Start with Google, then ApartmentRatings and any listing site where the community is listed, and check Facebook and Yelp on a slower schedule. The reason is where the reviews sit: J Turner Research reports that Google now holds 47% of all the apartment reviews in its dataset, and ApartmentRatings holds 21%.
Resident Memo is the Resident OS portal that brings reviews, alerts and owner reports into one sign-in dashboard. This post covers where apartment reviews are concentrated, how that changed over the past year, and a monitoring list an operator can run weekly.
Where are apartment reviews concentrated?
On Google. J Turner Research's March 2026 write-up of the 15th edition of its Mechanics of Online Review Sites and ILSs report says that Google has a 47% share of all reviews and is the fastest-growing site, with ApartmentRatings behind it at 21%. The report covers more than 149,000 monitored multifamily properties, and 91% of them have at least one online review.
The remaining third or so is spread across Apartments.com, ForRent, Facebook, Yelp and other sites. That remainder is my arithmetic from J Turner's two figures, not a number J Turner states.
Looking only at new reviews gives a sharper picture. In an earlier J Turner post, 942,421 of the 1,468,871 reviews counted in 2024 were on Google, a 64% share, with Apartments.com at 8% and ApartmentRatings at 5%.
What changed in the review sites?
A lot of reviews disappeared. J Turner says the dataset lost more than 2 million historical reviews, and gives three causes in its March 2026 post:
- Sites shut down. Apartmentguide.com and Rent.com were sunset, with losses of nearly 752,000 and 697,000 reviews.
- Cleanup on large platforms. Facebook removed more than 315,000 reviews and Yelp more than 35,000, through deduplication and removal of bot-account reviews.
- Commercial changes. J Turner describes Apartments.com as shifting to a "pay-to-play" model, with 120,000 reviews removed from non-paying properties.
So a review profile can shrink without anything the site team did. A community that looked healthy on one site last year may have fewer reviews there now.
My read: track review count and rating by site every month. A drop in count on one site is a fact worth knowing, and a star average alone will not show it.
Where do renters and operators look?
Operators name Google first. In an Insights by Blueprint survey of multifamily and mixed-portfolio real estate professionals, respondents cited Google Search and Google Business Profiles most frequently as the way prospects discover and evaluate communities, followed by Apartments.com and Zillow, community websites and, to a lesser extent, social media.
Renters lean on listing sites. In Apartments.com's 2026 survey, 85% of prospective renters said they use or plan to use a rental search app or website like Apartments.com, and 96% said reviews are important to their decision. Apartments.com sells listings, so read that as one vendor's view of its own audience.
Put the two together and a community is read in at least two places: on Google, where most reviews are, and on whichever listing sites its renters shop.
What should an operator's monitoring list look like?
Three tiers, by how often to check:
- Every community's Google Business Profile, with alerts for new reviews. This is the largest pool of reviews and the first place most operators look.
- Weekly: ApartmentRatings and each listing site where the community has a listing. Record the review count and rating for each community and compare with last week.
- Monthly: Facebook, Yelp and a search of the community name. Look for review pages the team did not know existed, and for any site where the count dropped.
For each tier the question is the same. Is there a new review that needs a reply, and is there a theme repeating across reviews?
How does Resident Memo help?
Resident Memo puts that routine in one inbox. The review inbox pulls Google and major review sites with new-review alerts, so the daily and weekly passes happen in one place instead of five logins. Topic trends show maintenance, staff, amenities and noise over time, and owner-ready reports come already written. Occupancy comes in as a weekly report upload from any PMS, so no integration project is needed. For management companies, the portfolio plan adds roll-up dashboards by region, owner and portfolio.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google the only review site that matters?
No. It holds the most reviews, with 47% in J Turner's dataset, but renters also read listing sites, and Apartments.com reports that 85% of prospective renters use listing sites. Google is the first place to monitor, and the others follow.
How often should an operator check review sites?
Google daily or with alerts, other review and listing sites weekly, and a monthly sweep for anything else. Renters expect replies quickly, so alerts matter more than the schedule.
Should an operator monitor a site where the community has no listing?
Yes, monthly. Reviews can exist on sites a community never set up, so searching the community name shows what a renter would find.
To compare what Resident Memo includes for a single community and for a portfolio, see the Resident Memo plans.
Sources
- J Turner Research, The Ramifications of Mass Review Removal (Mar 17, 2026): 47%, 21%, review purge causes, 752,000, 697,000, 315,000, 35,000, 120,000.
- J Turner Research, The 15th Edition of The Mechanics of Online Review Sites and ILSs: more than 149,000 monitored properties, 91% with at least one review.
- J Turner Research, Who Holds the Power? (Apr 7, 2025): 942,421 of 1,468,871 reviews in 2024, 64%, 8%, 5%.
- Insights by Blueprint, How multifamily operators approach reputation management: survey results (Dec 9, 2025): Google Search and Google Business Profiles named most frequently.
- Apartments.com, Renter Search Survey, Q2 2026: 85% use or plan to use a rental search app or website, 96% say reviews are important.
