With more than 25 million monthly visitors, 10 million registered members and 25 million reviews and opinions on properties and destinations, TripAdvisor is the largest online travel community in the world.
According to a survey conducted by Market Metrix and TripAdvisor, 85% of hotels have no guidelines for monitoring or responding to guest reviews and only 4% of negative reviews actually get a response.
For hotels it is very important to provide an appropriate action to this. Guests show to be more tolerant and willing to recommend the hotel if an explanation is provided, if there is attention demonstrated to the problem. If hotels don´t respond, the negative feedback can escalate and turn to a problem that could easily have been avoided.
First of all, monitoring new reviews about your business is essential. Start by assigning one person to monitor review sites and do the follow up. Create a response policy in which you give 24 hours for all reviews to get a feedback. Negative reviews should be your priority. Send them to the appropriate contact person that deals with the issue best to let them know and if you need to be advised.
Start by thanking the guest and if the review is positive invite them back and highlight the hotels´ qualities. Also don’t forget to notify the responsible person in the hotel so that the good feedback is shared and gives a positive reinforcement for your team. If it is a bad review thank also for their time, say you will address the problem and if the problem was solved, show them by posting a picture, for example.
Use the suggestions from the guests in your favor and identify the areas your hotel or business could improve, reinforce your brand and be a leader in your area of business. There is no way to escape TripAdvisor and similar online review site, so try to make the best out of them.
Muthu Hotels Blog 