“It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, but you can lose it in a minute”
– Will Rogers
Well said, indeed! Earning a good reputation is certainly not an overnight job. It is a continuous and incremental attempt towards high rating on online review sites and maximum positive reviews. Moreover, ensuring that online reputation management only gets better with time is a key concern and the topmost priority of all hotel revenue managers.
Reviews rank second only to price as the most important factor considered by travelers looking for hotels. The hospitality industry is all about having a good service; a hotel or a restaurant known for its quality of service would definitely have a higher number of footfalls and of course good reviews.
The Role of Technology and Social Media in ORM
Technology has advanced much and we have come a long way using it. It is the age of the Internet, where we all in a way have become expert critics, thanks to the growing use of social media. An angry or a dissatisfied guest in today’s world would hardly keep quiet, especially when he is aware of the powers extended by social media, which allows a guest to openly show all the frustration or discontentment to everyone thrashing the hotel’s image to bits.
The reputation of the hotel, therefore, lies in the hands of the tech-savvy traveler, who is glued to the internet round the clock and is happy scribbling a few lines to share his experience with the online community that could very well influence their perception and booking decisions.
The job of hotels is getting tougher day-by-day in an attempt to maintain a superior ranking, and they strive hard to deliver better guest experiences, which would lead to better rating and reviews.
Online Reputation Management tools are even more important for big chain hotels and enterprises, having many branches to monitor. Technology vendors are offering solutions with enterprise dashboards that makes comprehensive monitoring much easier, with one single screen.
ORM as a Key Function in Hotels
Online Reputation Management (ORM) has therefore emerged as a key function in the hotel industry, with dedicated groups of experts aligned to regularly monitor all social media channels and review sites to monitor and analyze what is being written about them, strategically responding to all comments, and taking rectifying steps for the negative feedback. Hence, Online Reputation Management has gained far more importance in the current era and the practice has now become an indispensable tool for measuring guest satisfaction.
