Recently, a friend of mine was discussing an incident that happened at his hotel. A guest left a negative review for his property. Why?
NB: This is an article from eZee Absolute
Because he wanted to have early check-in and rooms were unavailable. The reason sounds a bit absurd. But in the end, the hotel had a bad review.
Two words that give hoteliers a nightmare: Negative reviews.
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Almost every hotel struggles with reviews in 3 ways –
- Collecting enough of them.
- Managing negative ones.
- Dealing with fake reviews
You can manage these feedback using an Online Reputation Management (ORM) software. But, avoiding bad ones and dealing with fake reviews is entirely a different thing.
In this blog, I’ll tell you all about negative hotel reviews and how to avoid them.
What guarantees negative hotel reviews?
Keeping guests happy is indeed a tough task. Hoteliers work day and night to accomplish this. But sometimes, guests are unhappy with the hotel’s services.
Such guests are sure to give you bad feedback. Here are some top reasons for negative hotel reviews.
1. Incorrectly mapped location
Assume that you are on a trip and have booked a hotel in a remote area. You are following the directions on Google maps and arrive at the destination. But, there is no sign of any property.
It would surely bother you. You call up the hotel, ask for the correct location and reach there.Ultimately, you leave a bad impression of your property.
Hence, an erroneous location on Google or your website is a big NO. If guests are unable to reach your premises safely and conveniently, you are sure to have negative hotel reviews.
2. Unpleasant ambiance
There’s a saying – “The first impression is the last impression”.
The first thing that guests notice is your hotel’s ambiance. An unclean lobby with an unpleasant smell is sure to drive your guests away. It results in a bad brand image and hampers your guests’ experience.
While entering or even leaving the hotel premises, guests have to cross the common areas of the hotel. If those are left unclean with debris and dust lying around, it would surely leave a bad impression on your guests.
3. Room complaints
An unkempt room is the last thing any guest would tolerate. It is not only limited to cleanliness but also includes various other factors. Some of them are:
Uncleaned rooms
Dirty linen, dust on the shelves, badly maintained washroom and such likes are traits of an unclean room.
If guests find their room in this state, they are sure to lose their cool. They will probably take the pictures and upload them on TripAdvisor or any other OTA.
This brings you a bad review and eventually affects your booking ratio.
Faulty room equipment
Electrical gadgets tend to break down after a while or at least need regular maintenance. It may happen that some equipment might not work during a guest’s stay.
This could be due to faulty mechanisms, short circuits or any other reason. But using malfunctioning equipment is hazardous for guests as well as your hotel’s staff.
Unavailability of the booked room
Hotels don’t acknowledge overbooked guests. Mostly because overbookings happen due to technical or human error.
In such cases, the guests are provided with alternative options to stay. However, the damage is already done.
The guests are quite annoyed in such situations because they have to compromise on another option.
And, this results in you getting negative hotel reviews.
