Response Rate Study 2026 · Restaurants
How Swiss restaurants answer Google reviews
StarReview analyzed the publicly visible Google reviews of 1772 Swiss restaurants. The result: the typical restaurant answers just 8 percent of its reviews, and more than 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: 37% of restaurants answer no reviews at all, while 23% 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 = 1772.
French-speaking Switzerland answers least
The gap between language regions is stark: the median is 10% 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 | 10% | 36.1% | 1073 |
| Ticino | 15.5% | 28.1% | 32 |
| French-speaking Switzerland | 5% | 39.1% | 667 |
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 3%, and 49.1% 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 | 3% | 49.1% | 169 |
| 50-199 | 5% | 37% | 432 |
| 200+ | 10% | 35.4% | 1171 |
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.
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To the response rate checkMethodology
- Sample: 1772 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 19, 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.