TripAdvisor vs Google reviews for hotels: where to focus review requests

Route post-stay review requests to Google if bookings start with a map search: airport, roadside, business and budget hotels. Route them to Tripadvisor if guests compare you against a destination shortlist: resorts, boutique and independent leisure hotels. Send each guest one link, not two, and switch platforms when your review gap with competitors closes.

Should your hotel prioritise Tripadvisor or Google reviews?

The answer depends on where your next booking starts. Google reviews sit inside Google Search and Google Maps. They shape the decision when a traveller already knows the area and needs a bed. Tripadvisor reviews shape the shortlist, when a traveller is still comparing properties across a destination.

Both platforms reward fresh, steady review volume. Google's Business Profile guidance states that review count and review score factor into local search ranking. Tripadvisor states that its Popularity Ranking weighs the quality, recency and quantity of reviews. So the question is not which platform is better. The question is where one extra review moves your hotel further up the list your guests actually read.

Most hotels make one of two mistakes:

• They split every post-stay email between two links. That halves the volume each platform receives.
• They default to whichever platform the general manager checks first. That ignores where bookings come from.

A routing decision per venue fixes both.

That decision only pays off if you can reach departing guests. Online travel agent bookings often reach you without the guest's own email address. Booking.com, for example, passes the property an alias address instead. Purple Engage builds the list from Guest WiFi logins. Guests opt in at login through conscious-choice opt-ins, and that consented, first-party record becomes your sending list.

Mailchimp, Klaviyo and HubSpot send campaigns well, but none of them builds the list from the people in your building. Purple runs across 80,000+ live venues and recorded 440 million logins in 2024 (Purple's own data).

Where do Tripadvisor and Google reviews genuinely differ?

Both platforms host hotel reviews, accept owner responses and sit beside booking links. The differences show up in who is reading and what a review changes.

Axis	Google reviews	Tripadvisor reviews
Where guests read them	Google Search, Google Maps and Google's hotel search	Tripadvisor website and app, on your listing and destination rankings
Stage of the decision	Late: choosing a nearby hotel, often on mobile	Early: building a shortlist across a destination
What a new review moves	Local search ranking, where Google names review count and score as factors	Popularity Ranking in your destination, based on quality, recency and quantity
Awards and badges	None for hotels	Travellers' Choice, based on reviews from the past 12 months
How you request reviews	Review link or QR code from your Google Business Profile	Review Express emails or a link to your Tripadvisor page
Platform rules	No incentives, no selective requests to happy guests	No incentives, no fake or paid reviews
Hotel restaurant and bar	Share the hotel's visibility in Maps for local diners	Often hold a separate listing from the hotel
Who it suits	Airport, roadside, business, budget, hotels with local food and drink trade	Resorts, boutique, independent leisure and destination hotels

Intent: building a shortlist or picking a bed nearby

A Tripadvisor reader is often still deciding where to stay in a destination. They compare your rank, your Travellers' Choice badge and your recent reviews against several rivals. A Google reader is often already in the area, or searching near an airport, a venue or a business district. They see your star rating and review count beside a map pin, a price and a booking link.

That difference sets the job each review does. On Tripadvisor, a review helps you earn a place on the shortlist. On Google, a review helps you win the final click against the hotel two streets away.

What one more review changes

Google lists relevance, distance and prominence as its local ranking factors. Distance is fixed, and relevance depends on your profile details. Review count and score are among the few prominence levers you control.

On Tripadvisor, reviews feed your Popularity Ranking against every other hotel in your destination. A move from tenth to fourth in a city ranking changes whether a guest sees you on the first screen. It also strengthens your case for a Travellers' Choice award, which draws on reviews from the previous 12 months.

The restaurant and bar effect

If your hotel restaurant or bar trades with locals, Google matters more than your room mix suggests. Local diners search Google Maps for somewhere to eat tonight, and the reviews they read are on your Google profile. On Tripadvisor, the restaurant often holds its own listing, separate from the hotel. For the food and drink side of your estate, see Google review requests for restaurants: a compliant checklist.

When is Tripadvisor the right place to send review requests?

Send post-stay requests to Tripadvisor when your guests plan ahead and compare you against a destination. The signals:

• You are a leisure destination hotel. Resorts, coastal, countryside and city break boutique hotels compete on a destination shortlist.
• You sit mid-table in a crowded ranking. In a city with hundreds of ranked hotels, a steady flow of recent reviews can move you onto the first page.
• The Travellers' Choice badge features in your marketing. It appears on your listing and in your own materials, and it depends on recent review volume and quality.
• Your Google profile is already strong. If you have a healthy count of recent Google reviews, an extra one there moves little.
• Your guests book weeks or months out. Long lead times mean research, and research for leisure stays often runs through Tripadvisor.

Recency matters as much as volume. Tripadvisor names recency as a ranking factor, so a burst of reviews followed by silence underperforms a steady monthly flow. That favours an always-on post-stay campaign over an occasional push.

When is Google the right place to send review requests?

Send post-stay requests to Google when guests choose you close to the moment of booking, often from a map. The signals:

• You are an airport, motorway or transit hotel. Guests search by location, often on the same day.
• You are a weekday business hotel. Corporate bookers and travellers search near offices, conference centres and event venues.
• Your restaurant, bar or spa trades with locals. Local diners and day guests use Google Maps, so one profile serves every revenue line.
• Your Google review count trails nearby rivals. Google names review count and score as local ranking factors. A low count is a gap you can close.
• You use Google's free booking links. Google introduced free hotel booking links in 2021, so your profile can drive direct bookings from the same screen as your reviews.
• You are new or newly rebranded. You appear in Google Search and Maps from launch, so early reviews there work across both from day one.

Google suits volume-led properties. A high-occupancy, one-night-stay hotel generates many departures a month, and Google rewards steady volume.

How do you send compliant review requests from Purple Engage?

Four rules keep your review programme effective and on the right side of platform policy and the law.

Check the current Tripadvisor connector status

Purple's Tripadvisor connector used Review Express to send a reminder 24 hours after a guest's visit. Tripadvisor has since deprecated part of the service the connector relies on. The connector is currently unavailable while Purple works with Tripadvisor on a replacement.

The workaround is a campaign in Marketing Communications that includes the link to your Tripadvisor page. The Tripadvisor support article carries the current status and the steps. Introduction to Connectors explains how connectors push data into external platforms.

The same campaign approach works for Google. Use the review link from your Google Business Profile instead of the Tripadvisor link. That means one workflow in Purple Engage serves both platforms, and routing becomes a choice of link per venue.

Send only to guests who gave consent

Send review requests only to guests who opted in to marketing at WiFi login. GDPR Article 4(11) defines consent as freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous. In the UK, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations add specific rules for marketing email. Conscious-choice opt-ins at login mean the list Purple Engage builds is already a consented list. Purple holds ISO 27001 certification and is GDPR compliant.

Ask every guest, not only the happy ones

Google's review policy prohibits selectively soliciting positive reviews. Both Google and Tripadvisor prohibit offering incentives in exchange for reviews. In the UK, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 banned fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews from 6 April 2025.

So send the same request to every departing guest on your consented list. Do not pre-screen with a satisfaction score and pass only happy guests to the review link. If you want private feedback as well, ask for it separately, not as a gate in front of the review.

Put one link in each email

Give each guest one destination. Two links force a choice at the moment you want action, and they split your volume between platforms. Route by venue, then revisit the routing every quarter.

What does each review platform cost to run?

Neither platform charges you to collect or reply to reviews. The real costs sit elsewhere: staff time, the list that reaches departing guests, and any paid booking placement you buy alongside.

Cost line	Google	Tripadvisor
Listing your hotel	Free Google Business Profile	Free Tripadvisor listing
Requesting reviews	Free review link and QR code from your Business Profile	Free Review Express emails and a free review link
Replying to reviews	Free owner replies	Free management responses
Booking placement	Free booking links, plus paid Google Hotel Ads	Paid metasearch placement beside your listing
Optional subscription	None required for reviews	Paid Tripadvisor Business Advantage
Reaching departing guests	A consented email list	A consented email list or Review Express
Ongoing staff effort	Reply to each review, keep photos, hours and amenities current	Reply to each review, keep photos and amenities current

The cost you control: reach

A review request can only go to a guest you can email with consent. Without a consented list, you rely on desk staff handing out QR codes, and on guests remembering after checkout. Purple Engage builds that list from guest WiFi logins, so your reachable audience includes guests who booked through an online travel agent. See the Purple Engage product overview for how the list and campaigns connect.

The cost of splitting

The hidden cost is dilution. If you send two links to every guest, each platform gets a fraction of your requests. On a platform that weighs recency, a thinner monthly flow costs you ranking. Concentrating volume on one platform per venue is free, and it is the single biggest lever in this guide.

How do you route post-stay requests across your hotels?

Start with a default by hotel type, then adjust for your competitive gap.

Your hotel	Send requests to	Why	Check each quarter
Airport or transit hotel	Google	Guests search by location on Maps, often on the day	Tripadvisor rank, to catch a slide
Motorway or roadside hotel	Google	Short lead time, mobile search, map-led choice	Tripadvisor rating
Weekday business hotel	Google	Bookers search near offices and venues	Tripadvisor rank among business hotels
City break boutique hotel	Tripadvisor	Ranked against many city rivals on a shortlist	Google review count against neighbours
Resort, coastal or countryside hotel	Tripadvisor	Long planning window, destination comparison	Google rating and recent reviews
Hotel with busy local restaurant and bar	Google	Local diners choose from Google Maps	Restaurant's own Tripadvisor listing
New or rebranded hotel	Google first	Visible in Search and Maps from launch	When to add Tripadvisor focus
Strong Google profile, weak Tripadvisor rank	Tripadvisor	Extra Google reviews add little	Google recency
Strong Tripadvisor rank, few recent Google reviews	Google	Close the local ranking gap	Tripadvisor recency

A four-step routing check

1. Find where bookings start. Google Business Profile's Performance report shows calls, website clicks, direction requests and bookings from your profile. Your booking engine's referral report shows visits from Tripadvisor and Google.
2. Measure the gap. For each platform, note your review count, average rating and reviews in the last 90 days. Do the same for your three nearest competitors.
3. Pick one platform. Choose the one that drives more bookings and where your gap is larger.
4. Set one link per venue. Build the Purple Engage campaign at venue or group level with that link. Re-run the check each quarter.

Worked example: a 60-room boutique hotel in a city break destination

Situation. The hotel ranks mid-table among hundreds of hotels in its city on Tripadvisor. Its Google rating is strong, with plenty of recent reviews. Its post-stay email has offered both links.

What was done. The team moved to a single Tripadvisor link in its post-stay campaign. Every opted-in guest from WiFi login now receives it.

Modelled outcome. These figures are illustrative assumptions; replace them with your own:

• 75% occupancy and a two-night average stay give about 675 departures a month.
• If 40% of guests opt in at WiFi login, 270 consented guests receive a request.
• If 5% of those leave a review, that is about 13 Tripadvisor reviews a month.
• Under the old split, that flow would have been roughly half each way.
• Over a year, Tripadvisor receives about 160 reviews instead of 80.

The measure of success is Popularity Ranking position, checked monthly in your Tripadvisor management dashboard.

Worked example: a 180-room airport hotel

Situation. Most guests stay one night and book within days of travel. The hotel's Google review count trails two nearby competitors. Its Tripadvisor rank is steady.

What was done. The team put the Google review link from its Business Profile into a Marketing Communications campaign. The campaign goes to every opted-in guest.

Modelled outcome. Again, these figures are assumptions to replace with your own:

• 85% occupancy and one-night stays give about 4,590 departures a month.
• At a 30% opt-in rate, 1,377 guests receive a request.
• At a 4% review rate, that is about 55 Google reviews a month, or 660 a year.

The measure of success is the review count gap against the two competitors. Alongside it, watch the Performance report month on month: direction requests, calls, website clicks and bookings.

Worked example: a 12-property hotel group with a mixed estate

Situation. Seven properties are roadside or weekday business hotels. Five are coastal leisure hotels. The group sent one post-stay email, with both links, across the whole estate.

What was done. The group built venue-level campaigns. The seven business and roadside hotels carry the Google link. The five coastal hotels carry the Tripadvisor link. The four-step check now runs each quarter.

Outcome. Every property now sends all of its request volume to the platform that matters for it, instead of half. In this example, two coastal hotels will have Google review counts slipping behind local rivals by the second quarter. The group switches those two to Google for one quarter, then switches them back once the gap closes.

Measure the outcome against real visits

Review volume is an input. Bookings and repeat stays are the outcome. Compare direct bookings and returning guests across the venues you re-routed, quarter on quarter. Returning guests show up again in your guest WiFi logins, so repeat visits sit in the same first-party data as the original opt-in.

The same principle applies to paid media; see Meta Conversions API integration for restaurants: measuring ads against real visits.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Purple Tripadvisor connector available right now?

No, the Purple Tripadvisor connector is currently unavailable. Tripadvisor deprecated part of the service the connector used, and Purple is working with Tripadvisor on a replacement. In the meantime, you can create a campaign in Marketing Communications that includes the link to your Tripadvisor page. The Tripadvisor article on Purple's support site carries the latest status and setup steps. You can also contact support@purple.ai with questions.

Can I send Google review requests from Purple Engage?

Yes, you can send Google review requests from Purple Engage. Copy the review link from your Google Business Profile and include it in a Marketing Communications campaign. Send it to guests who opted in to marketing at WiFi login. Build the campaign at venue or group level so each property sends the link that matters for it. Google provides the review link free from your Business Profile.

Do I need guest consent to email a review request?

Yes, treat a review request as marketing email and send it only to guests who gave consent. GDPR requires consent to be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous. In the UK, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations also govern marketing email. Purple Engage builds its list from conscious-choice opt-ins at guest WiFi login, so the guests you email have already given consent.

Can I send review requests only to guests who rated their stay highly?

No, you should send review requests to every departing guest on your consented list. Google's review policy prohibits selectively soliciting positive reviews. Both Google and Tripadvisor prohibit incentives for reviews. In the UK, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 bans fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews. If you want private feedback, collect it separately rather than as a filter before the review link.

How does Purple Engage compare with Mailchimp or Klaviyo for review requests?

Purple Engage builds the list; Mailchimp and Klaviyo only send to a list you already have. Engage captures consented, first-party guest data at WiFi login, including guests who booked through online travel agents. Booking.com, for example, passes the property an alias email address instead. With Mailchimp or Klaviyo, you still need a separate way to collect those addresses with consent before any review request goes out.

Does Purple Engage work with the WiFi access points we already have?

Yes, Purple is hardware-agnostic and runs on the access points you already own. Purple works with Cisco Meraki, HPE Aruba, Ruckus, Juniper Mist, Ubiquiti UniFi, Cambium, Extreme and Fortinet. You do not need new hardware to start capturing opted-in guests at login. Those guests then feed the review request campaigns you build in Purple Engage.

What does it cost to collect reviews on Google and Tripadvisor?

Collecting and replying to reviews is free on both platforms. Google Business Profile provides a free review link and QR code. Tripadvisor offers free listings and the free Review Express email tool. Costs arise elsewhere: paid booking placement such as Google Hotel Ads or Tripadvisor metasearch, the optional Tripadvisor Business Advantage subscription, staff time, and the platform that holds your consented guest list.

Should a hotel group use one review platform across every property?

No, a hotel group should route review requests per property, not across the whole estate. Airport, roadside and business hotels usually gain more from Google. Resorts and leisure hotels usually gain more from Tripadvisor. Set one link per venue in your campaigns, then re-check review counts and recency against nearby competitors each quarter. Switch a property's platform when its gap on the other one widens.