Does payment affect rankings and reviews?

Short answer: no. Payment never changes reviews, ratings or our editorial rankings. Here we explain what payment actually affects, and what it does not.

What payment affects

Businesses can buy priority placement or a premium listing. The business can then be shown higher in the catalogue lists for its category and city. Such placements are always marked with the label "Annons" (advertisement) and a crown icon. The crown means the business pays.

Businesses without priority placement are shown in the standard order of the catalogue, which does not depend on payment.

What payment does not affect

• Reviews: we do not remove honest negative reviews for payment, and we do not publish positive reviews for payment.
• Ratings and stars: they are calculated the same way for everyone.
• Editorial rankings, for example lists of the best hotels in a city: they are not for sale.
• Moderation: reviews that break the rules are handled the same way for all businesses, paying or not.

How are the rankings made?

Our editorial team weighs the information about the place (address, opening hours, prices, how current the information is), reviews from visitors, an editorial check and how easy it is for the guest, for example location, booking and accessibility. The same criteria apply to everyone.

Why are we so careful?

Under the Swedish Marketing Act, advertising must be recognisable, and anyone who shows consumer reviews must say how they are checked. The Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket) points out that businesses may not post fake reviews. Read more in Why real reviews matter more than fake ones.

More in How the Rankings Work, Review Moderation and the Terms for Paid Services. To see what the paid services include, read What paid services are there for businesses?.

Related

• What paid services are there for businesses?
• Why real reviews matter more than fake ones
• How the Rankings Work
• Review Moderation
• Terms for Paid Services

Sources

• Swedish Marketing Act, marknadsföringslag (2008:486), including section 12 c on consumer reviews, in Swedish (riksdagen.se)
• Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket): the Marketing Act for consumers, in Swedish (konsumentverket.se)
• How the Rankings Work (SverigesForetagsGuide)