Responding to a bad review: examples and an AI prompt

You don't answer a bad review for the person who wrote it. You answer it for the hundreds of people who will read it later and decide whether to book. Once that clicks, you write a better reply almost automatically: calm, specific, no defending. Below are four rules, three examples and a prompt that lets a chatbot write the first draft. That prompt exists mostly for the reviews that make you angry.

Should you reply at all?

To be fair: some venues deliberately never reply, or only reply to the positive reviews. It saves time, and a bare review without a response sometimes blows over on its own. It's a choice, and it's yours to make.

We would reply. Every response stays visible to everyone who looks later, and a page full of calm, personal replies from the owner says more about your venue than the score above it. It costs you a few minutes a week, especially with the prompt further down.

First: don't reply straight away

A review that feels unfair gets under your skin. Of course it does, it's your venue and your name, and someone just hung a public story next to it that isn't true. But a reply you type within ten minutes reads very differently the next morning. So wait a little. Not days, that looks like you don't read your reviews, but long enough for the first anger to wear off. After service, or tomorrow over coffee.

The four rules

1. Thank them and name the specific point. "Sorry the mains took so long on Saturday" works. "Sorry your experience wasn't as expected" is a template line nobody believes.
2. Don't argue, even when you're right. Readers won't remember who was right, only who sounded reasonable.
3. Invite them to finish it in private, with a name and an email address. Details and solutions don't belong in a public thread: there it quickly turns into a back-and-forth with an audience. Over email you can actually put something right, and by then the reader has already seen what they needed to see: an outstretched hand.
4. Sign with your own name. A reply from "the team" belongs to nobody.

Example 1: the criticism is fair

The review (3 stars): "Food was fine, but we waited fifty minutes for our mains and nobody came to say anything."

The reply:

Thanks for telling us, and you're right: fifty minutes is too long, especially without a word from us. We were two in the kitchen that night instead of three, but you shouldn't have had to notice that. I'm taking it up with the colleagues. Would you give us another try? Email me at [email protected] and I'll make it right. Sam

What's happening here: the point gets named, the mistake gets owned without groveling, and there's an outstretched hand with a name under it. That's all it takes.

Example 2: the review is wrong

The review (1 star): "Rude staff, we were turned away while there were clearly free tables."

The reply:

Thanks for your message. We did have to disappoint people on Saturday: the empty tables you saw were reserved for a group arriving later. That it came across as rude bothers me, that's not who we want to be. I'd like to hear what was said exactly, email me at [email protected]. Sam

You're allowed to correct the facts. Do it without putting the guest down and you come across as the reasonable party, which is exactly what counts for the reader.

Example 3: the good review

Good reviews deserve a reply too. It takes a minute, the guest feels seen and is more likely to come back, and the reader sees a venue where somebody pays attention. It's also the nicest bit of writing you'll do all week.

The review (5 stars): "Wonderful food, and the staff really thought along with our daughter's nut allergy."

The reply:

Thank you! I'm passing this on to the colleagues, because thinking along with allergies is exactly what we want to be good at. See you next time. Sam

Short is fine here. Just don't paste the same line under every good review, because readers notice.

The prompt that does the groundwork

With an angry or unfair review, the first draft is the problem: everything you want to say has to come out first. Let a chatbot write that version, so your actual reply stays polite. Copy this into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and fill in the brackets:

You're helping the owner of a [type of venue] in [town] respond
to a review.

This is how we sound: [describe your tone in a few words, for
example: warm, down to earth, informal].

This is the review ([number] stars):
"[paste the review here]"

This is what actually happened: [briefly give your side, including
what went wrong].

Write a reply of at most 100 words that:
- thanks the guest and names the specific point
- never argues and promises nothing we can't deliver
- invites them to sort it out in person via [email address]

Give me two versions to choose from.

Three things to hold yourself to:

• Don't copy the output word for word. Finish it with something of your own, because guests spot a robot reply faster than you'd think.
• Don't put guests' names or details into the chatbot. The review itself is public, the rest is not.
• Check every fact. A chatbot writes untrue things just as confidently as true ones.

More jobs like this one

Answering reviews is one of the places where AI already saves you time, for free. What else it can do, and what to watch out for, is in our guide AI for your venue.