Prathima's Miles & Milestones

When you’re at an airport, choosing the right lounge can make or break your journey. A good lounge gives you rest, food, and comfort before your flight. A bad one leaves you wishing you’d stayed at the gate.

This is where ratings and reviews within an airport lounge app can transform the experience — not just for travellers, but also for the teams that manage these spaces.

The Problem Today

• Travellers have little context on what to expect from a lounge before booking or walking in.
• Lounge operators don’t always know what’s working and what’s not.
• As a platform, the app struggles to consistently highlight the best experiences.

What Ratings & Reviews Solve

1. For Travelers

• View genuine ratings from other travellers within the app before making a choice.
• This feature is available only to those who have installed the Airport lounge app; hence, reviews are from its existing users. None outside the ecosystem makes it trustworthy.
• Share Review option is triggered after 24 hours post checkout of the user from the Airport Lounge. Hence, only the experienced users get a chance to review.
• Get alerts about lounge upgrades, maintenance, or changes.

2. For Lounge Operators

• Access real insights into user satisfaction.
• Spot areas for improvement based on feedback (Wi-Fi, food, seating, cleanliness).
• Maintain a cycle of quality and accountability.

3. For the Platform

• Display the highest-rated lounges to build user trust.
• Encourage more bookings by helping users decide confidently.

How It Works

• After visiting a lounge, travellers get a gentle nudge on the app & email (say 24 hours later) to leave a rating.
• The feedback flow starts simple: an overall satisfaction score (1 to 5 stars).
• It can also have an option field for leaving a detailed textual review shared privately to the Airport Lounge app, which is overseen by the Ops team.
• However, even if the Review is a private field, Ratings are public & the average rating is always freshly updated based on submissions.
• Expectations are that when there’s a brand new lounge listed, it starts with 0 ratings & reviews.
• Users can then rate key facilities like Wi-Fi, food, or seating, and optionally add text feedback.
• Previous ratings remain visible to the user in their Visit History, with easy access to “View my rating.”
• When a rating & review are not submitted by the user, on the next app open, we display a gentle nudge for the same.
• Lastly, the user can be asked if they are willing to share the Airport Lounge app with their friends & family, for which the user can tap on numbers 0 to 10 showcasing the net-promoter score of
  the app. This input is taken, BUT never displayed in the “view my rating” section, as it serves us internally as learning to improve the app.

Why It’s Different From Typical Review Platforms

Unlike open review systems, where anyone can post anything, lounge app ratings are closed-loop. Only verified visitors can leave feedback — making the reviews more trustworthy and relevant.

The Bigger Picture

At its core, ratings and reviews aren’t just about stars on a screen. They’re about:

• Helping travellers make better choices.
• Giving operators the tools to improve.
• Building a trusted ecosystem where quality is visible and rewarded.

Future versions can evolve with features like public reviews, photos, recommendations, and loyalty rewards — but even in its simplest form, ratings & reviews bring much-needed transparency to the lounge experience.

Note: Airport lounge app is a generalised app & does NOT represent any brand in particular. This is based on my usage of various Airport Lounge apps in general across countries.

✈️ Next time you step into a lounge, your feedback might help another traveller find their comfort zone.