Reviews and Reputation Management - SES Travel
Mary Bowling | 9 August 2007 |
Hotel Evaluations Equal Free Marketing
Every innkeeper, property manager, and hotelier knows Reputation Management is a huge issue in the travel industry. Online reviews and recommendations have empowered travelers to share their experiences - both good and bad - and new review websites pop up monthly.
This post is a mash-up of tips from many speakers and sessions at the 2007 Search Engine Strategies Travel Conference in Seattle. The general consensus is that Hotel reviews = free marketing! People are talking about you to others and this is something to be happy about.
Stats
- 20% of consumers currently use online reviews in their travel planning.
- 58% of people in a recent survey said just the act of responding to reviews puts a hotel in a favorable light - it shows they care and want their guests to be happy.
Listings and Links
- Get listed anywhere you can - you may get buzz, traffic, links, and bookings.
- Check your listings to make sure the information is accurate and complete.
- Use RSS feeds to monitor your reviews and the reviews of your clients.
Managing Reviews
- Hotels should try to devote three hours per month to managing their online reviews.
- Thank people for good reviews and invite them to come back.
- Direct happy guests to go to websites where you need good reviews to balance problems.
- It’s okay to excerpt about 150 words from a review and post it as a testimonial on your website - link to the entire review.
- Don’t show negative reviews on your own website - it is not the place for them.
- Integrate photos and images into your reputation management. In particular, post photos in your management responses showing a problem has been fixed.
Promote Yourself to the Media
- Get interviewed by newspapers, local media, travel writers, bloggers, industry magazines and anyone else who will do it.
- Ask for reviews from bloggers and journalists - give them a reason to review you.
- Ask for reviews from clients and contacts. If they have a blog, ask if they will write about you.
Respond to the Media
- Make it easy for the media to contact you.
- When they do, respond to their requests NOW! It’s usually the first person to respond that gets the opportunity for free buzz.
- Integrate visuals into your contacts with the media. They need to provide them, so make it easy for them and give them what you want the public to see.
My 2 Cents
The proliferation of online reviews is raising the bar in our industry. Weak players will whine about their poor reviews until they are forced to close their doors from a lack of customers.
Meanwhile, the professionals who are committed to providing excellent facilities and high standards of service will enjoy an ever-swelling customer base, as they become better at what they do and guests reward them with great reviews, referrals, and return business.
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