Put yourself in the shoes of a potential paying guest. What would you be looking for in a hotel? Location? Cleanliness? Heated pool? Think about it, when was the last time you booked a room without reading a few reviews first? An astonishing 4 out of 5 people read reviews before booking a place to stay and 52% of people would never book a hotel with no reviews.
The feedback collected from online reviews is a valuable source of information that can lead to all kinds of revenue streams for your property. But the true success to achieving a good online reputation will come from responding to those reviews.
Here are 5 reasons why responding to hotel reviews is imperative:
- Responding to online customer reviews can lead to many things but at Review My Room, we think that guest satisfaction should come first. Thoughtful, personalized responses to online reviews show that you value your guests’ feedback and that you are willing to listen and potentially make changes in order to gain their complete satisfaction. Overall this can lead to a loyal customer base with the bonus of attracting new customers who are scrolling through the reviews. Encouraging guests to write reviews gives you the opportunity to respond!
- Responding to reviews not only helps build loyalty with your guests, but also with google searches . For example, Google uses three factors to determine local rankings; relevance, distance and prominence. This Google Help Page notes that “review count and score are factored into local search ranking: more reviews and positive ratings will probably improve a business’s local ranking”. So if you want to be at the top of the list, respond to reviews and keep your business visible and relevant.
- Hotel reputation management is the art of managing your property’s brand online with respect to ratings, reviews and mentions. It essentially tells you how your hotel is perceived by the online world and therefore, can directly affect your bottom line. So make it work for you! Proactively responding to reviews in a thoughtful and timely fashion can allow you to get ahead of any potential negativity that can adversely affect your reputation and revenues.
- Social media platforms such as Facebook and Google offer numerous ways for a hotel to be reviewed, rated or mentioned and are used by many potential guests. Not everyone uses the same platform for reading or writing reviews, and social platforms such as Facebook, IG and twitter should not be ignored. Responding to questions and comments on a variety of social media sites offers yet another opportunity for you, the hotel owner, to show true customer service to the guest! Managing the social media component of your hotel’s brand has now become vital and we can help. We can create customized content for your hotel that will appeal to large audiences across all the social media platforms, guaranteeing your hotel a voice.
The last one is hopefully the most obvious. Learning from your mistakes and accomplishments! Feedback from guests, although it may hurt sometimes, offers invaluable insight into the guest experience. Something a hotel owner is not privy to. Responding to reviews opens up a dialogue that would never have existed before online reviews! Even better than that, if a guest has simply left a rating, responding with a request for more information guarantees organic feedback for free! The information collected from these reviews can lead to a change in daily operations, a shift in staffing or simply a new brand of sheets. Things you may not have discovered otherwise.
As a hotel owner, you are inundated daily with emergencies and although your online reputation may not feel like one, it is. This is where Review My Room can help. When the reviews come flying in, our staff responds on your behalf using unique and personalized responses. All within 24 hours, no templates. Sounds like the future you want to be a part of? Call today for a free quote!
