Embrace online reviews & improve bookings

The biggest change to the hospitality industry in the last few decades has been building and maintaining a good online reputation.

Once, providing good hospitality was simply a matt er of impressing guests enough to entice them to return and recommend your business to others. Word of mouth was marketing gold. But now your guest’s words need to also stand out online because many only choose to book your business if your online reputation excels and pushes ahead of all your competitors. This means you need a continuous supply of good guest reviews. To help explain how to succeed with this, AccomNews consulted Laura Ramos, Product Marketing Specialist at ReviewPro, a Shiji Group brand, who agreed that guest reviews are essential for a good online reputation and key for any accommodation that is trying to improve its service. She recommends to also leverage guest comments to make data-driven decisions and focus your investments on the areas that will impact guest satisfaction levels the most.

“Because in the end,” she said. “A good online reputation starts with a good guest experience.”

Are online guest reviews really that important?

Yes. Reviews have proven to be one of the main factors infl uencing booking decisions, in addition to value and location. How previous guests have experienced their stay at your property will inspire future guests who are researching their next destination, whether to book with you, or one of your competitors. Besides that, online reviews are a ‘gold mine’ of guest data, which can help you bett er understand what the current guest expectations are. They help you understand what is hurting your online reputation, so you can improve your service and boost your online reputation.

Laura Ramos

Product Marketing Specialist, ReviewPro

What about negative reviews?

They are not fun to receive and if not managed correctly they can hurt your online reputation, which can slow down your bookings, and impact your revenue.

However, you should not fear them either, instead use this data to understand where to focus investment.

To ensure negative reviews don't damage your online reputation, it is key to respond to these reviews quickly, so anyone browsing your profi le will not only see the review, but also your response. In the end, the response you write is not just for the guest who left the review, but also for future guests, looking at those reviews.

To prevent negative guest reviews, a proactive att itude is key.

Off er easy ways to communicate at every step in the guest journey, so you can fi x problems before your guest shares their bad experience online. Such a resolute approach will boost positive reviews, and consequently, your online reputation.

Why are good guest reviews so crucial?

Because when travelling to new destinations so many of us now rely on the internet to inform where to stay, what to do, and how to get there. You must think of online guest reviews as your ‘shop window’. A good online reputation will increase your property’s rankings, bookings, and therefore occupancy, leading to higher ADR and RevPar.

Are there any tools available to help monitor online reputation?

Yes. To be on top of it, you need a good hotel reputation management tool. With hundreds of OTAs and review sites in diff erent languages, each with diff erent scores, it is diffi cult to understand how you are performing. Therefore, an online reputation management tool is vital. Ensure that the platform you are using lets you dig into the nitt ygritt y details through a qualitative analysis of what is being said, so you can pinpoint your issues. Furthermore, integrating your reputation management tool with a response integration will increase effi ciency and speed, when responding to guest reviews. From the same platform, staff can respond to review sources like Google and Booking. com in just a few clicks.

By using a case management system, every time a guest review needs to be actioned, an alert will be sent to the right team member with clear instructions and a deadline, so you ensure guest reviews are managed timely and professionally.

Finally, in what ways can guests be encouraged to leave reviews?

First and foremost, to drive review volume, you need to deliver experiences that guests will want to rave about, and that starts with sett ing the right expectations. Make sure your information and pictures on OTAs are representative of the experience at your establishment.

Secondly, make it easy for your guests to leave reviews. Let them know which review sites you would like them to leave a review on by adding them to tent cards which you can display at the reception, via a link on your hotel website, and in your email signature.

However, don't limit it to one source, but give them options, ensuring they already have an account created for at least one of them.

Asking for an online review can feel uncomfortable but make it a habit to prompt guests, especially those who have shared unsolicited feedback during their stay, lett ing you know everything went well.

You can also follow-up with guests via a thank you email aft er they leave, or aft er they fi lled out their post-stay survey by using review collection programs.

For a continuous stream of fresh reviews, it is essential to also engage with the feedback guests leave and respond to your online reviews.

Showing guests, you care and act on their feedback will encourage them to take the time to write you a few words.

In the fi rst quarter of 2022, global guest review volume jumped by 46.5% compared to the same quarter the previous year. At the same time, hospitality is facing staffi ng shortages, supply chain issues and revenue pressures.

Amidst all of this, it is essential that hotels and accommodation providers maintain service levels to guarantee a great online reputation. Why? Because reviews are the fi rst thing a prospective guest looks at when shopping around for their next trip. Ensuring those reviews are positive is not just a vanity metric. According to Cornell University, a positive online reputation is linked to increased ADR and revenue*.

This is why online reputation management is an essential part of hotel operations today. ReviewPro owns the industrystandard Global Review Index™ (GRI), which aggregates guest feedback from 140 OTA & review sites in 45 languages to give accommodation providers an online reputation score that can be tracked over time and benchmarked to competitors.

Here are some tips to improving online reputation for hotels and accommodation providers: Know your areas of improvement… and fi x them! Use ReviewPro’s semantic analysis to understand what to prioritize: are your guests bothered by breakfast, or is it the lack of shutt les to the airport that is harming your reputation? Improving the guest experience at your property is the best way to safeguard your online reputation.

Keep an eye on your competitors The competitive landscape has vastly changed. Add competitors to the ReviewPro Hotel Reputation dashboard to stay ahead. Respond to reviews

A genuine and timely response goes a long way and off ers an opportunity to show future guests that you care. Use ReviewPro’s direct and semi-direct response APIs to save time.

ReviewPro, a Shiji Group brand, is the leading soft ware provider helping hospitality become more profi table by gathering and understanding guest feedback data. Our solutions combine over a decade of experience and investment in innovation to ensure we continue to be the benchmark of the industry. With +60,000 establishments in +150 countries, Shiji’s ReviewPro empowers you to be bett er. Join us.

*htt ps://www.reviewpro.com/ products/global-review-index/