How to Respond to a Google Review With No Comment

Since 2010, the average length of online reviews has dropped from 600 characters to merely over 200. Various reasons may explain why people are hesitant to provide an extensive review, such as their experience, a desire for privacy, or a lack of time.Despite this, Google Reviews, even those with no comment, remain an essential element in a hotel's online presence, which may influence prospective guests whether positively or negatively.

In this article, you will learn how to maximize the value of every review, even without comments. By doing so, you can turn any review, no matter how brief, into a useful tool to improve your online presence.

Why respond to every Google review?

Google has become the top online review website, with a search-and-book process determining almost 72% of the hotel booking these days. Because of this, boosting your Google visibility has been the topmost priority of major hotels – going as far as responding to ratings without comments.

Aside from this, it's no secret that Google indexes online assets through relevant keywords and content. While rating-only reviews are still shown to online users, they don't help boost your website's online searchability as they lack the content needed. However, your responses to those reviews with no comments are a great way to add relevant keywords to your Google profile.

In hindsight, replying to rating-only reviews demonstrates a profound level of appreciation and gratitude to customers. This degree of customer service is particularly crucial for the hotel and hospitality sector.

Does a Google review with no comment damage your online reputation?

There's no definite way to measure how Google Reviews with comments affect your hotel's online reputation. Unlike a negative review that can significantly impact potential bookings, rating-only reviews primarily influence your overall rating positively or negatively. A low rating with no comment can quickly be shunned by guests, while an influx of high ratings with any content can also be suspicious to readers.

Either way, you can turn the uncertainty of your potential guests around by responding to each Google Review, even those without comment. This way, they would know that actual people attend to their guests' concerns, even after their stay.

How to respond to a Google review with no comment?

Responding to Google Reviews with no comment is quite similar to how you should respond to reviews with content. You should still reply quickly, remain respectful, and keep up with your brand's name.

However, there are some unique factors that you should know about.

Acknowledge the areas mentioned in the review

Google allows guests to rate a specific hotel unit, such as your restaurant, customer service, and facilities. This will make responding easier, as you will know which area of your business has been addressed in the review. This is especially important for a 1-rating review with no comment, as it would allow you to address the specific issues implied in the review.

Don't use a generic template

Never use a generic template in responding to online reviews, even for those with no comments. A lot of positive ratings without supporting content could appear sketchy to some customers – it would become even more suspicious if matched with a repetitive response template. This may adversely affect your online reputation, deterring potential guests.

Personalize if possible

Despite not having content, a rating-only review would still have a name, or a username posted. Use it to personalize your response. This will give off an impression of politeness in your reply.

Ask for additional feedback

At times, customers may leave a low rating for faulty services. When this happens, it's best to ask them for additional feedback to know which areas of your services need improvement.

Use relevant keywords

Responding to rating-only reviews can also be used to SEO optimize your Google presence. Using category and location-based keywords in your replies can help you being found in relevant searches.

Using an AI Review Assistant for Google reviews with no text

Review reply generators have made writing engaging and well-crafted responses to reviews with and without comments a breeze. This way, you can save time without missing the opportunity to boost your online presence.

1. Set the rating

First, set the guest’s rating in your AI review reply generator.

2. Add subratings

As mentioned earlier, many review sites like Google allow guests to review specific areas of your hotel. Set the subratings to give the tool more context - this way the generated response will be more individual.

3. Ask for additional feedback

For low-rating reviews with no subratings, you can choose to ask your guests to provide additional feedback by emailing, calling your phone line, or messaging your social media accounts. When choosing this option, the system will ask the reviewer to provide additional feedback via the selected feedback channel. As feedback channel, a type (e.g., email or phone) and the associated contact information (e.g., email address or phone number) should be provided.

4. Choose the language

For local hotels, it is advised to translate the response into the customer's local language. This not only facilitates natural connection with the guests, but also optimizes local searchability.

Response to a 5-star Google review with no comment

Here are some of the best examples of responses to a 5-Star Google Review with no comment.

5-star rating

In this example, the response employed hotel SEO keywords like "exceptional service and facilities". This ensures Google can index these words should people search for "hotel in Germany with exceptional service" or "hotel in Germany with outstanding amenities". Additionally, the response length expresses appreciation and gratitude despite receiving a rating-only review.

5-star rating with subratings

The response pick up the positive subratings mentioned in the Google Review and added the phrases "excellent experience" and "exceed expectations." These phrases are considered "emotional copywriting words" , which is said to sway people's views towards a company. Reading this response would make people want to experience the "excellent experience" the reviewer had despite the lack of comment.

Response to a 1-star Google review with no comment

Here are some of the best examples of responses to a 5-Star Google Review with No Comment.

1-star Google rating

The response written by the AI reply assistant remained respectful despite the lack of constructive comments from the guest. Notice how the response also ended with a positive tone about improving their services in the future through the negative review they received.

1-star Google rating with subratings

The response expressed gratitude for the honest review, while also highlighting the hotel's commitment to reviewing operational protocols to ensure guests receive quality service.

The easy and fast way to respond to Google reviews with no comment

Only 75% of companies respond diligently to their online reviews, which only accounts for the reviews with actual content. The figures would shoot up if we also consider reviews without comments.

The most prevalent reason hotels fail to attend each online review is time. It’s already hard to craft an engaging response – what more if you have to do it from scratch?

MARA Review Reply Assistant allows hoteliers and managers to respond to online reviews easily and quickly, even with no comments. Just set the rating given by the reviewer (and subcategories if available), and the AI reply generator will automatically write various responses. This way, you can boost your online presence and Google searchability even through rating-only reviews.

Register for FREE to try MARA’s Rating Reply Generator to respond to each Google Review in the easiest and fastest way possible.