Why Guest Reviews Matter? Even the negative ones

From the very beginning, a hotel’s success has a direct correlation with its reputation. if guide books and peer recommendations were the earlier source of motivation, in the age of digital, the new normal is to surf the web for hotel reputation – which alarmingly can be your biggest asset or liability.

There are several things that contribute to a hotel’s reputation – starting from pre-booking experience to service during stay – guests take note of many small and big details and form an opinion. The rating is just the reflection of the opinion. If your property provides impeccable service, create great experiences, then the positive reviews you have earned will improve your appeal and influence potential guests. The more satisfied guests you have, the more likely they are to return and spend more money, as well as recommend you to others.

According to a study by Deloitte, 59% consumers say that review sites have the most influence on their booking decisions. Another one, conducted by Cornel Hotel School in association with STR and Review Pro suggest that guest satisfaction has a direct impact on the business performances of the hotel. The study, in fact, predict, an increase of 0.89% increase in ADR due to 1 point increase in the hotel’s review score across all online and offline channels.

With Google, OTAs and review sites like TripAdvisor giving more weightage to review score, managing online reputation has become a focal point of hotel operations. With revenue being directly linked with demand, revenue management has now expanded from simple rate management and is now encompassing customer relations and social media into its strategy.

Truth to be told, reputation management is not an easy task, especially when it comes to negative reviews. Guests often over-expect and over-react which get reflected in the reviews. Interestingly, in 2017, the top 4 sites accounting for 74% of review volume are Booking.com, Google, TripAdvisor and Facebook.  Clearly, guests aren’t restricting their opinions to travel sites, but also to search engine and social media. Hotel cannot prevent reviewers from expressing their opinion. However, there is only thing they can surely do – respond, more do for negative reviews.

A recent study by Harvard Business Review suggests, replying to guest reviews results in better ratings. Interestingly, the study, which has studied TripAdvisor ratings over thousands of hotels, have found that there is a sharp drop in the rate of short negative reviews when the management starts responding to negative feedback.

Sure, it is not easy to please every guest. However, your willingness to accept constructive criticism shows your commitment to address the issues raised by the guest, which in turn assures your potential guests. Be polite and courteous, try to understand your guests’ concern and respond in a professional way.

However, guests share feedback on various review, travel and social media sites – which often lay scattered and unstructured. Online reputation management tools consolidate these guest reviews from various review websites including TripAdvisor, Bookign.com, Expedia, Agoda, Qype, Holidaycheck, Yelp, Expedia, Facebook, Twitter etc. and provide them to hotels in structured reports. Data is then compiled together into review reports which include guest details (as it appears on the site) along with their feedback and the rating they provide to the hotel. Most advanced review management sites nowadays use sentiment analysis to understand the guest’s emotion towards various aspects of the property. Keywords relevant to the properties are then identified, and ranked based on their popularity, frequency of mentions, and guests’ sentiments towards that category.

A strong visible position on guest review websites indicate that your Price Quality Index is working well, that will enable you to make the right pricing decisions based on RevPAR performance.  This will allow the hotel to flex their rates based on several pricing strategies depending on booking levels. However, there are no short cuts. It is an evolving process that must start today! As we move towards the age of consumer controlled brand conversations, hotels need to integrate customer feedback into their business approach and strategy planning.

By staying actively engaged with guests, hotels can ensure a more consistent and loyal base. Are you listening?

The Week, That Was – April 2018 Week 2

 In five minutes or less, keep track of the most important news of the week, curated just for you. We present to you hand – picked news on latest industry perspectives and some general updates. Read on!!

The Beginner’s Guide to Basic (but Essential) Hotel Technology by Trivago
Hotel technology now lives in large part online. Which means that hoteliers access and engage with hotel technology online to do everything from marketing their properties to distributing their rooms, managing their daily operations, processing reservations, and everything in between.

http://hotelmanager-blog.trivago.com/beginners-guide-to-hotel-technology/

eRevMax strengthens its leadership team for LiveOS
Diako Sali appointed as Director of Global Sales

http://www.erevmax.com/ratetiger-news/ratetiger-news-archive/apr2018-erevmax-strengthens-leadership-team-liveos.html

A brief history of property management systems
A lot of hotel websites, for example, show weather information, but it is unlikely that web agencies develop their own weather widgets from scratch. More likely, they connect to existing monitor apps, so that web users can check the temperature of their chosen destination without even realizing that the information is actually provided by an external source. This communication is made possible by the use of an API.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/hotel-property-management-systems-pms/

The HSMAI Region Europe Awards 2017
The European HSMAI Awards took place in Amsterdam last Tuesday evening, marked by a great atmosphere, dancing guests, excellent entertainment, food, beverages and, but not least, top notch winners – and now the Top 20 the list is also official!

https://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4087909.html

IS YOUR HOTEL WEBSITE READY FOR WHAT’S NEXT IN 2018?
There are two major factors that will affect website performance in 2018:
Google’s Mobile First Index
Website ADA Compliance

https://www.hebsdigital.com/are-you-ready-for-2018

Meet us at
ATM Dubai, from 22 – 25 April 2018 to see how we can assist you – marketing@erevmax.com

Thanks and have a good day!