Response Rate Study 2026 · Restaurants
How Swiss restaurants answer Google reviews
StarReview analyzed the publicly visible Google reviews of 812 Swiss restaurants. The result: the typical restaurant answers just 13 percent of its reviews, and a third never replies at all. Collected May to July 2026; data freely citable under CC BY 4.0.
median response rate
never reply
answer more than three quarters
Switzerland is split in two
The distribution shows two camps: 33% of restaurants answer no reviews at all, while 25% answer nearly everything. There is little in between. Those who reply tend to reply consistently; those who do not, never do.
Share of restaurants by the fraction of their Google reviews answered. n = 812.
French-speaking Switzerland answers least
The gap between language regions is stark: the median is 18% in German-speaking Switzerland but 5% in Romandie, where almost four in ten restaurants have never answered a single review.
| Language region | Median response rate | Never reply | Restaurants |
|---|---|---|---|
| German-speaking Switzerland | 18% | 30.5% | 545 |
| Ticino | 15.5% | 28.1% | 32 |
| French-speaking Switzerland | 5% | 39.1% | 235 |
Small restaurants leave the most unanswered
The fewer reviews a restaurant has, the less it replies: among businesses with 10 to 49 reviews the median is 7%, and 44.4% of them never reply, even though each single answer carries the most weight exactly there.
| Google reviews | Median response rate | Never reply | Restaurants |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-49 | 7% | 44.4% | 63 |
| 50-199 | 10% | 36.7% | 166 |
| 200+ | 14% | 30.5% | 583 |
Why it matters
89% of consumers read Google reviews before visiting a local business (BrightLocal, 2024), and 68% give a business a second chance when it responds to criticism (ReviewTrackers, 2022). An unanswered review is a publicly visible silence toward nearly every future guest. The study shows: restaurants that reply consistently are already in the top quarter of Swiss gastronomy.
Where does your restaurant stand?
Check your own response rate against competitors nearby, free and without signing up.
To the response rate checkMethodology
- Sample: 812 restaurants across Switzerland with at least 10 Google reviews, found via Google Maps searches in Swiss cities and municipalities.
- Measurement: for each restaurant, a sample of its most recent publicly visible Google reviews was checked for a reply by the business (response rate 0 to 100%). Collection window: May 4 to July 8, 2026.
- Analysis: figures are medians, not means; the median describes the typical restaurant and is robust to outliers. Subgroups are only published with at least 30 businesses. The Ticino sample (n = 32) should be read with caution.
- Limitations: the sample covers established restaurants findable via Google search; very small or new businesses are underrepresented. Only aggregates are published, never individual businesses.
- License: all figures on this page are published under CC BY 4.0. Cite as: "StarReview Response Rate Study 2026, starreview.ch". Methodology questions: hello@starreview.ch.