GuestInsights

Online Reviews and Testimonials - 2 separate things

Scour the internet and you'll find many takes on where online review sites, like TripAdvisor, fit into the hotelier's world.  This piece, which was written last summer, carefully considers the perspective of the consumer in establishing strategy for dealing with this brave new world we all find ourselves in.

The article talks about "official content" (produced by a hotel) vs. "unofficial content" (reviews, ratings, etc. that show up on the Web) and the importance of hoteliers not blurring the line between the two for potential customers.  The key takeaway is that hotel operators should not rely on the review sites to generate testimonials that are linked to their own web sites.

Give it a read.  It's an interesting perspective and has provoked more discussion around here about the continually evolving process of consumers sifting through available information to make travel decisions. One point of differentiation we make with the author of the article is the suggestion that "a Guest Satisfaction Survey should already exist on the hotel website".  Of course, our recommendation is for a controlled guest satisfaction surveying process instead.  More to come on this.

In this economy, it's hard enough competing against hotels that actually exist!

This piece, about the fictional Schrute Farms of NBC's "The Office" being posted by TripAdvisor and then reviewed by "guests", caught our attention.

Monitoring Online Review Sites – 2

This sure has been a hot topic lately- look at this article in USA Today. A few things to comment on in this article that adds to our post, Monitoring Online Review Sites – 1:

The article notes that "Large hotel companies have always solicited customer surveys from guests. But they've relied mostly on numerical rankings and have rarely contained descriptive explanations."  On the contrary, all of the major online feedback systems (including ours) allow guests to enter comments.  Even hotels that still rely on printed comment cards invariably ask for additional comments beyond any closed-ended questions that are asked.

This article reinforces the idea mentioned in our earlier post that there is momentum within the industry suggesting that monitoring the review sites is a good way to gauge guest satisfaction levels and could replace traditional guest feedback gathering. 

Sorry, but this is flawed thinking.  Here again are the 3 main problems with using online reviews as a barometer of guest satisfaction:

1. Online review sites are getting “feedback” from a very small percentage of the guests who stayed at the hotel– there is no proactive methodology to collecting the feedback – it just comes in when site users choose to offer reviews.  Typically, this occurs when guests are either very happy or unhappy with a hotel experience.
2. The risk of being influenced by fraudulent reviews – both positive and negative.  While it is difficult to measure the magnitude of this problem on the review sites (though it is known to happen), in a systematic feedback measurement approach this problem simply doesn’t exist.
3. It’s tricky to largely use anecdotal evidence as a basis for measuring operating efficiencies, as opposed to trackable metrics in specific operating areas that an effective survey program will generate.

Once again, we agree that it is critically important for hoteliers to monitor what is being written about their hotels on the online review sites and consider responses, when deemed appropriate. However, it's also imperative to be proactive and methodical in the approach to understanding true levels of satisfaction with a proven survey system.  Only then can hoteliers get an accurate read on what's working and what needs attention.  The payoff, of course, is less "firefighting" on the review sites over time.

Monitoring Online Review Sites - 1

Check out the interview on Hotelmarketing.com on 3/29/10 with April Robb of TripAdvisor offering "Tips from TripAdvisor on managing hotel reviews". Interesting stuff, especially the mention of fraudulent reviews and guests being offered/receiving incentives for posting positive reviews.  Clearly these efforts to "game" the system impact the usefulness of review sites to the public as travel research resources.  Sadly, this is a by-product of the open nature of the Internet and has forced hoteliers to vigilantly monitor what is being said about their properties in the Wild West of review sites-- a time-consuming and frustrating task. Alarmingly, however, several conversations we've had with colleagues and clients suggest that the increased focus on monitoring the review sites like TripAdvisor has spurned a new problem; a significant number of hoteliers are using their TripAdvisor ratings and reviews as the sole gauge of guest satisfaction at their properties. Essentially, there are 3 reasons why it is a mistake for hotel management to use online review sites in place of a separate, professionally developed and operated guest feedback system:

1. Online review sites are getting "feedback" from a very small percentage of the guests who stayed at the hotel-- there is no proactive methodology to collecting the feedback - it just comes in when site users choose to offer reviews.  Typically, this occurs when guests are either very happy or unhappy with a hotel experience.

Our experience with a systematic approach of asking for feedback is that hotel managers will get hundreds of detailed and comprehensive evaluations from guests in the same time period that they may get only a handful of postings on TripAdvisor.  And, those evaluations will be more normally distributed across the spectrum of experience.

2. The risk of being influenced by fraudulent reviews - both positive and negative.  While it is difficult to measure the magnitude of this problem on the review sites, in a systematic feedback measurement approach this problem simply doesn't exist.

3. It's tricky to largely use anecdotal evidence as a basis for measuring operating efficiencies, instead of trackable metrics in specific operating areas that an effective survey program will generate. TripAdvisor and sites like it are here to stay.  Despite the potential problems, they provide travelers with useful information for research and offer valuable marketing opportunities for hoteliers.

Our Advice

• Be reactive about the content that's posted on these sites- respond when appropriate.
• Be proactive in understanding the state of guest satisfaction in your hotel by using a proper guest feedback system (whether it's ours or a competitor's) to monitor and improve your operations.

If you do, your reward will be less to worry about on the review sites.

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This is the new version of the GuestInsight blog on all things related to feedback, guest and customer satisfaction, and technology.