4 Reputation Management Tips for Better Guest Reviews

Garnering plenty of good reviews while preventing and responding to negative reviews can help your hotel’s reputation shine on travel and other review sites.

Around 81 percent of travelers find online reviews important for booking a hotel, according to hospitality software company StayNtouch. In fact, 49 percent won’t even book a room at a hotel that has zero reviews, says StayNtouch.

And unfortunately, when it comes to swaying potential guests’ decisions to book rooms, a bad review carries a lot more weight than a good one.

One study published in Tourism Management found that people browsing hotel reviews found reviews from disgruntled guests “trustworthy, regardless of the number of reviews.” Meanwhile, they found good reviews trustworthy “only when they come along with a high number of reviews.”

Bad reviews can be costly, too. “Some experts claim that one bad review can result in up to 30 lost reservations,” according to StayNtouch.

Managing your hotel’s reputation by garnering more good reviews should be a priority. Here are four tips on managing hotel reputation and reviews from various hospitality industry experts at hospitality and travel knowledge platform Revfine.

Make reviews a top marketing priority

“Guests still look up a hotel’s reputation and what people are saying about them on social media as well as TripAdvisor before committing to their booking, so [reviews] needs to be at the forefront of your marketing and operational teams’ minds,” says Susanne Williams, performance and revenue director for Journey Hospitality and member of Revfine’s Hotel Marketing Expert Panel.

Respond to every review

“Reviews are essential to hotels. You want the majority to be positive and glowing. However, sometimes the way you respond to a negative review can be just as powerful,” says Williams.

“As a best practice, make sure you respond to every single review in a timely manner. Responses should be genuine and not too much of a cookie-cutter response. If you do get any negativity then take a practical approach and leave any emotion out of the response.”

Incentivize staff to encourage guest reviews

“Incentivizing staff to encourage guests to leave reviews is a great way to boost the number of reviews you get and also having systems in place that easily manage all review platforms is also good best practice,” says Williams.

Offering staff bonuses or other rewards for improved reviews makes reputation management a team effort, according to Tamie Matthews, revenue, sales and marketing consultant for RevenYou and member of Revfine’s Hotel Marketing Expert Panel.

Matthews’ recommendations include:

• Offering incentives for improved review scores
• Rotating staff member review responses
• Sharing good reviews at team meetings
• Sharing with staff an action plan to address negative reviews and then carrying through on the plan

“If staff can see change happening, they will become invested in delivering improved service,” says Matthews.

Provide technologies for a better guest experience

Knowing and using the same technologies as your guests can help improve the guest experience and place staff in a position to proactively address service issues, says Tim Kolman, commercial strategy expert and a member of Revfine’s Hotel Marketing Expert Panel.

“Implementing technology like chatbots and social media monitoring can allow your hotel to communicate with your guests in the way they want to communicate, reducing opportunities for negative reviews,” says Kolman.