TripAdvisor Masterclass visit coastaltourismacademy.co.uk
Health and wellbeing tourism
Visitor Experience
How to manage your online reputation TripAdvisor is the world’s leading travel advice site, reaching more than 300 million global visitors each month. As tourism businesses are only too aware, a review has the power to send bookings skyhigh or drop to rock bottom.
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visit coastaltourismacademy.co.uk
TripAdvisor Masterclass
WHAT WE DID
WHAT WE LEARNT
Hotels, guest houses and B&Bs are frequently reviewed on TripAdvisor, however local hoteliers in Bournemouth felt there was little advice on how to respond to negative reviews or how to manage the site to enhance their reputation and increase bookings. It is often seen by accommodation-providers as a platform for disgruntled visitors to criticise their stay or as a means of extracting a ‘goodwill’ gesture in response to unfavourable reviews.
This was one of the first events staged by the NCTA and generated significant interest among owners and managers from the smallest B&Bs to the largest four-star chain hotels.
The NCTA facilitated a seminar for Bournemouth hoteliers called TripAdvisor – Your Reputation Precedes You. A representative from TripAdvisor was invited alongside a panel of two expert customer care consultants. The TripAdvisor spokesman gave a clear explanation as to how the site worked, its global platform, what advantages it had for accommodation-providers, how they could manage unfavourable reviews and what marketing tools were available to the accommodation sector on its site. He also answered questions from the floor. A presentation was also given on ways to provide good service and create memorable experiences; a subsequent panel discussion centred around what triggered people to write a review (good or bad) and how service recovery often made a difference. The floor was opened for questions to the panel.
Feedback questionnaires indicated that discuession around managing expectations, responding to reviews, tips for customer experience (particularly before and after stay) and information about requesting the removal of false and/or malicious reviews were particularly beneficial. One clear pointer was that all reviews, good or bad should be replied to and that often a carefully worded response to an average review can form part of service recovery. In evaluation with businesses several months later, 80% of accommodation providers said that following the event they felt more knowledgeable about how to make the most of TripAdvisor. Costs / Resources: Less than £500. This included support from other speakers which in hindsight wasn’t essential. Limited resources were required to pomote the event as the subject matter was so popular. However, the key to success was theTripAdvisor expert.
CONCLUSION This was a high profile, popular and successful event which facilitated direct contact between hoteliers and TripAdvisor - a site which needs to be managed on an almost daily basis. The TripAdvisor speaker was the main draw and delegates found the content valuable.