Should a café contact a customer about a bad review?

Cupán Studio sells café websites. We build them for cafés in Ireland, so we have an interest in the answer.

In one 2014 boards.ie thread, some posters said the manager of a hotel restaurant should have answered a TripAdvisor review on TripAdvisor (the poster who started the thread says the manager replied there as well), not by contacting the reviewer's friend. Some posts said they did not know what the manager had said to the friend and it was too soon to judge. The thread is from 2014 and is about a hotel restaurant, not a café, so read it as what those posters said, not as a rule. Our view: reply where the review was posted, and do not contact anyone who did not invite contact.

Where the question came from

This answer draws on a boards.ie thread titled "posting a restaurant review in Trip Advisor query", started on 9 December 2014, with 47 replies when read. The poster who started it asked whether it was bad form for a manager to contact their friend about a review.

What happened in the thread?

The poster who started it wrote a negative TripAdvisor review of a meal at a restaurant in a hotel, at a friend's birthday. They wrote that the manager then contacted their friend about the review. The poster wrote that they had booked the meal and "had been point of contact", and asked: "Was it bad form that she contacted my friend?" On 9 December 2014 the poster also wrote: "Manager did reply to the TA review on the site". It is one person's account of one meal in 2014, and the replies did not agree on it.

What did posters say the manager should have done?

Some said the manager should have replied on TripAdvisor itself. On 9 December 2014 one wrote: "I do think that the manager should have used the same channel to respond." Another wrote that day: "There was no need to contact the OP's friend. The hotel could have posted their rebuttal directly on the review website." We have not counted the replies, so we do not say how many held this view. A later post that day said a venue should ask before following up in person: "If the venue had already responded on TA, I don't think they should have followed up with the person without first asking permission if they could contact them in person."

Did everyone in the thread agree?

No. Some posts said the thread did not have enough detail to blame the manager. A post on 9 December 2014 said: "I think it would be worth us getting the actual details before condemning the manager." A post later that day saw no issue in the manager also reaching out to a contact of the group: "I see no issue in also reaching out to a contact of the group making the complaint pending what exactly was said." The poster who started the thread wrote that the friend "just got an email" and that they could not be more specific about what was between the friend and the manager.

What did posters say customers should do?

Several said a customer should raise a problem on the night. On 9 December 2014 one wrote: "the first port of call is to at the time call the manager over and bring up the problems, this gives them an opportunity to remediate the issues". Another wrote that day: "Its as simple as this - get your gripes heard there and then." One post was more cautious. Later that day one wrote: "It's not always a good idea to pursue a range of complaints at a special event: it can interfere with the group's enjoyment of a night out together." So it is a view from the thread, not a finding. The spelling in the quotes above is the posters' own.

What can a café take from it?

Our view, not the thread's: reply to a review where it was posted, because that is where the reviewer and the next reader will both see it. Do not contact anyone the reviewer did not invite contact from, such as a friend, a colleague or the person who made the booking. In our view, if the reviewer left their own contact details for you, that is different, and a reply on the review can ask them to get in touch. For how to write the reply itself, see how to reply to Google reviews as a café. For whether customers read these sites at all, see do customers check TripAdvisor before choosing a café or restaurant.

Sources

• boards.ie, "posting a restaurant review in Trip Advisor query", 9 December 2014, read 21 October 2026.
• Cupán Studio, replying to Google reviews, read 21 October 2026.
• Cupán Studio, do customers check TripAdvisor, read 21 October 2026.

This is a summary of a public boards.ie thread of December 2014 about a hotel restaurant, read on 21 October 2026, not advice for your shop. The quotes are the posters' own words; our view is marked as ours. Cupán Studio builds websites for cafés in Ireland.