Hotel Reputation and Review Management

Considering the threat negative reviews pose to the online reputation of the travel industry, this week Igniyte outlines five effective steps for hotel reputation and review management.

89% of UK Consumers Influenced by Negative Reviews

There is a rising compensation culture among British travellers. This results in holiday makers flocking to make a claim for their money back, when they feel that they have had a bad experience at a hotel on holiday.

This can pose a threat to the online reputation of the travel industry, because online review sites such as TripAdvisor allow disgruntled guests to leave reviews; reviews which are effective.

TripAdvisor alone now has 315 million unique monthly users. Therefore, if a guest leaves a bad review of your hotel, it is highly likely a potential guest will read it. Considering the fact that data from Trust Pilot shows that 89% of UK consumers are influenced by negative reviews, we see that such a review might rob a hotel of a potential guest.

Five Steps to Protect a Hotel’s Reputation Online

That is why it is important that hotels have a strategy in place to protect themselves should negative news stories, reviews and comments appear online. Here are five steps you can take to build such a strategy.

• Court Customer Satisfaction: A satisfied customer is one who is unlikely to post a negative review. Hone your customer service policy and focus on making sure your guests leave your hotel happy, to ensure your hotel’s online reputation is protected.
• Ensure Communication is Efficient: When a guest has a problem, the longer they are left to wait, the angrier they will become. Promote initiatives to ensure staff are able to communicate with guests immediately, to defuse such situations before they spawn negative reviews.
• Create Positive PR Opportunities: Positive PR can prevent negative reviews from surfacing on page one for your search term, and promote your hotel in one fell swoop. That is why you need to create positive PR opportunities, and promote relationships with local journalists, to safeguard your hotel’s reputation online.
• Collate Good Reviews: Encouraging satisfied guests to leave reviews can combat the effects of negative reviews. That is why pointing guests towards third party review software, such as TripAdvisor, can help you maintain your hotel’s positive reputation online.
• Monitor Your Name Online: One of the most effective ways to protect your reputation online, is to catch any problems before they snowball. Do so by monitoring your name for negative content on search engines such as Google. For example, set up a Google Alert for your hotel’s name, to ensure you are alerted to any negative content straight away.

Implement an Effective Hotel Reputation and Review Strategy

By taking these five steps, you can implement an effective hotel reputation and review management strategy that will protect your hotel’s reputation online. Such protection will ensure potential guests are presented with a positive image of your hotel.

If you would like to find out how Igniyte can help you to promote your hotel online, and implement a positive review strategy for your business, please contact us here.