google says 5 stars. the reviews say otherwise.

We read the reviews, run the stats, and tell you whether the rating is earned, with the evidence to back it up.

We don't scrape Google. Your AI agent already has a browser; we have the scoring. It collects a listing's reviews, we grade them, and the place appears here for everyone.

check a place with your ai agent

1.
Connect the legitreviews MCP. In Claude Code:
```
claude mcp add --transport http legitreviews https://legitreviews.ai/mcp
```
In claude.ai: Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector → https://legitreviews.ai/mcp. Any other MCP client (Muse, Cursor, your own agent) takes the same URL, Streamable HTTP, no key needed to try it.
2.

Ask it about a place:

“Are the Google reviews for the Blue Lantern Cafe on Main Street legit?”

Victory Road Villas

looks legit · 4.82★, holds up

4.82★, holds up A

Son River Homestay

looks legit · 4.79★, holds up

4.79★, holds up B

Family homestay

we're not sure · 4.95★ claimed → 4.77★ adjusted

4.95★ claimed → 4.77★ adjusted A

Son Doong Riverside Hotel

looks legit · 4.72★, holds up

4.72★, holds up B

Applebee's Homestay

past manipulation · 4.70★ claimed → 4.56★ adjusted

4.70★ claimed → 4.56★ adjusted A

Thao Nguyen Homestay

looks legit · 4.69★ claimed → 4.53★ adjusted

4.69★ claimed → 4.53★ adjusted A+

Sunbeam Village Phong Nha

looks legit · 4.74★, holds up

4.74★, holds up A

Magic Fingers Homestay

looks legit · 4.96★, holds up

4.96★, holds up B

Phong Nha Banana's Homestay

we're not sure · 4.99★

Green Riverside Cosy Home

past manipulation · 4.85★

TuTu's Homestay Phong Nha

we're not sure · 4.99★

Restful River Bungalow

looks legit · 4.67★, holds up

4.67★, holds up B

The Palm Lodge- Restaurant & Hostel

we're not sure · 4.88★ claimed → 4.69★ adjusted

4.88★ claimed → 4.69★ adjusted C

BEE PUB - PHONG NHA

inflated rating · 4.95★ claimed → 4.75★ adjusted

4.95★ claimed → 4.75★ adjusted A

Tropical Valley Homestay

looks legit · 4.93★, holds up

4.93★, holds up B

Thuong Hai Hotel Phong nha

we're not sure · 4.46★ claimed → 4.31★ adjusted

4.46★ claimed → 4.31★ adjusted A

Phong Nha Riverhouse

looks legit · 4.59★ claimed → 4.42★ adjusted

4.59★ claimed → 4.42★ adjusted A+

Phong Nha Mountain House

looks legit · 4.89★, holds up

4.89★, holds up A

Phong Nha Hotel A Little Leaf Homestay

looks legit · 4.48★, holds up

4.48★, holds up A

Phong Nha Ecolodge

looks legit · 4.62★ claimed → 4.51★ adjusted

4.62★ claimed → 4.51★ adjusted D

Phong Nha Eco Village - Làng Sinh Thái Phong Nha

manipulation detected · 4.06★

Phong Nha Bolero Bungalow

looks legit · 3.90★, holds up

3.90★, holds up A

Funny Monkeys Homestay

looks legit · 4.67★, holds up

4.67★, holds up F

Captain's Home Phong Nha

manipulation detected · 4.96★ claimed → 4.67★ adjusted

4.96★ claimed → 4.67★ adjusted A+

Baram Villas Phong Nha

looks legit · 4.98★, holds up

4.98★, holds up A

Carambola Bungalow

looks legit · 4.68★, holds up

4.68★, holds up A+

Quán Bình Hoa

looks legit · 4.10★ claimed → 4.36★ adjusted

4.10★ claimed → 4.36★ adjusted A

looks legit · 4.87★, holds up

4.87★, holds up A+

looks legit · 4.72★, holds up

4.72★, holds up A

Pub with cold beer

looks legit · 4.59★, holds up

4.59★, holds up A

Phong Nha CoCo House

looks legit · 4.40★, holds up

4.40★, holds up A

Highway 20 Homestay

looks legit · 4.66★, holds up

4.66★, holds up A+

Chày Lập Farmstay

looks legit · 4.35★, holds up

4.35★, holds up A

Hillside View Bungalow

looks legit · 4.61★ claimed → 4.49★ adjusted

4.61★ claimed → 4.49★ adjusted B

Heritage by Night Hotel

inflated rating · 3.63★ claimed → 3.37★ adjusted

3.63★ claimed → 3.37★ adjusted A

looks legit · 4.99★, holds up

4.99★, holds up A

Celia boutique Hotel Phong Nha

looks legit · 4.84★, holds up

4.84★, holds up A+

looks legit · 4.65★, holds up

4.65★, holds up F

Nhà Hàng - Khách Sạn Hai Hương

manipulation detected · 4.36★ claimed → 3.53★ adjusted

4.36★ claimed → 3.53★ adjusted A+

Karst Villas Phong Nha

looks legit · 4.71★, holds up

4.71★, holds up B

The Ridge Haven

inflated rating · 4.92★ claimed → 4.64★ adjusted

4.92★ claimed → 4.64★ adjusted A+

Hưng Phát Bungalow

looks legit · 4.87★, holds up

4.87★, holds up A

Son River House

looks legit · 4.48★ claimed → 4.35★ adjusted

4.48★ claimed → 4.35★ adjusted B

Phong Nha Memory Homestay

inflated rating · 4.80★ claimed → 4.55★ adjusted

4.80★ claimed → 4.55★ adjusted C

Discovery Lodge

possible manipulation · 4.60★

Đoàn Gia Resort Phong Nha

manipulation detected · 4.06★ claimed → 3.91★ adjusted

4.06★ claimed → 3.91★ adjusted A

Commander Lodge

looks legit · 4.53★ claimed → 4.41★ adjusted

4.53★ claimed → 4.41★ adjusted D

Elora Retreat Phong Nha

manipulation detected · 4.99★ claimed → 4.89★ adjusted

4.99★ claimed → 4.89★ adjusted C

Phong Nha Escape Bungalow

possible manipulation · 4.04★ claimed → 4.29★ adjusted

4.04★ claimed → 4.29★ adjusted A+

looks legit · 4.60★, holds up

4.60★, holds up A

looks legit · 4.62★, holds up

4.62★, holds up A+

Nguyen Shack Retreat

looks legit · 4.67★, holds up

4.67★, holds up A

Jade Phong Nha Hotel

looks legit · 4.48★, holds up

4.48★, holds up A

Phong Nha Lake House Resort

looks legit · 4.37★, holds up

4.37★, holds up A+

Phong Nha Palafita Bungalow

looks legit · 4.80★, holds up

4.80★, holds up F

Đồi Dẻ Eco ( Gà Nướng Phong Nha )

manipulation detected · 4.32★ claimed → 3.97★ adjusted

4.32★ claimed → 3.97★ adjusted A

Phong Nha An An Homestay

looks legit · 4.89★, holds up

4.89★, holds up A

Phong Nha Farmstay

looks legit · 4.79★, holds up

4.79★, holds up A

looks legit · 4.74★, holds up

4.74★, holds up A+

looks legit · 4.62★, holds up

4.62★, holds up A

Jungle Boss Trekking Tours Headquarters

looks legit · 4.92★, holds up

4.92★, holds up A

looks legit · 4.69★, holds up

4.69★, holds up

how it works

1. your agent collects the reviews

It opens the listing in its own browser, sorts by newest and collects them: all of them, or the 500 most recent at a big listing. We don't scrape Google.

2. we run the stats

Burst days, throwaway accounts, cross-posted text, solicited reviews, rating drift. Statistics, not vibes.

3. you get a grade

A to F, plus the rating credible reviewers actually give, with the evidence one click away. The place then appears here for everyone.

Google usually asks the browser to be signed in before it will sort or load more reviews. The agent reads Maps through your signed-in browser, much like scrolling the listing yourself. Heavy use could trip Google's rate limits; if you plan to check many places, a secondary Google account is a sensible choice.

No agent? Scripts can POST the same review JSON to /api/submissions; the format is at /api/sources/google-maps. Everything required is visible on the review card; review ids and exact timestamps are optional. Results from a single unconfirmed submitter are labeled as such until a second source agrees.

methodology

what signals do we look for?

We read a place's full review history and weigh the signals that are costly for a review farm to fake:

Burst campaigns: clusters of 5 star reviews dumped on a single day by low-history accounts. A genuine surge keeps a place's normal share of Local Guides, so it isn't counted against it.
Drip-feed farms: reviews arriving nearly every day at a pace no organic business sustains, a paid stream spread thin to dodge obvious spikes.
Cross-posted text: the same review copied word-for-word onto other businesses, a farm seeding a whole chain.
Throwaway accounts: single-review profiles padding the average up.
Review solicitation: reviewers themselves reporting that the business rewards, pressures, or steers reviews (“free dessert if you leave 5 stars”). An LLM reads every such mention; only firsthand reports of policy-violating practices count, and the penalty deepens with each independent witness. Politely asking for a review is allowed by Google and never counted.
Too-perfect records: a spotless, unanimous 5 star history often signals curated or incentivized reviews, so it can't earn a top grade, even when we can't prove fraud.

what's the “adjusted rating”?

What hard-to-fake reviewers actually give, vs the headline number. A gap means the rating is inflated. Two groups qualify:

Credible reviewers are Local Guides who also wrote a substantive review. The badge alone is gameable (farms run Local Guide accounts that drop bare 5 star ratings), so we only count ones that put real words behind the stars.
Established accounts have 30+ lifetime reviews, regardless of badge or text. Farms pad accounts with a handful of reviews to look plausible, but aging thousands of accounts past 30 is the expensive part.

Each place is anchored to whichever group gives the more conservative rating. When a place corrects the headline number, the “per credible reviewers” / “per established accounts” label tells you which.

where does the review data come from?

From the agents and scripts that submit it. Every submission is checked for structure and consistency (Google's own review and profile ids, timestamps against displayed dates, the rating average against the displayed rating, the count against the listed count, overlap with what we already hold), and a place submitted by one unconfirmed source carries an unverified source note until a second, independent submission agrees. Places we pulled ourselves before October 2026 need no such note.

what does a high score mean?

It means we found no evidence the business is manipulating or inflating its own reviews. It does not promise the rating is accurate: a clean place can still be mis-rated by too few reviews, reviewers who self-select, or honest reviews that just don't match your experience. We measure whether the number looks gamed, not whether it's right.