Today, hotels are greatly dependent on a limited number of reservation platforms. A significant feature of these platforms is guest evaluations, which are transformed into ratings and rankings. Consumers pay growing attention to user-generated content and a hotel’s position in comparison to competitors can have a significant impact on demand for bookings. As a consequence, reputation management is becoming increasingly crucial for hotel managers.
But what exactly is the impact of guest evaluations on a hotel’s performance? How do hotel managers cope with negative online reviews? And what are the main challenges they face in improving their results?
Our latest research examines these questions based on a survey of international hotel managers to understand their perspectives on online reputation and manipulation.
Key Highlights :
- Guests are increasingly aware of the importance of reviews and their power over reputation.
- Ratings, ranking positions and new market entries increase pressure on managers.
- Strategies employed to improve online reputation are often outside the control of platforms.
- The extent of manipulation appears to vary between individual businesses and countries.
Interviewed managers confirm growing competition as a result of ratings and rankings, and they report that guests are increasingly aware of the importance of reviews. To avert negative online feedback impacts, managers intervene strategically. They report – irrespective of hotel standard – to pay close attention to online reputation, and to engage in various strategies to maintain or improve their ratings or ranking position. Specifically, our research reveals four core challenges directly related to online reviews and ratings of accommodations.
Challenge #1: Consumer judgement culture not only encourages, it demands opinion.
The results have a persuasive power in influencing customer perceptions and choices, and on business behavior. In particular, negative reviews appear to be considered useful by consumers. The emergent consumer judgement culture and consumer citizenship increase pressure on management.
Moreover, while prospective hotel guests will be aware of the importance of credibility, also having learned to interpret reviews, there is nevertheless evidence of reputation ‘thresholds’; this is, minimum ratings or ranking positions that are specifically attractive or no longer attractive to customers. These behaviors stand irrespective of whether review content is credible and if service quality of an accommodation business may change over time (for instance, when owners change, after renovations, or because of new service offers).
