RV businesses answer 66% of their 5-star reviews but only 45% of their 1-star reviews
We checked whether the owner replied to each of 294,607 Google reviews of 35,211 RV storage lots, repair shops, rental companies, dealers, detailers and inspectors. Owners answered 63.2% of reviews overall, but they answer praise more than complaints: 66.0% of 5-star reviews got a reply, against 45.4% of 1-star reviews. The gap shows up in every one of the six business types.
By the RV Inspectors research desk · Published October 25, 2026
Key findings
- Owners answer praise more than complaints. 66.0% of 5-star reviews got an owner reply (165,572 of 250,957), against 45.4% of 1-star reviews (11,980 of 26,410).
- It holds in all six business types. The 5-star reply rate beats the 1-star rate for storage, repair, rental, dealers, detailing and inspection.
- Storage has the widest gap: 73.4% of 5-star reviews answered versus 48.6% of 1-star reviews, a 24.8-point difference. Repair has the narrowest, at 6.8 points (48.7% vs 41.9%).
- Rental companies reply least. They answered 43.0% of reviews overall and 29.2% of 1-star reviews.
- RV inspectors answer 61.5% of reviews, including 53.2% of their 111 one-star reviews and 61.9% of their 1,986 five-star reviews.
- By state, reply rates run from 47.1% in Alaska to 78.6% in New Jersey, among 48 states with at least 500 reviews.
Reply rate by star rating
Across all six directories, the reply rate climbs with the rating. One- to three-star reviews get answered a little under half the time; five-star reviews get answered two times in three.
By business type
| Storage | 205,399 | 69.9 | 48.6 | 52.4 | 48.5 | 55.5 | 73.4 |
| Detailing | 12,269 | 65.6 | 55.6 | 46.4 | 58.8 | 61.1 | 66.1 |
| Inspection | 2,124 | 61.5 | 53.2 | 70.0 (n = 10) | 57.1 (n = 7) | 70.0 (n = 10) | 61.9 |
| Dealers | 28,596 | 53.0 | 44.7 | 46.8 | 48.1 | 44.0 | 54.7 |
| Repair | 59,738 | 47.9 | 41.9 | 42.2 | 48.2 | 43.8 | 48.7 |
| Rental | 7,813 | 43.0 | 29.2 | 30.0 | 31.1 | 34.2 | 45.4 |
One-star reviews per type: storage 18,261, repair 5,687, dealers 3,571, rental 807, detailing 358, inspection 111. A business listed in two directories counts in both rows here, so the rows add to more than the 294,607 unique reviews. Download this table (CSV)
Storage dominates the totals: 205,399 of the reviews are of storage lots, and 84.3% of those are five-star. That pulls the overall five-star reply rate up. Within every type, though, the direction is the same. RV inspectors sit near the top for replies overall, which matters to buyers comparing pre-purchase inspectors.
By state
| New Jersey | 3,536 | 78.6 | 258 | 49.2 |
| Rhode Island | 562 | 76.9 | 42 | 64.3 (small n) |
| Maryland | 3,562 | 76.4 | 305 | 58.4 |
| Connecticut | 1,369 | 75.0 | 107 | 62.6 |
| Massachusetts | 2,338 | 73.8 | 190 | 46.3 |
| Virginia | 6,158 | 72.6 | 623 | 50.6 |
| South Carolina | 6,310 | 71.4 | 520 | 48.1 |
| Georgia | 10,097 | 69.2 | 833 | 48.6 |
| North Carolina | 10,856 | 69.1 | 868 | 53.1 |
| New York | 5,821 | 68.8 | 568 | 53.3 |
| Florida | 27,422 | 68.7 | 2,369 | 42.7 |
| Tennessee | 7,560 | 66.3 | 567 | 53.3 |
| West Virginia | 871 | 65.7 | 77 | 71.4 (small n) |
| Illinois | 6,207 | 63.8 | 615 | 39.5 |
| Pennsylvania | 6,438 | 63.5 | 543 | 51.6 |
| Texas | 37,968 | 63.3 | 3,455 | 44.2 |
| Delaware | 693 | 63.2 | 47 | 55.3 (small n) |
| Nevada | 3,999 | 63.1 | 381 | 40.4 |
| Ohio | 7,732 | 63.1 | 775 | 50.5 |
| Utah | 5,289 | 63.1 | 451 | 44.1 |
| Arkansas | 4,161 | 62.1 | 350 | 56.0 |
| Indiana | 5,868 | 61.9 | 620 | 42.7 |
| Colorado | 8,414 | 61.5 | 832 | 44.7 |
| Missouri | 6,457 | 61.5 | 544 | 50.6 |
| Mississippi | 2,310 | 61.4 | 194 | 49.0 |
| Kentucky | 2,972 | 61.1 | 291 | 48.1 |
| Minnesota | 4,011 | 61.0 | 374 | 43.9 |
| California | 28,363 | 60.6 | 2,357 | 36.8 |
| Washington | 9,953 | 60.6 | 981 | 41.6 |
| Arizona | 10,772 | 60.5 | 925 | 44.5 |
| New Hampshire | 1,368 | 60.3 | 155 | 52.9 |
| North Dakota | 705 | 60.3 | 60 | 58.3 (small n) |
| Alabama | 5,630 | 60.0 | 459 | 46.2 |
| Michigan | 8,724 | 58.7 | 857 | 49.2 |
| Idaho | 4,114 | 58.6 | 347 | 42.7 |
| Kansas | 2,408 | 58.2 | 248 | 41.5 |
| Oklahoma | 5,392 | 57.3 | 537 | 41.2 |
| Wisconsin | 4,629 | 56.8 | 431 | 53.6 |
| Maine | 1,245 | 55.4 | 89 | 53.9 (small n) |
| Montana | 2,550 | 54.1 | 236 | 37.3 |
| Wyoming | 1,047 | 53.2 | 107 | 48.6 |
| Nebraska | 1,795 | 52.9 | 184 | 42.9 |
| Iowa | 2,356 | 52.7 | 221 | 48.4 |
| South Dakota | 862 | 51.5 | 90 | 36.7 (small n) |
| Oregon | 6,455 | 51.3 | 630 | 38.9 |
| Louisiana | 3,098 | 51.2 | 300 | 37.3 |
| New Mexico | 2,384 | 50.9 | 252 | 42.5 |
| Alaska | 981 | 47.1 | 99 | 35.4 (small n) |
Small n marks states with fewer than 100 one-star reviews. Download this table (CSV)
What it means for you
A reply to a bad review is one of the few public signs of how a business handles a problem. When you're choosing an inspector, a shop or a storage lot, read the one-star reviews and the replies under them.
- Look for a calm, specific reply that explains what happened and offers a fix. That says more than a row of five-star thank-yous.
- A silent one-star review isn't proof of anything, but a pattern of unanswered complaints is worth a question before you book.
- Ask the hard question up front. For an inspector, ask what happens if they miss something, and whether the report comes with photos. See certified RV inspectors and mobile RV inspection.
- If you run an RV business, answer the one-star reviews first. In our data they're the ones most often left hanging.
- Check what inspectors tend to find before you book: what RV inspectors find.
The infographic
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How we did this
- We used the Google reviews with text that we collected for every approved business in our six RV directories (storage, repair, rental, dealers, detailing and inspection): 294,607 unique reviews of 35,211 businesses, dated 2007 to October 2026, collected via DataForSEO in October 2026.
- Reviews were collected as a sample of each business's most relevant Google reviews, typically up to 10 per business, so these are not every review a business has.
- A review counts as answered if it carried an owner response when collected. We grouped by the reviewer's star rating. Headline and state figures count each review once; the business-type table counts a business in every directory it appears in.
- State figures cover states with at least 500 reviews. Inspection's 2-, 3- and 4-star rates rest on 7 to 10 reviews each and should be read as rough.
- We don't name businesses or quote replies.
Sources
- Google reviews of businesses listed in the six RVJAM directories, collected via DataForSEO, accessed October 24, 2026
- RV Inspectors analysis, October 2026
Cite this: RV Inspectors, "RV businesses answer 66% of their 5-star reviews but only 45% of their 1-star reviews," October 25, 2026, https://rvinspectors.org/rv-business-review-response-scorecard/
Spotted an error or have newer data? Tell us and we'll check it and update the page.
Questions people ask
Do businesses reply more to good or bad reviews?
Good ones, in our data. Across 294,607 Google reviews of RV businesses, owners replied to 66.0% of 5-star reviews and 45.4% of 1-star reviews. The 5-star rate was higher in all six business types we track.
Which RV businesses answer their reviews most?
Storage lots replied to 69.9% of reviews, detailers to 65.6% and RV inspectors to 61.5%. Dealers (53.0%), repair shops (47.9%) and rental companies (43.0%) replied less. Rental companies answered only 29.2% of 1-star reviews.
Do RV inspectors reply to bad reviews?
Often. RV inspectors in our directory replied to 53.2% of their 111 one-star reviews, and to 61.9% of their 1,986 five-star reviews. Inspectors get few low ratings: 93.5% of their reviews are five stars.
Should I avoid a business that doesn't answer bad reviews?
Not on that alone. Many small businesses don't reply to any reviews. Read what the complaint says and whether others say the same thing, and ask the business about it directly before you book.