Star Pubs swaps mystery visits for a free reviews app across its leased and tenanted pubs

Star Pubs is giving its leased and tenanted (L&T) licensees free access to an online reputation management app called Reputation, The Morning Advertiser reports. It replaces the company's mystery visitor programme.

The app has been used across Star's Just Add Talent pubs for two years, and Star says reviews there have improved significantly since. It also says pubs with the strongest reputation scores generated, on average, 24% more revenue than those with the lowest.

What it does - Pulls reviews from Google, Facebook and TripAdvisor into one place, in real time - Lets publicans reply from the app, with AI-drafted responses they can edit - Tracks a pub's social media presence and benchmarks it against the wider industry - Flags areas of concern and gives guidance on how to improve

Star says feedback from its Just Add Talent operators and business development managers led it to bring the roll-out forward, so L&T pubs can use it over the festive season. It sits alongside The Social Collective, Star's training platform for publicans and their teams.

What it means for your site: if you're a Star licensee, get set up before December bookings peak. If you're not, the same habit works with free tools: read every review weekly, reply to the bad ones fast and in your own voice, and brief the team on anything that keeps coming up.