Review Solicitation

What is Review Solicitation?

Review solicitation is the practice of asking guests to share their experience in a public review, on Google, Tripadvisor, a booking platform or another review site.

It covers every way you make that request: a line on the receipt, a QR code on a table tent, a post-order email or SMS, or a member of your team asking at the counter.

Done well, review solicitation keeps a steady flow of fresh reviews coming, which helps your star rating reflect how your restaurants perform today. It also gives quieter, satisfied guests a nudge, since guests with a strong opinion tend to post reviews on their own.

Compliant review solicitation rests on one principle: every guest is invited in the same way, whatever their experience. When the invitation depends on how a guest feels, the practice becomes review gating, which Google prohibits and regulators treat as potentially deceptive.

This page is general information and is no substitute for legal advice. Platform policies and laws change, so it's worth checking the current version for each market you operate in.

How review solicitation works

Every review program can be described as a simple funnel: guests served, guests invited, and invitations that turn into reviews. The share of invitations that produce a review is your conversion rate.

Expected new reviews = review requests sent × conversion rate

Conversion rate = reviews received ÷ review requests sent

Here is a hypothetical example. A fast casual brand with 10 locations sends 4,000 post-order emails a month with a review link. Over the last quarter, 1.5% of those requests produced a review, so the brand can expect about 4,000 × 1.5% = 60 new reviews a month, or about 6 per location.

If the brand wants 10 reviews per location each month, it needs 100 reviews in total. At the same 1.5% rate, that takes about 100 ÷ 0.015 ≈ 6,700 requests a month, or a higher conversion rate from better timing and wording.

Conversion rates vary widely by channel, platform, country and brand, so your own history is the number to use.

Review solicitation calculator

Replace the example inputs with your own numbers. Your conversion rate is the share of review requests that produced a review over a recent period.

The estimate assumes your conversion rate stays steady. In practice it changes with the season, the channel mix and how often the same guests are asked, so recalculating each quarter keeps your plan realistic.

Review solicitation channels for restaurants

Each location needs its own link or QR code so reviews land on the right profile. Accurate profiles also matter, and listings management keeps hours and details consistent across search engines and maps.

For brands with an ordering platform, a post-order survey workflow or a guest survey can include the review invitation, as long as every respondent sees it regardless of their score.

Review solicitation rules by platform

Google's review solicitation rules

Google's tips to get more reviews suggest reminding customers to leave reviews and explain how to share a review link or QR code. The same page says that offering incentives, such as free or discounted goods, to post, change or remove reviews is prohibited.

Google's prohibited and restricted content policy adds that merchants should not discourage negative reviews or selectively solicit positive ones. It also lists asking staff to solicit a certain number of reviews among prohibited merchant behaviors.

Yelp's review solicitation rules

Yelp takes the opposite approach. Its newsroom post Don't ask for reviews explains that its recommendation software is designed to identify solicited reviews, which then appear as "not recommended" and don't count toward your rating.

For a brand that operates in markets where Yelp matters, the practical result is two policies: ask for Google and other reviews where that's allowed, and simply make your Yelp page easy to find.

Regulators and review solicitation

The FTC's 2024 rule bans fake reviews, incentives conditioned on a particular sentiment, undisclosed insider reviews and certain forms of review suppression. Its 2022 guide for marketers also advises against asking only the customers you expect to be positive.

In the UK, the CMA's fake reviews guidance (CMA208) explains the DMCC Act's banned practices. In the EU, the Omnibus Directive (EU) 2019/2161 bans fake reviews and requires businesses that publish reviews to explain how they check them.

Incentives and review solicitation

Incentives are where review solicitation most often goes wrong. A free dessert for a review, a loyalty bonus for posting, or an entry into a prize draw for reviewers all count as incentives under Google's and Yelp's rules, whatever rating the guest gives.

The FTC's rule focuses on incentives tied to a particular sentiment, which means the platform rules are usually the stricter constraint for restaurants. Staff incentives deserve the same care: Google lists requests for a set number of reviews as a prohibited behavior, so review quotas and contests are best avoided.

Review solicitation timing and wording

Timing shapes response. An invitation that arrives soon after the meal, or after a delivery has arrived, reaches guests while the details are fresh. Asking the same guest repeatedly tends to wear out their goodwill, so many brands limit how often any one guest receives a request.

Wording matters just as much. A compliant request is neutral, short and the same for everyone.

Neutral wording also protects your data. Requests that suggest a rating produce reviews that say less about what guests actually experienced.

How to measure review solicitation

Comparing locations on these measures quickly shows where a program has stalled. A location-level operator report is one way to put those numbers in front of each manager.

Limitations of review solicitation

Review solicitation increases the number of reviews you receive. It can't make the experience better on its own, and a location with recurring problems will tend to receive more critical reviews as it asks more guests.

Requests also add to the messages your guests receive. Combining the survey and the review invitation into one short message, rather than sending several, keeps the program respectful of their time.

How to improve review solicitation

• Ask every guest through more than one channel. Pairing a receipt QR code with a post-order message reaches dine-in and digital guests alike.
• Make the link one tap away. A direct link to the location's review form removes steps that cause guests to give up.
• Reply to the reviews you receive. Guests see that you listen.
• Fix what reviews reveal. Grouping comments with sentiment analysis shows which operational changes will lift your rating.
• Recover unhappy guests quickly. A fast customer recovery process gives guests a reason to return.

Caribou Coffee achieved 61% more reviews across 57 locations with Momos.

Best review solicitation tools

When you choose a tool for review solicitation, it helps to check which platforms it can send guests to, whether each location gets its own link, and whether its flows invite every guest equally. Multi-location reporting and fast replies to the reviews you generate matter as much as the request itself.

Each of these tools takes a slightly different approach, so a trial at a few of your locations is the most reliable way to compare them.

Common review solicitation mistakes

• Inviting only happy guests. Screening by sentiment turns solicitation into review gating, which Google prohibits.
• Offering rewards for reviews. Discounts, freebies and prize draws for reviews break Google's and Yelp's rules.
• Sending Yelp review requests. Yelp asks businesses to refrain, and solicited reviews may be filtered out of your rating.
• Using one link for every location. Reviews can land on the wrong profile, which distorts each location's rating.
• Setting staff review quotas. Google lists them among prohibited behaviors, and they encourage selective asking.
• Ignoring the reviews you generate. A request program works best alongside thoughtful negative review response and a consistent review management routine.

History of review solicitation

Restaurants have asked guests for feedback for as long as there have been comment cards. Online review sites changed the request from "tell us" to "tell everyone", and asking for reviews became part of online reputation management.

Platforms responded in different ways. Yelp chose to discourage requests altogether, while Google made it easier to ask by giving businesses a shareable review link and QR code. In April 2018, Google's review policy was updated to state explicitly that businesses should not selectively solicit positive reviews.

Regulators followed. In 2022 the FTC published Soliciting and Paying for Online Reviews: A Guide for Marketers, and in August 2024 it announced a final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials, which took effect in October 2024. The UK's fake review provisions under the DMCC Act 2024 followed in April 2025.