Does payment affect rankings and reviews?

Short answer: payment can give a business a higher place in catalogue lists, but it never changes reviews, ratings or our editorial rankings. Here is the difference.

Catalogue lists: paid placement is marked

Businesses can buy priority placement or a premium listing. They can then be shown higher in the list for their category and city. Such entries are marked with a crown icon and the label "Annonce". The crown means the business pays.

Entries without a crown are shown in the standard order of the catalogue, which does not depend on payment.

Editorial rankings: not for sale

Lists such as "best hotels in Copenhagen" are put together by our editorial team. We weigh:

• information about the place: address, opening hours, prices, services and how current it is
• reviews on DenmarkGuide and ratings in open sources
• checks by our editorial team and experts
• ease for the guest: location, booking, language and accessibility

Payment, advertising and priority placement play no part here. More in How the Rankings Work.

Reviews: the same rules for everyone

• We do not remove honest negative reviews for payment.
• We do not publish positive reviews for payment.
• Reviews that break the rules are handled the same way, whether or not the business pays.

With a premium listing, a business can reply to reviews publicly. The reply is marked as a reply from the business, and the review itself is not changed. The rules are in Review Moderation.

Why does this matter?

The Danish Marketing Practices Act requires advertising to be clearly recognisable as advertising, and the Consumer Ombudsman (Forbrugerombudsmanden) has guidelines on how user reviews may be published. If a placement or a review looks wrong to you, write to [email protected]. See also Why real reviews matter more than fake ones.

Related

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

Sources

• Danish Marketing Practices Act, markedsføringsloven, consolidated act no. 1420 of 2 December 2024, in Danish (retsinformation.dk)
• Danish Consumer Ombudsman: guidelines on publishing user reviews, in Danish (forbrugerombudsmanden.dk)
• How the Rankings Work (DenmarkGuide)