Asking guests for reviews is entirely legitimate and every major platform says so. The anxiety operators carry about it is mostly misplaced — and it tends to be aimed at the wrong things, so the genuinely risky practices sail through while people worry about whether a QR code is allowed.
Four things create real exposure. Everything else is fine.
Platform terms change and enforcement varies. Treat this as the shape of the rules rather than the current text, and check the platform's own policy page before you build anything on top of it.
1. Gating — asking only the happy guests
The most common breach by a wide margin, and it does not feel like one, because it arrives as ordinary politeness: "if you enjoyed it, would you leave us a review?"
Any process that filters guests by sentiment before inviting them to review is gating. Including:
- The "if you enjoyed it" phrasing in a verbal script
- A feedback form that asks for a rating first, then only shows the Google link to people who rated highly
- Sending the review request only to guests who did not complain
- Asking staff to use judgement about who "seems happy"
That second one is worth dwelling on, because it is sold as a product. A two-step flow that routes satisfied guests to a public review and unsatisfied guests to a private form is a textbook gating mechanism, however it is described in the marketing.
The reason it matters is not just the terms. A gated review profile is statistically obvious — unnaturally high ratings, uniform phrasing, no distribution — and it is the pattern automated systems look for.
Do this instead: ask everybody, or ask a category defined by something other than their opinion. "Every table in section three tonight" is fine. "Every table that seemed pleased" is not.
2. Incentives
Anything of value offered in exchange for a review: a discount, a free drink, a loyalty point, entry to a prize draw. This is prohibited across the major platforms and, in the UK, also engages consumer protection law on misleading practices — the regulator's interest in fake and incentivised reviews has increased, and the penalties attach to the business rather than to the platform account.
Two details that catch people out. It counts even if the incentive is offered for a review of any kind rather than a positive one. And it counts if it is offered to staff rather than guests, where the effect is the same and the paper trail is usually worse.
Discounts to people who have reviewed are the same thing running backwards.
Fine: thanking someone. Replying to their review. Buying a regular a drink for reasons unconnected to reviewing.
3. Reviews that are not from customers
Staff reviews, reviews written by family, reviews written by the owner, agency reviews, purchased reviews. Also reviews written by a member of staff on behalf of a guest who agreed to it — the account holder did not have the experience, and that is the test.
This is the category with the most serious consequences. Platforms remove suspected fake reviews in batches and can suspend a profile, which means losing the genuine reviews alongside the fake ones. The missing review panic plan covers what that looks like from the inside, and a historic run of staff reviews is a common cause.
4. Asking in a way that isn't optional
Withholding something until a review is written, standing over a guest while they write one, or using the guest's device to write it. Rare, and unambiguous.
What is explicitly fine
Worth stating plainly, because the fear tends to over-extend:
- Asking every guest, verbally, at any point in the visit
- QR codes on tables, receipts, menus and windows
- A link in a booking confirmation or a follow-up email to everyone
- Asking a regular directly
- Asking after you have resolved a complaint
- Replying to reviews, including disagreeing politely
- Reporting reviews that breach policy
- Training staff on wording, and having designated askers
None of that is a grey area. The role-by-role scripts are all built to stay inside these lines.
The two-minute audit
Read whatever you currently use — script, email template, table card, feedback form — and ask three questions:
- Does anything condition the ask on the guest's opinion? Delete it. This is where almost every breach lives.
- Is anything of value attached, in either direction? Remove it.
- Could any review on the profile have been written by someone who was not a customer? If historically yes, stop, and know it is a latent risk.
If all three come back clean, you can ask as often and as directly as you like, and the only remaining question is whether the habit survives past week three.