher. 

For example, if your restaurant is registered as a TripAdvisor business in the UAE, visitors to the page can make reservations from the listing in just a few clicks.

Recently established Eat App partnership with TripAdvisor involves a button integration that instantly books a table for them.

What influences TripAdvisor rankings?

TripAdvisor has two different systems of ranking businesses - popularity index rank, and bubble rating.

Popularity index rank compares your restaurant with other restaurants on a local level and determines relative popularity on TripAdvisor over the course of one week. 

There are three different metrics that are being rated by the users and measured:

1. Quality - The overall quality score recent reviewers have decided to award you.
2. Quantity - The number of reviews you have received on TripAdvisor.
3. Recency - How recent is your content on TripAdvisor (your updates and user-generated content in reviews)?

The popularity index is frequently updated and shows how well you stand against local competition. The rank that measures your restaurant quality overall is the bubble rating.

Bubble rating takes into account all information gathered from customer ratings and reviews. It also includes demographic metrics such as the age of the travelers who submitted the review. 

The rating goes from 1 to 5, 1 being identified as “terrible”, while 5 is an “excellent” score. Furthermore, this overall rating can be broken down by the rating distribution, type of travel (e.g. family or business), etc.

7 ways to increase TripAdvisor reviews

Here are the seven easy ways to get more reviews on TripAdvisor, improve your restaurant reputation online, and ultimately increase revenue. 

#1 QR code link to leave a review 

Sometimes customers may give up on the idea of leaving reviews if it’s too much hassle for them. Once you make the review process as easy as possible, customers are likely to leave reviews after they finish dining.

Create a quick way for them to write reviews from a mobile device by enabling them to scan a QR code directly from the menu or the table. Eat App has a Guest Review feature that allows you to set it up in just 4 simple steps.

Step 1 - Sign up for a free account on Eat App

Step 2 - Choose “Review at Table” in the setup menu

Step 3 - Customize your QR with text

Step 4 - Download and print QR codes

>>> Want to know more? Request a demo today! 

#2 Train staff to ask for reviews 

Satisfied customers would likely be happy to leave a review if you kindly ask them to do so. Train your staff to ask for feedback and point the guests to submit a TripAdvisor review. 

If you have the QR codes printed out, waiters can suggest that guests quickly scan it and support your restaurant with honest online reviews.

#3 Send follow-up emails asking for reviews

Review request emails are an efficient way to reach recent guests and follow up on their experience. With a table management system like, Eat App, you can create personalized messages to automatically encourage reviews and invite your customers to make another booking.

Not only is this a way to get more TripAdvisor reviews, but it is also a fruitful marketing strategy to establish and maintain customer relationships.

#4 Use Wifi tools to link to TripAdvisor reviews

Offering your restaurant customers free guest WiFi is a great way to increase your TripAdvisor reviews.

This not only makes it easier for customers to leave a review and share their experience before they've even left your restaurant, but research has also found that up to 60% of diners would be more loyal to restaurants offering WiFi.

Getting customers to log in to the WiFi using their email or phone number is a great way of creating an easy follow-up email or text message campaign to ask for a review. 

Guest WiFi also lets you signpost guests to a review page or use a welcome message to ask your restaurant guests to leave a review at the end of their visit.

#5 Focus on creating great guest experiences

TripAdvisor reviews are reliable social proof when it comes to restaurants, as most travelers tend to reflect the actual guest experience when writing their contributions.

Thus, in order to receive good reviews, you need to invest in quality food, friendly service, pleasant atmosphere, and make customer satisfaction your top priority.

Negative reviews provide a lot of value to restaurant managers, and they should not be taken for granted. It’s the negative feedback from recent customers that signalizes which aspects of the guests' experience should be improved immediately.

#6 Respond to reviews

Timely responses to reviews are the core of good restaurant reputation management. When you reply to new reviews promptly it emphasizes how much you care about relationships with your guests.

Personalized replies to good reviews can result in more bookings by happy customers, while damage control is crucial when it comes to poor reviews. 

Not only will you affect the potential dissatisfaction of the previous guest, but every future reader will be able to note and appreciate your effort to make up for past mistakes.

Swiping various websites to find and manage customer reviews can be tiring and time-consuming. With a restaurant management tool such as Eat App, you can set alerts for new reviews across different platforms, making sure no comment is left unanswered.

#7 Optimize the content in your profile

If you want to be easy to find online by your customers, your site and profiles on restaurant review platforms should be up-to-date and optimized for the search engines.

This applies to your TripAdvisor page as well. Make sure that essential information such as location, menu, pricing, and working hours are accurate, and prevent potential complaints for unmet expectations.

Furthermore, make SEO efforts for your restaurant website and listing, to make it more accessible for potential guests who would search for you online.

Additionally, include a link to your TripAdvisor page on your site and encourage visitors to check you out and submit their own experiences.

Replying to negative reviews

While satisfied customers need a little reminder, agitated and disappointed customers are likely to drop a negative review. 

Unless the issue they are addressing is resolved by the management, they will probably never visit the restaurant again, plus their negative reviews can turn potential customers away.

Our experience shows that the customers are open to changing their reviews after you handle the situation and make up for the poor experience they had.

Here are tips on how to respond to negative reviews:

• Respond promptly: Customers appreciate a prompt response, so try to reply as soon as possible.
  
  
• Stay professional and courteous: Avoid lashing out or taking the review personally. Instead, respond in a calm and respectful manner.
  
  
• Acknowledge the issue: Thank the customer for bringing the situation to your attention and acknowledging their concerns.
  
  
• Apologize: Even if you don't agree with the review, apologize for any negative experience the customer had.
  
  
• Offer a solution: If possible, offer a solution to the problem or invite the customer to contact you to discuss the issue further.
  
  
• Be authentic: Use the customer's name in your response to show that you're not just copy-pasting a response.
  
  
• Keep it short and sweet: Avoid writing a long response, and keep your message concise and to the point.

Here's an example of a response template that you can use:

"Dear [NAME OF REVIEWER], thank you for sharing your feedback. We're sorry to hear that your experience didn't meet your expectations. We take all feedback seriously and will use it to improve our service. If you'd like to discuss the issue further, please feel free to contact us at [INSERT CONTACT INFORMATION]. Thank you again for your feedback."

How to maintain a high TripAdvisor ranking

We already mentioned how one solid TripAdvisor review doesn't make much of a difference when it comes to improving your TripAdvisor ranking.

To establish and maintain a good ranking, you need to receive quality TripAdvisor reviews continuously and make sure to avoid poor reviews.

There are a few ways to get in touch with your customers and maintain a high ranking.

One way to continue receiving customer reviews on a regular basis is by using TripAdvisor Review Express, a solution they present to businesses listed there.

Review Express is an automation tool that sends review requests via email. You can add private surveys to the emails and ask for deeper feedback.

Another way to connect with your guests is by email outreach and SMS messages sent via a reservation system like, Eat App.

The platform allows you to nurture a healthy relationship with restaurant visitors before and after their booking by personalizing the messages and ensuring customer loyalty.

Moreover, it is a good practice to link to your TripAdvisor listing from your webpage and install review widgets to feature great reviews your restaurant has received.

Amazing restaurants around the globe are awarded TripAdvisor stickers that present a guarantee of quality by a number of satisfied travelers.

Takeaways

In short, customers trust other customers. Apart from reading food blogs and following recommendations from social media influencers, foodies rely on restaurant review websites when choosing where to eat.

Even though personal recommendations remain the very best way to attract new guests, managing a positive brand image online is necessary for a restaurant business to thrive.

Gathering customer reviews on a regular basis, responding to those reviews, and ensuring a steady high ranking on TripAdvisor are the key elements of professional restaurant reputation management.

With Eat App, you can manage reservations, waitlists, reviews, and takeout services from a mobile app, making sure every aspect of your business runs smoothly at all times. 

Sign up for Eat App and discover the next era of restaurant management.