Review Sites by Industry in Germany: Where Customers Review

For most local businesses it starts with Google. It does not end there. A hotel also lives on Booking.com, a salon on Treatwell, a medical practice on Jameda. And each of these sites has its own rules: who can leave a review, whether you can reply, what a listing costs.

This overview lists, by industry, the sites that collect reviews of businesses in Germany. Details on rules and costs come from the help and business pages of the sites themselves, read on October 4, 2026; the court rulings come from the website of Germany's Federal Court of Justice, the statute from gesetze-im-internet.de. Several of those pages exist only in German; where we quote them, we give the meaning in English rather than an invented quote. Where we could not open a page, we say so.

Google also shows reviews from other sites

Before the industries: what appears on other review sites can also show up on your Google Business Profile. Google calls these third-party reviews and says: "The type of business and where it's located decide what reviews are shown and how they look on different devices."

You have no say in it: "You can't choose which website a review comes from. You can't stop reviews from other websites." For businesses in the European Economic Area, Germany included, there is at least one route when something there is wrong: "Businesses in the European Economic Area (EEA) can report reviews from other websites directly on Google."

Source: About third-party reviews, Google Business Profile Help.

So an industry site is not just a second shop window. What is written there can end up in the first one.

Restaurants

Tripadvisor lists restaurants, hotels and attractions. Replies there follow stricter rules than on Google, for example no bullet points and no quotes from the review. What is allowed is covered in Managing Tripadvisor Reviews. We could not open Tripadvisor's business terms directly on October 4, 2026; the pages blocked the request.

TheFork only collects reviews from guests who booked through the platform. In German, TheFork says that only people who actually kept their reservation can leave a review. You can reply straight from the review overview. For restaurants, TheFork is a paid reservation system with a setup fee (TheFork Manager, in German). TheFork belongs to the Tripadvisor group.

OpenTable works the same way: "Reviews on OpenTable come only from guests with a completed reservation." Replies go through the OpenTable dashboard.

Yelp has a rule that surprises many businesses. Claiming your page is free, and you can reply to reviews. But you may not ask for reviews: "businesses are not permitted to ask their customers for reviews" (Yelp Trust & Safety). The request that is allowed on Google can hurt you on Yelp.

Hotels and holiday rentals

Booking.com: according to its German about page, a review can only be written after a booking. The invitation to review arrives about 48 hours after check-out. You reply in the Extranet or the Pulse app, and Booking.com checks replies first, which can take up to 72 hours according to its partner help.

HolidayCheck, a German travel review site, gives hotels free access to their own profile through its "Business Center". You can comment on reviews there. A premium profile is available on top.

Airbnb: after check-out, guest and host are both asked to leave a review and have 14 days to do so. You can post a public response to a published review.

Tripadvisor belongs here too, with the same reply rules as for restaurants.

For hotels the Google point above applies with extra force: "A hotel's Business Profile on Google Search and Maps might show reviews from travel websites."

Trades

MyHammer, a German marketplace for tradespeople, only lets customers review a business they hired through the platform, and only once the work has started or a deposit has been paid. Its review policy has its own section on how businesses respond.

CHECK24 Profis labels reviews in three ways: verified booking, verified contact and external customer review. Only the first requires that a customer hired you through CHECK24. Registration is free; for some services there are fees for the customer contacts it passes on. You can reply under verified reviews, and its customer service checks your replies before they go live.

KennstDuEinen, a German directory, lists businesses of every kind. Listing is free, replying is not: on a free listing there is no way to respond to reviews.

ProvenExpert collects reviews for service providers. On the free plan, 10 reviews are publicly visible.

Hair and beauty salons

Treatwell sends a review request after every appointment and only publishes recent reviews: in German, it says it publishes only reviews written up to 3 months after the appointment. Treatwell says it charges commission only on a client's first booking.

Planity only lets online bookings be reviewed. Appointments made by phone and entered by hand in the calendar cannot be reviewed, its help says. One more detail: the salon can reject a review, but only for four set reasons, such as insults or a review that refers to no service the salon offers. A review without a comment must always be accepted, its help says. If a review is rejected, the client gets an email with the reason.

Fresha: "Following each completed appointment, clients are invited to leave a review". You can reply to reviews. Fresha is a booking system with a monthly price.

Real estate agents

ImmoScout24, a German property portal, has its own agent reviews with two routes. Property seekers receive an invitation once they send a contact request through a listing. Sellers and landlords you have worked for are invited by you, in ScoutManager; they then have 90 days to leave a review. You can switch off the public display of your reviews in ScoutManager. We did not find a reply function in its help pages.

Immowelt also has agent reviews. Its help pages were unreachable on October 4, 2026, so we could not check its terms. Immonet no longer exists as a separate site; the address redirects to Immowelt.

So your clients only review you on ImmoScout24 if you invite them. On Google they can do so at any time.

Doctor review sites: medical practices

Jameda: anyone aged 18 or over who has or had direct contact with the doctor can write a review, according to Jameda. A booking through Jameda is not required. The free plan lets you read and comment on reviews (Jameda pricing, in German).

TK-Ärzteführer, offered by the health insurer Techniker Krankenkasse, already lists every doctor in private practice. All reviews are anonymous, and doctors can comment on them.

sanego and, for hospitals, Klinikbewertungen.de collect reviews too. Weisse Liste's doctor search was switched off in 2022, and the Bertelsmann Stiftung ended the whole project in 2024.

Legally, Germany's Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has ruled on doctor review sites several times. In 2014 it rejected a doctor's claim to have his data deleted; what he can demand is the removal of untrue statements of fact and insulting or otherwise unlawful reviews (BGH, VI ZR 358/13, in German). In 2016 it ruled that when a treatment is disputed, the site must ask the reviewer for proof such as a bonus booklet or a prescription (BGH, VI ZR 34/15). In 2018 it sided with a doctor who wanted her listing deleted: the site showed competitors, marked as ads, on the profiles of non-paying doctors but not on those of paying ones, and so gave up its position as a "neutral" information provider (BGH, VI ZR 30/17). And in 2021 it held that doctors must in principle accept being listed and reviewed on such a site (BGH, VI ZR 488/19).

Replying to reviews is more delicate in a practice than in most industries: even confirming that someone was a patient is information that does not belong in public.

Lawyer reviews: law firms

Besides Google, anwalt.de and KennstDuEinen collect reviews of law firms. We could not open anwalt.de's terms on October 4, 2026; the site blocked the request. For KennstDuEinen the same applies as for trades: listing is free, replying only on a paid listing.

For law firms the rule is the same as for practices: a reply says nothing about whether someone was a client. German lawyers are bound to confidentiality about everything they learn in the course of their work (Section 43a(2) BRAO, in German).

Car dealers and garages

AutoScout24: in German, it says a user can only review your dealership after contacting you through the AutoScout24 contact form. You can also invite buyers of your vehicles yourself, for 30 days after the vehicle is removed from the site; so reviews come from people who contacted you through AutoScout24 or who bought from you and were invited. You can comment on reviews when signed in.

mobile.de also requires contact: every dealer review must be based on contact between reviewer and dealer that mobile.de can see. After a purchase, the dealer can invite the buyer by email for 30 days.

Retail and online shops

Trustpilot is open: anyone with a genuine experience can leave a review, with or without an invitation. Trustpilot says: "An experience doesn't necessarily mean a purchase". The business account is available for free and includes replying to reviews. What else the free plan covers is in Trustpilot for Local Businesses.

Trusted Shops is aimed mainly at online shops; paid membership costs a monthly fee. Any shop can be reviewed, member or not. Whether a review is based on a purchase is only checked for paying members, and only those verified reviews count toward their overall score.

What this means for your business

• Google first. When someone searches for your business on Google, your Business Profile appears, with its reviews and possibly those from other sites.
• Then one, at most two, industry sites. Two well-kept profiles beat five abandoned ones. A site that only allows reviews after a booking fills up from the bookings made through that site; an open site such as Trustpilot or KennstDuEinen fills up mainly if you invite people.
• Know the rules of each site. On Google you may ask for reviews, without incentives and without picking only happy customers (Google's Review Policy Explained). On Yelp you may not ask at all. Tripadvisor has its own reply rules.
• Check whether you can reply. On KennstDuEinen only with a paid listing; on ImmoScout24 we found no reply function.

Frequently asked questions

Which review sites matter most in Germany?

For most local businesses, Google, because your Business Profile there can also show reviews from other sites. After that it depends on the industry. Obvious candidates are Tripadvisor for restaurants and hotels, Booking.com for accommodation, Treatwell or Planity for salons, Jameda for medical practices, ImmoScout24 for real estate agents, AutoScout24 and mobile.de for car dealers, Trustpilot or Trusted Shops for online shops.

Can I stop my business from being listed on a review site?

Usually not. Google says explicitly that reviews from other websites on your Business Profile cannot be stopped. For doctor review sites, the Federal Court of Justice ruled in 2021 that doctors must in principle accept being listed and reviewed; it was different in 2018, because the site protected only paying doctors from displayed competitors. You can take action against individual untrue or insulting reviews. For the reviews themselves there is one exception: on ImmoScout24 you can switch off their display, but only for all of them at once.

Are reviews on booking-based sites more trustworthy?

They are tied to a real transaction: a booking on Booking.com, a job on MyHammer, an enquiry or a purchase on AutoScout24. Open sites such as Trustpilot accept any experience. Both have their place; what matters is knowing which kind you are looking at.

Can I ask for reviews on every site?

No. On Google yes, within Google's rules. On Yelp explicitly not. On most booking-based sites the invitation comes from the site; on AutoScout24, mobile.de and ImmoScout24 you can also invite buyers and clients yourself.

Reviews from several sites in one place

In every paid plan, Regiofy brings your reviews from Google, Tripadvisor and Trustpilot into one place and suggests replies, which you post yourself on each site. Regiofy does not connect the other sites in this overview today.

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