Restaurants and brasseries

More Google reviews for your restaurant or brasserie

Guests leave a review at the moment they pay, not three days later. A hospitality business that wants more Google reviews therefore attaches the request to the bill: a QR code in the bill folder or on the menu, one tap through to your Google page. Anything later disappears into the rush of the next service.

The QR code sits on the bill, so your floor staff have nothing extra to say.
A happy guest is on Google in twenty seconds.
The app tracks who has already been asked, so nobody gets the same message twice.

Updated on August 10, 2026 · 8 min

38,872

hospitality businesses in Flanders

57%

of them run with no employees

2 taps

from the QR code to your Google page

Number of hospitality enterprises in Flanders (2022), Guidea for Horeca Vlaanderen. · Share of Flemish hospitality businesses without staff, Guidea via Steunpunt Werk.

Why do Google reviews weigh so heavily in hospitality?

Anyone deciding where to eat picks from a short list on Google Maps. The rating, the number of reviews and the date of the most recent one together decide whether you survive that list. In a sector with almost 39,000 businesses in Flanders alone, that is the first filter a guest applies.

A guest who wants to eat in your town tonight opens Maps, types "restaurant" and sees three places with stars. They compare those three, read a few recent reviews and decide. Your façade, your menu and your terrace only come into play afterwards, and only if you made it through that first filter.

Research into booking behaviour in hotels and restaurants has pointed the same way for years: almost everyone reads reviews before booking. Marketing professor Nathalie Dens (University of Antwerp) cited 95 percent of bookers in the Belgian press. The exact figure shifts between studies, the direction does not.

Rating: the average shown next to your name in the list.
Count: how many guests stand behind that rating.
Freshness: is the latest review from last week or from 2023?
Replies: whether you respond, and in what tone.

When do you ask a guest for a review?

At the bill. It is the only point in a service where the guest sits still, already has a phone in hand and is still thinking about the meal. Ask earlier and you interrupt the table, ask later and the guest is already outside.

In most places the bill is the only genuine pause. The guest is seated, pays by Bancontact or Payconiq and has their phone out anyway. At that moment a QR code costs them no extra action, because the phone is already on the table.

Put the QR code in the bill folder or stick it on the bill holder.
Let your floor staff bring the bill as they always do, with no script.
The guest scans while waiting for their card or their change.
One tap on "it was good" takes them to your Google page.
If something went wrong, they can write to you there and then instead of letting it sit.

Why does almost nobody on the floor ask for a review?

Because there is no spare second during the rush and payment is contactless. Around 57 percent of Flemish hospitality businesses run without staff, so the owner is in the kitchen at the exact moment the question would need to be asked.

The floor runs on speed. A waiter who has to explain what a Google review is between two tables loses time they do not have, and feels awkward doing it. That awkwardness is fair enough: nobody wants to stand at a table asking for a compliment.

On top of that, paying keeps getting faster. A guest taps a card, stands up and leaves. The moment they are happiest lands exactly when nobody is speaking to them any more.

A QR code solves that without handing anyone a script. The request is attached to the bill, not to your waiter. Whoever wants to, scans. Whoever does not, pays and goes home.

What do you do with an unfair or fake review?

Report it to Google and reply briefly and factually in the meantime. Fake reviews are a real problem in Belgian hospitality: owners in Antwerp and Willebroek told the press they received reviews from people who had never set foot in their business.

Google only removes a review if it breaks Google’s own policy, for instance because it does not reflect a real customer experience. Report it through your Business Profile and describe factually why you believe the person was never there. Do not expect a fast decision.

Reply anyway. Not to beat the author, but for the next reader. Two sentences will do: that you cannot find the booking, that you are happy to help if something genuinely went wrong, and your contact details. Anyone reading that weighs the review more lightly.

A calm reply under an angry review convinces the reader more than the review itself.

The best antidote is still volume. A fair complaint about cold soup weighs heavily among twelve reviews and barely registers among two hundred. Collecting regularly matters more than cleaning up once.

How does ReviewsPro fit into a service?

You attach one QR code to the bill and can message guests whose number you already have, after a booking or a private party for example. The app tracks who has already been asked, so nobody gets the same message twice.

QR code: one image in the bill folder, on the bar or on the terrace board. No app needed for the guest.
WhatsApp or SMS: for guests whose number you already have from a booking or a group reservation.
Follow-up: one reminder after two days, then it stops. A third message costs goodwill.
Team: your floor manager can follow up without needing your phone.

Nothing changes about payment itself. Your till, your card terminal and your booking tool stay exactly as they are.

What can you realistically expect?

Expect a small share of your guests, but every single service. We promise no number: it depends on your business, your guests and how busy you are. What does hold is that a fixed request on every bill produces a steadier flow than asking now and then.

Nobody scans in large numbers, and they do not need to. The difference comes from repetition: a place that asks the same question every service collects all season, while a place that remembers occasionally gets spikes and long silences.

	Asking now and then	Fixed QR on the bill
Who asks	The waiter, if they remember	The bill, every time
Time lost on the floor	Half a minute per table	None
Follow-up	Nobody knows who was already asked	Visible in the app
Rhythm	Spikes after a good week	A little every service

Set a target you can keep up, and measure it against your own previous month rather than a figure from a brochure. Google names prominence as one of the three local ranking factors, alongside relevance and distance, and your reviews are the part of it you actually hold.

Frequently asked questions

Can I ask guests for a Google review right at the table?

Yes. You may ask your guests for a review as long as you ask everyone the same question and nothing is offered in return. Ask at every table, not only at the ones you assume were happy. Writing a review yourself, or having staff or family write one, is not allowed: those are fake reviews.

Can I offer a free drink in exchange for a review?

Better not. Google policy explicitly prohibits offering payment, a discount or free goods in exchange for a review, and Google removes those reviews when it spots them. Belgian and European consumer rules target reviews that are fake, undisclosed or misleading, so an incentive you keep quiet about is a problem there too. Ask without anything in return.

How do I respond to a negative review about food served cold?

Briefly, politely and concretely, within a day or two. Acknowledge the problem, explain in one sentence what you changed, and offer to put it right through a phone number or email address. Do not argue about the details of that evening. You are not writing for the angry guest, you are writing for the next reader who is hesitating.

What do I do if a guest mentions an allergic reaction in their review?

Handle that away from the review. Contact the person directly first to find out what happened and to check your allergen sheet, which carries a legal information duty. Then reply publicly in one neutral sentence saying you have been in touch. Never discuss a guest’s health in public.

Can I get a review removed from someone who never ate at my restaurant?

You can report it, Google decides on removal. Report the review as inauthentic through your Google Business Profile and describe factually why, for instance because you have no booking or receipt under that name or date. Google itself says a reported review is usually assessed within several days, and reply briefly and professionally in the meantime.

Does my Google rating affect whether I rank for "restaurant near me"?

Yes, alongside distance and relevance. Google names prominence as one of the three local ranking factors, and your reviews are the part of it you can actually influence. Google names your rating and your review count there, and says nothing about how recent they are. Freshness works on the reader instead: a profile whose latest review is from last week looks alive.

Attach the request to the bill, not to your waiter

Create your QR code, put it in the bill folder and track in the app who has already been asked. Your till and your booking tool stay exactly as they are.

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