Booking.com strives to present reliable and trustworthy reviews to help you make informed decisions about your travel plans. We understand the importance of genuine feedback and work hard to ensure that the reviews you see are as accurate and useful as possible.
Understanding Review Scores
We calculate overall review scores for accommodations by averaging all the individual reviews received. Each review is rated on a scale of 1 to 10, and the average score reflects the general sentiment about the property.
We’re also piloting a weighted review system in several regions, including Malta, Iceland, Australia, Greece, Brazil, and North Carolina. This system gives more weight to recent reviews, as they provide the most up-to-date insights.
In addition to the overall score, guests can provide subscores in crucial areas like location, cleanliness, staff, comfort, facilities, value for money, and free Wi-Fi. It’s important to note that guests submit their subscores and overall scores separately, meaning there’s no direct connection between the two.
Submitting and Editing Reviews
You can share your experiences by writing a review if you stayed at a property booked through our platform, even if you didn’t actually stay the night. To edit an existing review, please reach out to our Customer Service team.
Combating Fake Reviews
We employ dedicated teams and automated systems to identify and remove fake reviews. If we discover fraudulent activity, we take appropriate action against the individuals responsible.
We encourage you to report any suspicious reviews to our Customer Service team so our Fraud Team can investigate.
Ensuring Review Quality
We believe in the power of both positive and negative reviews. However, we do not display reviews that violate our guidelines, such as those containing:
- Impersonation: Reviews written by someone pretending to be another individual.
- Violations of our review guidelines: We have strict rules about what is considered acceptable content.
To maintain the relevance of reviews, we may only accept those submitted within 3 months of your stay and may stop displaying reviews after 36 months or if the property changes ownership.
Transparency and Control
We allow accommodations to respond to reviews, offering them a chance to address any concerns raised.
We prioritize the most recent reviews when displaying them, considering factors like language, review type, and anonymity. You can sort and filter reviews based on your preferences, including the time of year, review score, and other criteria.
Sometimes, we include external review scores from other reputable travel websites, making it clear when we’ve done so.
Our Commitment to Fairness and Accuracy
We established these guidelines and standards to ensure that the content on Booking.com remains relevant, family-friendly, and respectful without limiting the expression of honest opinions. These guidelines apply regardless of the sentiment expressed in the comment.
We value detailed and helpful contributions that allow others to make informed decisions. Personal, political, ethical, or religious commentary is not permitted. Promotional content will be removed, and any issues related to Booking.com’s services should be directed to our Customer Service or Accommodation Service teams.
We strive to create an environment where everyone feels welcome and comfortable sharing their experiences. Contributions should be appropriate for a global audience and avoid profanity, hate speech, discriminatory remarks, threats, sexually explicit content, violence, and the promotion of illegal activity.
Authenticity is paramount. Reviews should be genuine and original, reflecting the guest’s personal experience. Booking.com property partners should not post on behalf of guests or offer incentives for reviews. Attempts to manipulate reviews to harm competitors will not be tolerated.
We respect the privacy of our users. Booking.com takes steps to protect personal information like email addresses, phone numbers, website addresses, and social media accounts.
It’s important to remember that opinions expressed in reviews belong to Booking.com customers and properties, not to Booking.com. We are a distributor of this information, not a publisher, and we do not take responsibility for the content of reviews or responses.
Our goal is to provide you with a clear and accurate picture of accommodations so you can make the best travel choices for you.
