The management of Tripadvisor reviews is one of the ways to keep a good relationship with your guests and future clients. The reviews are part of the online reputation and can be the gateway to many new opportunities.
Tripadvisor is one of the world’s largest review platforms in the tourism industry. It has over 320 million reviews from travelers around the globe and 200 new reviews per hour! There’s no doubt that this website has a big influence on the buying decision of the users.
That’s why many hotels invest time in managing their Tripadvisor account and work hard to win the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence, which attests to the credibility of the hotel.
The same way we get recommendations from friends or family before buying something, the traveler, who is searching for a hotel, look for recommendations. Those recommendations are the so-called user reviews.
Besides, the more popular is your hotel (according to the Tripadvisor Popularity Index), the better is your rank position in terms of internal website search. And, the closer you are to the top, the bigger are the chances of the user to click on your page.
The importance of the management of Tripadvisor reviews
Most of the users form an opinion about your hotel after reading between one to six online reviews. In addition, according to research published by TripAdvisor, 65% of users are more likely to book a hotel that takes time to answers guest reviews.
But it’s not enough to answer reviews with a bureaucratic “welcome back anytime!”. In Tripadvisor’s research, 85% of users say that good management of bad reviews improves their impression of the hotel.
The TripAdvisor Popularity Ranking is based on three factors:
- quality of user reviews:
- quantity;
- recency of reviews.
For example: if your hotel has many positive reviews, but they were written a long time ago, they will have a small impact on your ranking position.
Quantity is extremely relevant, so remember to always suggest to your guest to leave a review on Tripadvisor. Nevertheless, it’s important to highlight that, according to Tripadvisor policy, it is forbidden to bribe guests so they leave a good review.
If you have doubts about a particular action that you would like to start in your hotel, on Tripadvisor’s website you can find several good options to encourage feedback. For example: sending personalized emails to guests, cards or flyers to remind them to leave a review.
Hotel staff also gains with positive reviews. Hotel agents who are praised by guests, in some cases, get even rewards for the quality of their services.
Tripadvisor’s hotel review is free marketing
Created in 2011, Tripadvisor’s Certificate of Excellence is only given to 10% of high-quality lodgings registered in the platform.
To find out if your hotel has Tripadvisor’s standards, the website list three criteria of selection:
- Minimum ranking of 4 or 5 stars;
- Minimum number of reviews;
- Be registered at the website for at least 01 year.
Tip: Highlight the certificate on your website and other media, reminding the user of the quality of your hotel. Maybe it’s time to redesign your hotel website and add an exclusive section for reviews. But keep in mind that your hotel website is not the only platform where you can share good reviews. Many hotels also share them on Instagram and other social media.
How to deal with bad reviews on Tripadvisor
Tripadvisor reviews are a good thermometer of the quality of the hotel service. Check below this bad review:
A good action would be to book a meeting with the hotel board of directors to discuss the recent feedbacks from guests. Have you noticed if they are complaining about the waiting line in the front-desk?
Use this opportunity to establish which are the hotel’s positive and negative aspects. What can be improved? What is bad and must be corrected immediately?
Consider these reviews as a suggestion box for improvements and possible investments. Get back to your client and tell them that the problem is solved and that the hotel is looking forward to their return.
Your online reputation precedes you
It’s extremely important to take a moment of the day or of the week to interact with your online reviews. That strengthens the relationship with the traveler and increases the credibility and confidence of the potential guests.
It’s at this moment, when you are carefully listening, that you can extract competitive intelligence to improve your business’s strategies.
Another good routine to have is to take a look at the list of the top 25 hotels in your country and check how they answer their online reviews.
You can easily do this by clicking on “review”, on the top of the page, where you can filter travelers’ reviews by traveler rating. That way you can visualize only the bad ones, for instance, and see how hotels handle the bad reviews.
There are many strategies to help you deal with online reviews and even tech tools for online reputation management. Don’t overlook online reviews and be ready to watch the loyalty of your guests and revenue increase.
Adapted from the original Reviews no TripAdvisor: gestão da reputação online do hotel by Paula Miranda.
