Reading reviews is becoming a norm these days. Back then, people will take the risk and patronize brands that they never heard of before. They have no choice since they don’t have the means of determining if the services would be satisfactory. Unless they know someone who took the service before, they can only rely on instinct. These days, it’s no longer the case. Reviews are all over the internet. Regardless of the product or service, reviews are available. Even the lack of review speaks volumes about the brand. Reviews are even more important for hotels. People don’t want to spend a lot on hotel accommodation expenses if they don’t get what they deserve. Therefore, hotel owners should focus on hotel reputation management. Monitoring what people say is essential.Â
Reviews can make or break the business
Reviews are crucial for almost all industries, but it’s even more important for hotels. It seems like reviews became more relevant because of hotels. Having positive reviews can entice more people to choose the hotel. The lack of reviews or the spread of negative reviews could have terrible consequences. Of course, people are also careful in reading reviews. They only rely on certain websites. They know that these sites verify the information and filter reviews to guarantee that only genuine reviews are available. It would be terrible not to choose a hotel because of one negative but a false review. These are the top review sites worth monitoring.Â
There’s no surprise that Google is the top site for hotel reviews. It accounts for more than half of all hotel reviews. People feel comfortable in leaving reviews on Google. Another reason is that Google can embed highly-rated hotels on search engine rankings. It’s easier for more people to find the hotel’s website if there viewed the reviews via Google. It can even be part of the company’s SEO strategy. Since people trust Google as a search engine, they feel the same when leaving or reading reviews through the same platform.
TripAdvisor
It claims to be the world’s largest travel site since it accounts for over 25% of all hotel reviews. The best part about it is that interaction with potential customers is possible. Some of them may inquire directly to the company with the aid of the platform. They can even start transactions right away. TripAdvisor is also a one-stop-shop for everything related to hotels and travel. The site even offers articles that will help people if they decide to travel to certain places. Having a negative review on this platform can damage the company’s reputation.Â
Booking.com
This listing site is a Dutch-based company. It contains over 29 million listings worldwide. There are also about 1.5 million rooms booked each day using Booking.com. It would be a mistake not to harness this platform. It would also be terrible if the hotel receives plenty of negative reviews. It’s essential to monitor what people say. The more challenging part is that apart from hotels, other accommodation options also use it for listing. Apartments, condos, villas, and luxury houses are available. Competing with them is tough. It’s even more challenging if the hotel receives negative reviews.Â
Expedia group
This group of websites is useful because it opens doors for exposure on other review sites. Expedia includes other sites like Hotels.com, Orbitz, and Travelocity. With the combined reviews distributed across these websites, it’s crucial to maintain positive reviews.Â
YelpÂ
Yelp already became synonymous with reviews. It might be more relevant to restaurants, but people also use it for hotels. Having positive reviews on this platform would help the business. Apart from reviews, Yelp may also contain more details about the hotel, making the users decide to book right away.Â
FacebookÂ
Facebook is a dynamic platform. Before, only ratings were available. Now, users can leave reviews. They can also recommend businesses to friends. When users liked or reviewed certain establishments, their friends can see the activity. They will feel enticed to check out what the business offers. Given the level of connectivity and engagement on Facebook, it should be a platform used by hotels. The downside is that a negative review on Facebook is difficult to recover from. When these negative reviews are the first content, people find when viewing Facebook, words can spread like fire.
Focusing on hotel reputation management
Some people who felt good about the hotel’s services won’t hesitate to leave positive reviews. They loved the experience, and they want others to know about it. However, if they didn’t feel great, they will most likely leave terrible reviews. Sometimes, it’s a stronger emotion that will convince people to look for other options. It’s even worse if the reviews provide detailed information about the experience. There’s no way to deny what happened.
Conclusion
There are different ways of dealing with negative reviews. The first one is to challenge the information and provide the correct narrative. The alternative is to apologize for what happened and promise it will never happen again. Regardless of the approach, it’s important to maintain a professional tone. It’s not only about the person who left the review. It also matters for other people who might see the interaction. Responding to the reviews is an excellent start since it shows that the hotel management cares. Another benefit is that it allows more interaction. It can help boost the website’s rankings on Google.Â
The challenging part is to determine where the negative reviews are. Monitoring all these websites can be challenging. Therefore, it helps to have the expertise of companies offering hotel reputation management. They use different tools to determine where the negative reviews are and respond to them as soon as possible. They can also respond to these customers and make sure that they don’t have the same negative experience in the future. The worst part is not having an online reputation management strategy at all. It’s easy for these negative reviews to spread without the business knowing about them. It could lead to lower profit, and it would be difficult to recover from the negative reviews that already spread online.
