What is the priceRange parameter for Google Structured Data Reviews?

Question

I am trying to determine what are the acceptable values for the priceRange parameter. On Google I see "$$$" and that's it.

Can someone explain if I should be using $$$ literally or a decimal amount.

Solution 1

It seems there is no "standard" for this, and probably is born out of the rating system for Restaurants.

It seems the convention is:

• $ = Inexpensive, usually $10 and under
• $$ = Moderately expensive, usually between $10-$25
• $$$ = Expensive, usually between $25-$45
• $$$$ = Very Expensive, usually $50 and up

Source

It seems TripAdvisor use the local currency symbol as the indicator:

As a reviewer in Korean, you will fill in according to Won ₩, in Greek it will be according to Euros €. Aussies, on the .com.au version of the website get just $ signs, so rather subtle there. The understanding would be AUD$.

Source

But a user has quite rightly pointed out on the official schema.org Github that priceRange is ambiguous.

The property schema.org/priceRange is ambiguous because it specifies text for a currency range...

Source

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TL;DR

Use the price property with a range modeled as a PriceSpecification http://schema.org/price

Source - Github Issue

Solution 2

The priceRange property seems pretty meaningless, as Shannon points out.

But Google has (within the last few days, as far as I'm aware) started recommending it for all localBusiness structured data, triggering warnings in the structured data testing tool. So, I expect many businesses to suddenly start expressing their pricing in arbitrary strings of $$$, especially those for whom an explicit price list isn't appropriate, e.g. where prices can only be quoted upon request.

It seems that the issue is creating some confusion on the Google product forum, with new image errors and address warnings have started appearing alongside the priceRange warnings. It's possible that Google has unintentionally started treating all businesses as restaurants and will backtrack, but I'm only speculating.

(The question is about reviews, rather than localBusiness data, so this may not be directly relevant to the OP. It's hopefully of interest to others finding this thread first—as I did—after seeing priceRange warnings in the structured data testing tool. I considered entering this as a comment under Shannon's answer, but didn't have enough reputation points...)

Solution 3

I believe that because they used a symbol ranging from $ / $$ / $$$, that it means that its a relative and not fixed value system.

So to the general consumer, they would interpret $ meaning cheap, $$ being average and $$$ meaning expensive. I personally could not assume a value as three dollar symbols ($$$) could mean two different amounts between two different types of businesses.

For example: a hotel could say $$$, a burger joint could say $$$ and a car dealership could say $$$. In a relative system, this would work as they could all be expensive. On a fixed value system, it wouldn't work and a business such as the car dealership would have to define the value as $$$$$$ for instance but this would just start to look ridiculous to the average person; I mean if it were a boat/airplane manufacturing business, it could be $$$$$$$$$$$$ excluding currency conversion. Fixed value system feels too complicated for an example of "$$$". I would expect an example like "$100-$300 or $25M-$50M" for that type of system.

I do like Richard Wallis's scale in this thread though (https://github.com/schemaorg/schemaorg/issues/1307):

$ = inexpensive
$$ = moderate
$$$ = expensive
$$$$ = very expensive
$$$$$ = if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it*
* Apparently attributed to J. P. Morgan, although disputed