Reviews That Mention Parking or Location

A complaint about something you cannot change

Five stars for the food, one for the parking. Or two stars from someone who circled the block three times, could not find the door and arrived late and annoyed.

Reviews like these gather around plazas, upper floors, industrial parks and anywhere the address leads somewhere unhelpful.

The complaint is usually genuine, and usually about something the business does not control: the size of the lot, the landlord's signs, a one-way street.

So most owners leave them alone, and each one sits there telling every future customer that getting to you is a struggle.

What these reviews usually say

• No parking at the time the reviewer arrived.
• No visible entrance from the street or the lot.
• The map pin sent them to the wrong side of the building.
• Paid or permit parking they did not expect.
• The surroundings felt unfamiliar or uncomfortable after dark.
• Too far from transit, or from where they were staying.

The third deserves checking before anything else. It is sometimes the business's own error, it produces the same complaint every week, and it can be corrected in an afternoon.

Who the reply is really for

The reviewer has been and gone. The people who matter are the ones reading the review next week, deciding whether your business is worth the trouble of getting to.

Write for them. A reply telling a stranger exactly where to park and which door to use turns a complaint into directions, right where they are already looking.

Nobody expects a restaurant or a clinic to control the parking. Readers do notice whether it tries to help.

What a useful reply contains

Thank the reviewer in a line, without debating whether the parking is really that bad. Then give the practical answer in two or three sentences.

Name the specific place: the lot behind the building, the underground parking with its ramp on the lane, the street parking that is free after six.

Describe the entrance as a first-time visitor sees it: beside the pharmacy, up the stairs under the blue awning, facing the lot rather than the street.

If some times are easier, say so. Knowing that the lot empties after seven on weekdays is something the next reader can plan around.

What to leave out

Do not blame the landlord, the city or the neighbouring businesses. Readers hear an excuse, and the reviewer's evening does not improve.

Do not argue about the area. If someone felt uneasy walking from the car at night, describe what is actually there: the lighting, and how far the door is from the lot.

Keep any apology short; a long one suggests the problem is worse than it is.

And do not offer a discount in public for the inconvenience. It invites the same complaint from the next person who would like one.

A worked example

A hot pot restaurant occupies the upper floor of a small suburban shopping plaza, above a bank and a dry cleaner. Its entrance is at the back, beside the ramp down to the underground parking.

Its reviews praised the broth and the sauce bar and complained about getting there: a full lot at seven on a Friday, and a restaurant nobody could find.

The reasons were simple. The surface lot served the whole plaza. The underground parking was free in the evening, but its ramp faced a side street, and the restaurant's sign was visible only from the back.

The map pin on the restaurant's listing also sat at the front of the plaza, so drivers relying on their phones arrived at the bank's door.

The owners moved the pin to the rear entrance, added photographs of the ramp and back door to the listing, and answered each parking review with the same two sentences about the underground lot.

The website gained a short getting-here section, and reservation confirmations now repeat it. The parking itself is exactly as it was.

Put the same help on the website

A reply helps the people who read that review. The website reaches customers who go straight to the address and never open the reviews.

Give parking and entrances a short section of their own, beside the address and hours, not buried in a page of questions.

Write it as directions from the way most people arrive: the main road, the highway exit, the nearest bus stop.

A photograph of the entrance, taken from where a driver or pedestrian first sees the building, often does more than a paragraph of description.

Check the pin and the photographs

Look up your business on a phone, in the map apps your customers use, and trace the route a stranger would take to the door.

Google My Business lets the owner move the pin when it sits on the wrong side of a building or in the middle of a large lot. Bing Places and Apple Maps Connect deserve the same check.

Owners can also add photographs to the listing. A picture of the entrance and the parking turn is worth more there than another shot of the dining room.

When the location really is the problem

Sometimes the reviews keep coming whatever you reply, because the location genuinely costs customers something: a long walk, expensive parking, a difficult turn across traffic.

Count those reviews, and note the days and times. A steady pattern on Friday evenings may justify validated parking, a reserved pickup space or a suggestion to book earlier.

Those are business decisions rather than website ones, but the reviews are the evidence for making them.

The counter-case

Not every mention needs a reply. A passing remark about parking in an otherwise warm review can be answered with thanks, or left alone.

Some complaints are not practical at all. A reviewer who simply dislikes the area will not be won over by directions, and arguing the point only draws attention to it.

And a business with ample parking and an obvious front door has little to add.

Where the same difficulty keeps appearing, though, reply with practical directions and put the same help on your website.

Getting them to the door

1. Find every review that mentions parking or the entrance.
2. Check the map pin on each of your listings.
3. Write two sentences of directions a stranger could use.
4. Reply to recent reviews with those sentences.
5. Photograph the entrance as a newcomer first sees it.
6. Add a getting-here section to your website.
7. Repeat it in booking and order confirmations.

Step two is the one to do first. A misplaced pin sends people to the wrong door every day, and no reply can undo where a phone has already taken them.

Who should reply when a brand has several locations is covered in responding to reviews as a franchise location.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.