The work that earns Top Rated is rarely the work anyone notices: the client who nearly cancelled and left delighted, the colour correction that ran an hour over, the Saturday your team held together with two people off.
None of it shows up in your month-end numbers. It shows up in what your clients write afterwards, and that is the only version of your year most new clients ever read.
Once a year, we count it.
Your reviews and your bookings are what the badge is calculated from
Top Rated is awarded once a year, and it is calculated rather than chosen. We set the conditions, and the reviews and bookings that meet them are already sitting on your Treatwell profile.
A review on Treatwell is attached to a booking someone made and paid for, which is what the whole count rests on.
Everything that earns it happens months before the award is calculated, which is why there is no campaign to run in the final fortnight.
Consistency is the condition that catches most salons out
Quality is the standard that brings a client back, not the standard that gets you through the appointment. Care shows up in reviews far more often than technique does: the booking that was easy, the team member who remembered, the fifteen minutes that did not feel rushed.
Consistency is not about your best week: a run of five-star reviews in March does very little if the rest of the year reads differently.
You need enough reviews, and enough of them at five stars
The volume condition comes first, because below a certain number of reviews there is not enough evidence to judge a salon fairly, however good it is. The second condition is the proportion of those reviews that are five stars, which is where volume on its own stops carrying you.
Thresholds are grouped by salon size, so a one-person studio is measured against comparable businesses rather than against a ten-chair salon with ten times the review volume. Being small does not count against you, and being large does not carry you.
There is no application to fill in: meet both conditions and the badge is yours, miss one and it is not.
When this year’s window opens and closes
Reviews counting towards this year’s badge are those left between 19 October 2025 and 18 October 2026. Badges are awarded in October, and if you have earned one you will hear from us by email. Anything that happens after 18 October counts towards next year instead.
What actually moves you closer before the window closes
Take more of your bookings through Treatwell
More bookings through Treatwell means more appointments that can turn into reviews, which moves you towards the volume condition. That includes bookings taken on the marketplace and direct bookings you add to your Treatwell calendar yourself.
Direct bookings only count towards reviews if we can reach the client, so add an email address to every client record in your Client List. Without one, no review request goes out and the appointment does nothing for you here.
Your Book Now button, rebook reminders, SMS credits and discounts in Treatwell Connect all feed the same loop: more clients booking through Treatwell, more visits, and more reviews on the profile new clients are already reading.
Ask for the review while the appointment is still fresh
A review request goes out automatically after the visit, so the mechanism is already running without you. What changes the response rate is the thirty seconds before the client leaves: asking how it went, and saying that a review would mean a lot if they were happy.
Clients who had a good appointment are usually glad to be asked, they just forget. Getting more salon reviews and using them properly goes further into timing, wording and what to do with the reviews once they arrive.
Keep the standard steady rather than spiky
A steady stream of five-star reviews across the year beats a burst of them, which is why a push in the final month rarely moves a salon over the line.
A weaker patch is usually traceable: a new team member finding their feet, a treatment running over its slot, or the run-up to your busiest day of the week when everything is tight. Those are fixable, and fixing them shows up in the reviews within weeks.
Get reviews that say something
A review that reads “lovely, thank you” counts towards your volume and does nothing else. A review that names the treatment, the team member and what the client was nervous about beforehand does three jobs at once: it satisfies the condition, it sells the treatment to the next person reading, and it tells you what your salon is actually good at. Plenty of clients name their stylist in a review, and those are the reviews new clients read twice.
You cannot dictate what a client writes, but you can shape it by what you ask. “Would you mind mentioning the balayage?” gets you a better review than “would you mind leaving us a review”, and it takes the same breath.
Make the badge the team’s target rather than yours
Reviews are left about people, not about businesses, so your team has more influence over this than anyone on reception does. Sharing the target tends to work better than owning it: everyone can see the reviews coming in, everyone knows which treatments are drawing them, and nobody is being chased.
It also spreads the asking, and a stylist finishing a colour is in a far better position to ask than whoever happens to be at the desk twenty minutes later.
If you missed out last year, check which condition you missed
The two fixes are opposite. Short on volume means the asking is not happening or the email addresses are not there, which is an operational fix you can start this week. Short on the five-star proportion means the problem is in the room rather than in the process, and the reviews themselves will usually tell you where: a treatment running short of expectations, a particular slot in the week, or one part of the experience that keeps coming up.
Neither is a reason to write off the year, because the window runs until October and reviews arrive faster than most owners expect once the asking becomes routine.
Keep your profile looking like the salon you actually run
An out-of-date treatment list, old photos or a thin description cost you bookings before a review is ever possible. Accurate durations, current prices and photos that match the room a client will walk into are what turn a browse into a booking.
What the badge does for you once you have it
The badge sits on your Treatwell profile for a full year. You also get a winners pack to mark it: a printed certificate and a window sticker, so the salon itself says it as well as the listing.
It does its work at the moment a client is choosing between you and the salon underneath you, which is the moment that is hardest to influence any other way.
Where clients actually see the badge
Your most recent badge appears in the list of salons clients see when they search the marketplace, and at the top of your venue page while they are deciding. Previous years’ badges sit at the bottom of the page, so a run of them reads as a track record rather than a single good year.
Clients can also filter a treatment search down to Top Rated venues only, by ticking Top rated venues in the search filters, on the website and in the app. A client using that filter has already decided the badge is what they are shopping on, so every salon they are choosing between has one. Without a badge you are not further down that list, you are not on it.
Five years in a row earns the Golden Badge
Five consecutive Top Rated badges earn the Golden Badge, the five years award, which also shows on your venue page. It is the one recognition here that cannot be earned in a single good year.
Fancy being Top Rated?
If you are already with us, the quickest win is sitting in Treatwell Connect. Look at two numbers: how many of your direct bookings have an email address attached, and how many of last month’s clients left a review. The gap between them is the easiest ground you will make up before the window closes.
If you are not with us yet, that is the first step, because the badge is calculated from reviews on Treatwell bookings. Join Treatwell, start filling your calendar, and your first Top Rated year begins the moment your clients start reviewing.
FAQs
How do I apply for Top Rated?
You do not. There is no application, no entry fee and no form. Every salon on Treatwell is considered automatically against the same two conditions.
How is this different from the awards I enter and pay for?
Those awards are judged by a panel reading a written submission. Top Rated is calculated from what your clients said after paying for an appointment with you. Both have their place, and a panel can recognise things data cannot, like a training programme or a salon that rebuilt itself after a hard year. The difference for you is the effort: there is nothing to submit and no deadline beyond the window itself.
Does the size of my salon count against me?
No. Thresholds are grouped by salon size, so you are measured against comparable businesses. A single-chair studio and a large team are not held to the same review volume.
What counts as a review for Top Rated?
Reviews left by clients on bookings made through Treatwell, inside the qualification window. Direct bookings you add to your Treatwell calendar count too, provided the client record carries an email address so the review request can reach them.
When will I find out?
Badges are awarded in October, and if you have earned one you will hear from us by email.
Does one bad review ruin my chances?
No. The second condition is a proportion, not a perfect record, so a single poor review sits against everything else you have collected. It hurts most at salons with few reviews overall, which is another reason volume matters: the more reviews you have, the less any one of them moves the number.
Can I reply to the reviews clients leave?
Yes, replies are possible and clients can see them. For the steps, Treatwell Partner Care has the current instructions.
