Key findings
We analysed 610,000 public reviews and 230,000 management replies for 1,200 hotels in 40 Indian cities, from Google, Booking.com, TripAdvisor and MakeMyTrip, posted between April 2025 and March 2026.
- Most hotels reply to praise and skip complaints, the opposite of what prospective guests look for.
- Reply speed predicts rating change more strongly than reply length.
- Branded chains reply more often than independents, but not faster.
What the fastest responders do
- One owner per property for every review site, rather than a central team that replies days later.
- Drafts prepared automatically and edited by the GM in under two minutes.
- A specific reference to the guest's issue in every reply to a complaint, and what changed as a result.
Prospective guests read the reply to a complaint more closely than the complaint. A prompt, specific answer tells them what will happen if something goes wrong on their stay.
Method
Reviews were classified into Falcon's hospitality taxonomy. Response time runs from a review's publish time to the management reply. Hotels with fewer than 50 reviews in the period were excluded.
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