Hotels around the globe are happily promoting “their” review sites. Logos and links to Trip Advisor and similar sites are prominently displayed on hotels’ home pages and they proudly show off their “best hotel” awards. After all, being showcased on a very popular and highly frequented travel site puts your hotel name “out there” and exposes you to a vast amount of traffic, doesn’t it?
But, at second glance, are you really benefitting from this arrangement? On sites like Trip Advisor, you are on a platform that forces you to compete side by side with hundreds of other hotels. In the perception of readers, you are only one of many. It takes away from the brand you worked so hard to build and automatically enters you in the price war game.
Here’s a brilliant way to counteract these effects:
Respond to your guest comments.
I can hear your deep-drawn sigh.
To most hotels, it’s still a dreaded task. After all, what can you say when guests post their highly subjective views or opinions? You can dutifully thank them for a compliment, or apologize in case of a bad review.
Well, maybe there is a bit more to it than that.
It really pays off to invest some time in crafting a skilful response.
With 415 million monthly average unique visitors, Trip Advisor attracts a huge potential of prospective guests – a great opportunity to step to the fore and shine some light on your hospitality and unique hotel experience.
Even better, your response to guest comments will help you connect with your readers on an emotional level – the ideal start to kick-off the buyer’s journey.
“On a lifetime value basis, emotionally connected customers are more than twice as valuable as highly satisfied customers. These emotionally connected customers buy more of your products and services, visit you more often, exhibit less price sensitivity, pay more attention to your communications, follow your advice, and recommend you more – everything you hope their experience with you will cause them to do.” Alan Zorfas and Daniel Leemon, Motista/HBR
A powerful reason to give your guest reviews more attention, isn’t it? If you work in the hospitality industry, you usually don’t have a problem talking to your guests. By now, you’ve probably seen it all and mastered the trickiest conversations. Crafting a good response is not that different if you take a few important points into consideration:
