Hi Guys, do any of you find this frustrating? and that is our inability to reply to comments on our reviews. Lately I received two comments from owners of historical locations that I photographed and posted reviews stating they really enjoyed my photos. But on my part I’m unable to reply with a thanks or an offer of a free print of the photo of their choice. I would love to do this as thanks for being allowed access to their property. I did search this topic here and the only answer was to contact them via their business address but a castle, abbey, priory, cemetery, or old ruin in the middle of a large field don’t have business contact details. For the people who do comment on my reviews, it seems rude and unkind to not be able to acknowledge their compliment, best wishes
Hy @MichaelRajGroves ,
I can understand what you saying but I don’t feel there’s need of re-replying of businesses replying to your review. You added valuable photos and reviews to a business and that business showed their thankful by adding a reply to your review.
As a local guide, I don’t recommend as you already given your valuable contribution as a review.
Moreover I am going to tag @ErmesT to share his thoughts.
Thank you for your reply but I must say there are many Local Guides that feel different and as you rightly state, our contributions have value, then maybe its time to rethink the option. Your personal opinion or mine are far less important than the majority of Local Guides that would enjoy this option. Google Maps is always evolving, so why can’t change be embraced? best wishes
I cannot understand why you want to it. Google Maps is evolving but I don’t think and will never these get into because it will erase the idea of why we contribute.
Also how a local guide enjoy this option? Being a Local guide is always for helping the community. Apart of that, giving a token to a business because they replied to you isn’t that much of local guide activity but only a personal choice. @MichaelRajGroves
It’s not about a free print it’s about thanking an owner for access to their property and the fact you cant understand why I might want to thank someone in their reply to my review is baffling, kindness is the hallmark of good manners, this is part of our culture here in Ireland, which I thought was universal. Why not let other Local Guides decide for themselves instead of presuming Google knows best. Thankfully it’s not just you and me, cheers
Dear @MichaelRajGroves ,
It is never been the points. Google Maps is not a social media to have long list of reviews. We are already giving our thoughts and experience by reviewing and businesses are giving it back through a reply. I don’t understand why we need or have to make it long.
It is universal. We volunteer and contribute. We are not going to give token to every business’s replies right. Don’t take it as personal and we work as a community.
Note : you are already giving your experiences as a review firstly and then why you want a feature to re-reply??
Because I’m not the only local guide who has asked for this feature. You simply don’t seem to get it and that’s my problem. Because you see no need for it is irrelevant, it’s what I myself and other local guides want/request that counts. Just check other forums as I did through the search to see, I’m not the first to ask for this feature. Finally, are you the person who makes decisions for all local guides? cheers
Dear @MichaelRajGroves , I never seen a request for this feature in this community. This is our official Community for Local Guides. I never makes decisions for all local guides but I know what’s good for the community. It’s always my point of view.
Also please make maks that other local guides comes to this community and then we can see.
We will see that is something we can both agree on, cheers
Hi @MichaelRajGroves , and thank you for your tag, @Rahul001
Sorry for the late reply.
Well, time by time this subject appeared in Connect too, and I fully understand what you are talking about, Michael.
Years ago I wrote a review about an hotel in central Italy. During the 2016 Earthquake the hotel was damaged and consequently closed because unusable. They quickly moved the restaurant in a couple of containers in the parking area of the hotel, to provide food for the people that was going, like me, to help the population involved in the tragedy. In Google Maps they left the hotel as open. I gave 4 stars and in my review I explained that I did this because the information about the hotel’s status was wrong, and that I would have been happy to add a star if the hotel had been listed as closed, keeping only the restaurant open. The business responded to my review by explaining that they had kept the hotel listing open because they were afraid of losing customers.
Clearly a dialogue had been started with the hotel owner, and a response would undoubtedly have been necessary. So I edited my review, adding that I had traveled 400 km to reach that place and only then discovered that the hotel was unusable (on their booking page all the rooms were free but there was no way to book), and had had to struggle quite a bit to find accommodation in an area where many homes had been destroyed by the earthquake.
The next day the business changed the hotel status to closed, and thanked me for the review.
Review that I changed to 5 stars, praising the courageous choice to keep the restaurant open even in such a difficult situation.
So I understand how sometimes being able to respond to business could make sense.
However, I must also say that most of the requests of this type made in Connect are related to situations in which users want to open a conversation because they are using their review for different purposes, such as obtaining a refund, or because of a grudge for the service received, for a price deemed to be against the law, and so on, using the negative review as a threat, while instead they should take legal action.
I believe this is the main reason why Maps has not implemented this possibility in reviews, and on the other hand I believe (but I could be wrong and I will be happy to be proven wrong) that no other platform that hosts reviews has it.
So when I want to thank the business for their response I either go visit them (if it’s a nearby location) or I update my review with a thank you note.
First, can I congratulate you on a fantastic response, no lectures just plain common sense? Your story is unbelievable and explains so well how communication works. I understand that Google Maps is not a social media platform and my circumstances are not the average local guides experience but because I constantly enter land with no knowledge of just who owns it and was able to capture the structure I was looking for, to then see a reply from the owner was frustrating as number one I would love to have been able to thank them for access and as there reply mentioned how much they enjoyed the photos, I also wanted to offer them a free print of their choice postage included as a gesture of my appreciation. No other motive only showing thanks, years ago I was allowed access to a private castle with instructions not to publish my photos which I obliged and three years later the Office Of Public Works contacted me to see if I still had the photos as the castle wall had collapsed and with a photo they would be able to restore it to its original condition. There are so many reasons why one would want to correspond with a land or structure owner, but your story puts everything into perspective. Your reply was fair and balanced, best wishes to you and many thanks for your reply, cheers
You are welcome, @MichaelRajGroves
Kudos for this
Reading your reply I can’t help but think back to the reason why I’m here in Connect today.
My first post is no longer accessible in the community, but what I wanted to do was to use the images of the places that were destroyed to create a historical memory of those places. So we created a non profit association and I knocked on Google’s door.
As I said, the old posts are no longer available, so if you want to read the story you may have to start from here, even if some link doesn’t work: From the day when everything started - Maps of earthquake in central Italy
A few months later I was invited to moderate the community, and Google sent a team in the area of the earthquake to talk about us
https://youtu.be/kToliCi79wc?si=39ybb03CEYr5EhzV
Back to your story, is the place now on Google Maps? If so, do you have permission to post photos.
I think it would be really cool if you could share your experience with other Local Guides
Oh just another small thing: As you are asking a question, I am changing your category to a more appropriate one: Google Maps tips & tricks - Local Guides Connect
Thank you for sharing your experience
Ermes
Your story would make a great Netflix series. The location photos that had the wall collapse were never published and I gave a full copy of the photos to the owners. As of today, no one has ever photographed it, although if you had a long lens you would be able to get its outline from a distance. For me, the satisfaction came from the lady owner trusting me enough having never met me before to photograph her Castle and when the time came to restoring the wall she wanted to give me credit but I declined, Im the man behind the camera not the man in front of it. I will look at the Utube video and I can see your passion for what you do, may the God of heaven bless your work and may all your dreams be fulfilled, cheers