As we’ve discussed in many other posts, Bókun, Viator, and Tripadvisor are all part of the same family. The systems are designed to work together and support tour operators as they grow their businesses online.
Tripadvisor helps build your brand’s online reputation, Viator lets you earn bookings from global audiences, and Bókun’s all-in-one toolkit lets you manage bookings and back-office operations in one place.
Integrating these systems automatically syncs your products, bookings, and availability across all platforms. But the cherry on top? Tripadvisor reviews feed across all sites, too. They automatically show up on your website, your Viator profile, and your Tripadvisor listing — so travellers see verified feedback no matter where they discover you.
In this guide, we share our best strategies to help you earn more (five-star) Tripadvisor reviews.
To see how Bókun can support your business, start our 14-day free trial (no credit card required). You can explore our toolkit, connect to Viator, add offline bookings, and see if we’re the right booking management partner for you.
1. Improve your Tripadvisor ranking
Let’s start by zooming out here. Tripadvisor’s directory is designed for travellers to discover high-quality businesses and unforgettable travel experiences. So, Tripadvisor wants its feed filled with reliable, top-rated providers with a proven track record of delivering exceptional customer experiences.
They don’t want to send their users to disappointing or unreliable tour operators who cancel on customers or fail to deliver on promises.
So one of the first places to start here is with your Tripadvisor listing.
You want to have a detailed, active, up-to-date profile with information about the tours and experiences you provide: product listings, images and videos from past tours, customer testimonials, and clear booking information.
Pro tip: Linking Viator and Tripadvisor enables travellers to book directly on your Tripadvisor page.
Having a complete, active business listing helps improve your overall Tripadvisor popularity ranking. Operators with high rankings are recommended more often, rank higher in search results, and enjoy better visibility.
But that’s just one half of the equation. The other half is in the reviews themselves.
Tripadvisor calculates overall ratings using a proprietary algorithm (called the Popularity Index) that combines several factors:
- Quality of reviews
- Number of reviews
- Recency of reviews
- Consistency over time
And it’s not just guest reviews that matter. Your responses to reviews (especially the negative ones) also play a role here.
You should make it a point to respond to every review — thank positive reviewers for taking the time to leave feedback, acknowledge negative reviews and try to make it right (you can also offer goodwill gestures like discounts on a future visit in cases where appropriate), and always always invite customers back to visit again.
Review responses are one of the best ways to show potential customers that you care about guest feedback and stand behind your service. (And it helps to earn repeat business!)
It goes without saying: never argue in reviews or pressure reviewers to change their scores. It’s explicitly against Tripadvisor policy to encourage users to leave disingenuous (inflated) feedback or offer incentives for positive reviews.
2. Request Tripadvisor stickers to display around your business
Tripadvisor offers free stickers you can place around your business — at your storefront or check-in kiosks, on equipment like bikes, tour vehicles, helmets, life jackets, or anywhere customers will see them during their experience. They serve as “advertisements” for your Tripadvisor profile and remind travellers to leave reviews after their tour.
The key is strategic placement: sticking them where customers will notice them at the end of their experience, when they’re most likely to be thinking about how the tour went. The visual reminder can be the nudge they need to actually follow through and write that review.
Here’s how to get your free stickers:
- Visit Tripadvisor’s sticker request page and find your profile
- Select your favourite sticker style
- Choose the language(s) of your stickers
- Enter your shipping address
- Wait for Tripadvisor’s shipment to hit your doorstep
3. Use Tripadvisor’s Review Express automation tool
Tripadvisor also offers a handy Review Express tool that connects to Bókun (or any CRM or booking system) and automatically dispatches review request emails to travellers after tours.
You can customise these emails with your own branding and messaging, add private surveys to learn more about what customers did and didn’t like, and personalise the sender name (the “From:” name) that appears in travellers’ inboxes.
Review requests are automatically sent within 72 hours after travellers’ tours end, and the system will send another reminder a few days later to travellers who don’t respond.
Review Express also provides an analytics dashboard to review campaign performance. You can see how many people opened your emails, how many opens converted to a review, and more.
This tool is 100% free for Tripadvisor users, and business owners say it significantly boosts traveller engagement — with users reporting a 28% uptick in the amount of profile reviews.
4. Add Tripadvisor’s review widget to your site
You can also add a Tripadvisor review widget directly to your website. This serves as a reminder to review your business, making it easy for travellers to do so right in the widget without having to navigate to Tripadvisor’s site.
Adding the widget is as easy as copy + paste.
On the Review Express page, under ‘Marketing Tools’, you can navigate to ‘Website Widgets’ and view all of the available styles.
Then, Tripadvisor provides a simple embed that you can paste into your website’s source code.
You can add Tripadvisor widgets to your site here. (Bókun users can also add Tripadvisor widgets to their sites here.)
5. Ask for reviews from travellers
This one might seem obvious, but you should make it a regular practice to ask your visitors to review you online — and get your whole staff on board with this approach.
We know the typical pushback here is that it sounds unnatural or pushy to outright ask for reviews, but there are seamless ways to weave this into the tour experience. For example, you could mention a simple line at the end of tours, like, “If you enjoyed your experience today, we’d love it if you could leave us a review on Tripadvisor!”
You can also frame it in terms of what reviews mean to your business, as this makes it more personal and gives customers a reason to follow through. “Your reviews help us connect with more travellers like yourselves and continue delivering great experiences. If you have a minute to share your experience on Tripadvisor, we’d really appreciate it!”
This approach makes customers feel like they’re doing something meaningful for a small business they just enjoyed, rather than just being asked for a favour.
Finding a way to make it part of the standard sign-off at the end of tours makes it easy for staff to remember and keeps it top of mind for travellers.
If you have trouble getting staff to adopt this practice, offering incentives for reviews can help spur participation. For example, you could offer a reward for staff members who are mentioned most frequently in positive reviews — a little friendly competition goes a long way in making this a habit.
Beyond the in-person ask, automated follow-up emails or SMS reminders can help capture some additional reviews (re: Review Express).
Tripadvisor’s “Do’s & Don’ts” for requesting reviews
- Only request reviews from genuine customers who have had a direct, first-hand experience with your business.
- Do not offer incentives, discounts, or freebies in exchange for reviews. This is strictly prohibited.
- Do not ask only satisfied customers to leave reviews — selectively requesting reviews to avoid negative feedback (review gating) is against Tripadvisor policy.
- Do not post reviews on behalf of customers or submit fake or biased reviews. Every review must be independently written by the traveller.
- Do not encourage employees, friends, or family to write reviews about your business.
- Do not monitor or influence guests while they write reviews, including coaching or supervising the review content.
- Avoid bulk submitting or automating review collection in ways that violate Tripadvisor’s guidelines, such as mass uploading or onsite review terminals.
- Clearly disclose why you are collecting email addresses and use them only for review request purposes, respecting privacy and data protection.
6. Promote your tours & Tripadvisor profile on social media
Now we know this isn’t every tour operator’s favourite task, but leaning into social media strategies is an invaluable way to connect with global audiences, interact with customers, and get your travel experiences in front of new eyes. Beyond checking Tripadvisor and customer feedback before booking, many (especially younger) customers want to see the social proof.
You can post fresh carousels or reels from recent tours and tag your location. When past customers see content from tours they’ve been on, it often reminds them to leave a review. Plus, potential customers who are looking for things to do in tagged locations may just end up booking with you and leaving a review afterwards.
You can include gentle review nudges when posting, like, “If you’ve been on one of our tours, we’d love a review on Tripadvisor!” or “Check out our Tripadvisor reviews to see what past guests are saying.”
You should also get travellers involved by encouraging them to tag you in their posts during and after tours. When they do, you can share their content to your stories and use it as an opportunity to remind your followers to review you on Tripadvisor.
When building your social pages and bios, add links to your website, Tripadvisor profile, and booking pages so those engaging with content can easily take the next steps with you — whether that’s leaving a review or booking an experience.
7. Always offer 5-star guest experiences
Last but not least, you have to provide five-star experiences to earn five-star reviews. You can’t get caught up in brand promotion and drop the ball on the customer experience side.
You and your staff should always strive to:
- Warmly greet each guest when they arrive and check in
- Stay on schedule — don’t keep guests waiting around or cut tours short because you’re running behind
- Make guests feel like they’re part of the experience (not just observers) by inviting them to join conversations, share stories, and ask questions during tours
- Be knowledgeable about your tours and destinations — know the history, interesting facts, and be ready to answer questions
- Handle unexpected situations (weather, equipment issues) gracefully without letting them affect the guest experience
- Check in with guests throughout to make sure they’re comfortable and enjoying themselves
- End tours on a high note with enthusiasm rather than just trailing off
- Follow through on any promises you make during the tour
If you focus on delivering solid experiences and exceeding guest expectations in all of the best ways, the reviews will naturally follow.
We also suggest regularly analysing customer reviews for valuable insights about what guests enjoyed and where you can improve. If you know what guests like and don’t like, you can fine-tune your operations to provide better experiences for future travellers.
Bókun & Tripadvisor: How we work together
An integral part of providing five-star experiences is running a smooth, well-oiled operation. Without the proper systems in place, things can fall apart quickly. Guests need to see current offerings, up-to-date availability, and clear booking options to make reservations with you. And you need the right tools to support check-ins, customer communications, and tour logistics.
Otherwise, you risk running into situations like:
- Having outdated or inaccurate information on your website that doesn’t match what you actually offer — confusing guests and setting wrong expectations.
- Overbooking tours and having to reschedule or cancel on guests — losing their business entirely or starting off on the wrong foot.
- Slow check-in processes or inventory mix-ups that delay tours and keep guests waiting.
- Forgetting to respond to customer emails or missing basic communications like pre-tour reminders and post-tour follow-ups (which are critical for review requests).
- Losing track of customer preferences or special requests, making guests feel overlooked.
That’s where Bókun comes into play. As an all-in-one tour operator software, our system provides all the tools you need — booking management, real-time availability, resource scheduling, CRM, automated communications, check-in tools, analytics dashboards, and growth features — to centralise your business operations.
This keeps you organised and frees up your time to focus on what actually matters: delivering exceptional customer experiences that earn five-star reviews.
Interested in test-driving Bókun? Join the Tripadvisor family and choose Bókun for booking management. Start your 14-day free trial (no credit card required).
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