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Lodging Enginefor Hotels
Structured Data 2 min read

How do I mark up hotel reviews and ratings?

Short answer

For your own hotel, you generally shouldn't add review or rating markup expecting stars in Google. Google's review snippet guidelines say pages about LocalBusiness or Organization types — which includes hotels — aren't eligible for star ratings when the business controls the reviews about itself, known as self-serving reviews. Review markup is meant for sites that review other businesses or products. Show genuine guest reviews on your website as visible content, link to your profiles on Google and review platforms, and focus on earning reviews there.

By Lodging Engine Editorial Team· Reviewed by Eric Zwanenburg· Last reviewed

What Google's guidelines say

  • Review snippets are supported for certain types, including local businesses only for sites that capture reviews about other local businesses.
  • Self-serving reviews — reviews about your own business placed on your own site — aren't eligible for review rich results.
  • Structured data must not mark up misleading content such as fake reviews.

What this means for hotels

  • Don't add AggregateRating or Review markup to your own hotel pages expecting stars.
  • Check plugins and review widgets — some add this markup automatically. Remove it.
  • A starRating property describes an official classification (for example from a national rating body), not guest reviews.

When review markup can be legitimate

  • A site that reviews many hotels independently (like a travel guide) can mark up its reviews of those hotels, following Google's guidelines.
  • A hotel's restaurant reviewed by an independent publication isn't something you mark up on your own site.

Better ways to use reviews

  • Show recent, representative reviews as visible text, with source and date.
  • Link to your Google Business Profile and review platform pages.
  • Reply to reviews thoughtfully. See how to respond to Google reviews.

Common mistakes

  • Widget-generated AggregateRating for the hotel itself.
  • Using starRating for guest scores.
  • Editing or cherry-picking quotes in a misleading way.

Checklist

  • No self-serving review markup on hotel pages
  • Review widgets checked for injected markup
  • starRating only for official classifications
  • Genuine reviews shown as visible content

Sources

  1. Review snippet (Review, AggregateRating) structured data — Google Search Central
  2. General structured data guidelines — Google Search Central
  3. Manage customer reviews — Google Business Profile Help

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