If you are building reviews on a booking marketplace, you are building them in the wrong place. Marketplace reviews are not useless. They can help your listing inside that platform. But they do not belong to you, and when you leave, they stay behind. Reviews are one of the most valuable things a client can give you: a public, durable signal that your salon is worth trusting. Where that signal lives determines whether it works for your salon or for the platform sitting between you and your clients. Most salon owners have never thought about this. That is exactly what the platforms are counting on.
Why reviews are so valuable in the first place
Reviews are the first thing clients look at before they book
BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey found that 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses. 41% say they always read reviews before visiting, up from 29% the year before. 47% won't use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and 68% require at least a 4-star rating before they consider booking.
A client is choosing who touches their hair, their skin, their brows. A strong Google profile gives them a reason to trust you before you ever speak. Without it, they go with the place down the street that has 400 reviews.
Reviews do more than one job
Reviews build trust before a client picks up the phone. They help your salon show up in search, because Google explicitly counts review volume and rating as ranking signals. They convert nervous clients who cannot quite bring themselves to book someone new. And they compound: a salon with 400 genuine Google reviews is nearly impossible for a competitor to match quickly.
All of that value depends on where the reviews actually live.
Review volume and recency matter as much as rating
74% of consumers prioritise reviews from the last three months. A 5.0 rating with 30 reviews is often less convincing than a 4.8 with 300. A larger body of recent reviews feels real in a way a perfect score with a small sample does not. It shows that real clients keep choosing you, across different services and different stylists.
Volume and recency tell a new client that real people keep choosing you, which no competitor can fake quickly. If you want a deeper look at how and when to ask for reviews, the first guide in this series covers that in full.
Reviews compound. The earlier you start, the harder you are to beat.
Unlike ads, which stop working the moment you stop paying, reviews accumulate. A salon that has been collecting Google reviews for five years has a profile no competitor can replicate with a sprint campaign. The moat is real. But only if the reviews are building in a place that actually belongs to you.
Not all reviews are the same
A Google review and a marketplace review are not the same thing
Google reviews live on your Google Business Profile, visible in Search, Maps, and increasingly AI-powered recommendations. A marketplace review lives inside that platform's ecosystem. The difference is distribution and ownership.
Where a review lives determines who it works for
A review on your Google Business Profile helps your salon show up when someone nearby searches "hair salon near me." A review on a booking platform helps that platform's listing rank. It tells Google that the marketplace page is authoritative, not your salon directly.
You did the work. The client recommended you. But the platform collects the authority.
AI discovery is making this gap wider, not smaller
45% of consumers now use ChatGPT or AI tools for business recommendations, up from just 6% the year before (BrightLocal 2026). AI tools pull from publicly accessible sources. Reviews buried inside a marketplace's app are less visible to these tools than your Google Business Profile.
Public, portable proof on the open web is getting more valuable. Reviews locked inside a platform are getting less so.
The ownership problem
When you leave a platform, the reviews usually don't come with you
When a salon switches from Fresha to Booksy, or to direct booking, the review count stays behind. You might be able to export your client data. The reviews? They stay with the platform.
You have been building an asset that belongs to someone else.
Building reviews in the wrong place is like constructing a beautiful house on land you don't own. All the work, none of the equity.
This is not a mistake. It is by design.
Marketplaces want their ecosystem to be sticky. The more reviews you build inside their platform, the harder it is to leave. They do not need to announce this. The incentive is built into the model. Every review you collect on Fresha or Booksy makes you more dependent on them. When you leave, you may take your client list, but you leave behind all your proof.
None of this is a conspiracy. It is just how the business model works. But once you see it, it is hard to unsee.
Reviews compound. But only if they compound for you.
A salon that has spent five years building Google reviews has 400+ of them. A competitor cannot buy their way past that quickly. But if those same 400 reviews are on Fresha, you have spent five years compounding for someone else. Five years of client trust, sitting inside a system you do not own.
What happens when salons switch platforms
The review reset is one of the hidden costs of switching
Switching booking software should be a straightforward decision about features and cost. Many salon owners discover it is harder than that. The reviews they have built on the platform feel like leverage the platform holds without ever saying so.
Client data and reviews are two different problems
Many platforms now let you export client data: names, emails, appointment history. But reviews are different. You cannot download them and re-publish on Google. They are format-specific and locked to the platform by design. Reviews are tied to the platform and cannot be transferred.
A concrete example: what a salon loses when they leave
Picture a salon that spent two years asking clients to review them on Fresha after every appointment. They have 285 reviews on their Fresha listing. They decide to switch to direct booking. Those reviews are now attached to a listing on a platform they no longer use. Their Google Business Profile meanwhile has just 32 reviews, and looks barren and a worse alternative to other local businesses.
You did all the good work, but the evidence just went to the wrong place.
of consumers read reviews for local businesses before visiting
BrightLocal 2026
now use AI tools for business recommendations, up from 6% last year
BrightLocal 2026
prioritise reviews from the last three months over older reviews
BrightLocal 2026
Where your review energy should go
Start with Google, regardless of which booking software you use
Google reviews stay with your business, not with your booking tool. Whether you use Askie, Square, Jane App, Mindbody, Fresha, or a plain contact form, your Google Business Profile is yours. It exists before a client reaches your booking page, and it follows you through every software change you will ever make.
71% of consumers still use Google to find local businesses. And even as that share shifts toward AI tools, those AI tools pull heavily from Google's public data. Building Google reviews feeds both.
Let marketplace reviews be a secondary signal, not the foundation
If a client is already inside Fresha browsing salons, a strong Fresha listing may be the reason they call. That is fine. But your primary habit should point to Google. Let marketplace reviews happen as a byproduct. Do not train your team to send clients there first.
Ask yourself: if I switched booking software tomorrow, what would my reputation look like to a new client searching Google?
If the answer is "not great," that is the gap to close. Not because you are planning to switch, but because your Google profile should be strong enough that you could switch without losing your reputation.
How to shift your review strategy
Audit where your reviews currently live
Before changing anything, do this:
The quick audit:
- Search your salon name on Google Maps. How many reviews do you have?
- Check your Fresha (or Booksy, Vagaro) listing. How many reviews are there?
- Which number is bigger?
That gap tells you where your review energy has been going. No judgement. Most salon owners will find the marketplace number is higher. Now you know.
Redirect the ask. You do not need to make a big deal of it.
You do not need to tell clients you are changing platforms or explain the ownership argument to them. Just point the review ask at Google instead of the marketplace. One link swap. One habit shift. The compounding starts working for you instead of someone else.
For exactly how to ask, what to say, and scripts for every channel, see the full guide on getting more Google reviews.
Get your Google review link and put it everywhere
In your Google Business Profile, you can find and copy a direct review link for your salon. That link should live in your follow-up text messages, your Instagram saved replies, and somewhere your team can access it at checkout. Do not let it exist only in one person's browser history.
What to do about existing marketplace reviews
You cannot move them. The reviews on Fresha or Booksy stay there. But you can start building in the right place now. In twelve months, your Google profile will look different. In three years, the platform reviews will matter less. You are not behind. You are just recalibrating.
Reviews compound. The question is who they compound for. A review on your Google Business Profile makes your salon more trusted in local search. A review on a booking platform makes the platform more trusted. Build where it belongs to you.
Start building on Google today. When you do switch platforms, your reputation comes with you.
How strong is your salon's online presence?
Run the free Askie Booking Scorecard. It looks at the signals clients see before they book: your Google presence, reviews, booking accessibility, and whether your reputation is building in a place that works for you.
In a few minutes, you will know where you stand and where your online presence is quietly leaking bookings.