Mr. Friedlander

Social Media & PR

Understanding the Tools to Help Drive Hotel Revenue Growth

By R.J. Friedlander , Founder & CEO, ReviewPro

The initial ground swell of change started to become evident around 2005. But, for years the hotel industry acted as if the “social media revolution” was something that was going to make waves in other industries and not hit close to home. Who would have thought back then that social media would significantly impact his/her individual hotel or chain, let alone influence the bottom-line?

For the majority, it was not a case of apathy. Most were still trying to respond to the changes in online distribution and marketing led by OTA’s and Google to have much time or resources to be bothered by social media. Anyway, it was not obvious that what started out with a few Websites and new technologies, first embraced by geeks and college kids, would turn out to be one of the most significant trends to hit the hotel industry in years.

From Insignificant to Imperative

Just three years ago, you would have been hard pressed to find many hoteliers that were doing anything significant related to online reputation and social media management. As recently as a couple of years ago, there were still very few hotel groups that had dedicated resources or a budget assigned to manage social media. However, the tide has clearly changed.

Over the last year, thousands of hotels worldwide, from all segments, have begun to engage directly with their clients online via social media. It appears that this trend will continue to grow in 2011. A recent study by TripAdvisor indicated that 57% of the respondents expect their social media budgets to increase this year versus last year. Increasingly, involvement with social media is expanding beyond just the marketing department.

Innovative companies like Sol Melía, The LandMark London and Eurostars Hotels have embraced social media analytics and changed how they manage their entire organizations. From the executive suite to the quality, operations, sales, marketing, distribution and revenue departments; online reputation and social media management has had a profound impact on their entire organization. These companies realize that it is all about tracking and improving guest satisfaction, engaging with clients directly with the goal of turning them into brand advocates and leveraging social media analytics to drive revenue growth. So how are they doing this?

Leverage Technology to Gain Efficiency and Maximize Results

In recent years, the volume of user-generated content on the Internet related to hotels has grown by orders of magnitude. This growth is attributable to several factors. First, the number of Websites where consumers can write a review, post a photo or video or comment on their hotel experience has increased significantly. TripAdvisor used to be the only “game in town” but those days are long gone. While TripAdvisor remains one of the most recognized brands on the consumer Internet – and a handsomely profitable company – today there are more than 200 OTA and review sites worldwide, and it is essential to know what is being said in as many of these sites as possible.

Second, the number of consumers consulting reviews and creating reviews continues to swell. Research suggests that up to 91% of consumers read reviews prior to purchasing online. Individuals that benefit from the effort of others to share their hotel experience through reviews are more inclined to leave reviews themselves thus creating a snowball effect.

The combined impact of more sources coupled with more people leaving reviews has resulted in a global base of more than 100 million reviews. Hoteliers that are serious about managing their online reputation realize that it is far too unwieldy and inefficient to try and sort through this data manually. They are partnering with companies like ReviewPro, that offer web-based, analytical tools that allows them to efficiently aggregate, organize and manage their online reputation and presence in leading social media sites.

Identifying Required Functionality

If the goals are to increase customer satisfaction and drive revenue growth, it is critical that your technology partner offers you the analytics, customer intelligence, competitive benchmarking and automated reporting that your organization needs. Here are 10 key factors to keep in mind when you evaluate a potential solution:

1. Data aggregation with an international orientation

Collecting reviews from just a handful of the largest sites results is not sufficient. Make sure that your provider includes data from all significant regional and niche sites (OTA’s and review sites).

2. Quantitative indexes

To maximize results, you need to track your establishment’s general performance as well as performance in specific areas. It is critical to be able to track the following indexes by date range, as well as by hotel, group of hotels and for your entire chain:
- Overall quality score
- Department indexes (service, cleanliness, reception, etc.)
- Source indexes that measure performance across all OTA’s and review sites (Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Venere, etc.).

3. Qualitative Analytics

Semantic analysis to gauge the sentiment of what is being said in individual reviews and provides insight into where you need to react.

4. Competitive Benchmarking

Detailed insight into the online reputation and performance of your direct competitors.

5. Automated reporting

Automated alerts and reporting to meet the needs of departmental managers (executive summary, sales & marketing, operations & quality and revenue & distribution) are essential to maximize both use of the tool and results.

6. Internal collaboration

Ability to comment on reviews, share them internally via email and to manage the improvement process with workflow functionality.

7. Social proof publishing

Posting an independent quality seal in your own website, which communicates your online reputation score, has been shown to increase direct bookings by up to 40%.

8. Platform approach

The ability to export data out of the tool to analyze with your existing data (pricing, headcount, etc.) and to import internal customer services questionnaires to manage all guest feedback in one place.

9. Training and customer support

While in general these tools are not overly complicated to use, online training and customer support will help to increase usage within your organization and maximize results.

10. Track record in innovation

The area of online reputation management is evolving rapidly, so make sure your partner has a proven track record in product innovation.

Leveraging these types of analytics and functionality throughout the organization is how innovative hotel groups, like those mentioned above, are increasing revenue.

Leveraging Guest Feedback to Drive Revenue Growth

While savvy hoteliers are using technology to quickly respond to guest feedback and make operational and service improvements, the holy grail of social media is driving incremental revenue growth. The opportunity lies in three key areas:

• Increasing direct bookings and Website conversion rates
• Maximizing online distribution revenue through boosting your presence in OTA’s
• Optimizing pricing strategies by cross-comparing Global Review IndexTM with your Average Daily Rate history

Whether you are responsible for a small independent hotel or a large international chain, social media presents an enormous opportunity for your organization. For many, taking advantage of this opportunity requires a change of thinking and has implications in both management approach and processes. It is essential to engage with a technology partner who offers the analytics and functionality discussed above. If you execute well, in a relatively short period of time and without significant expense, you can increase both guest satisfaction and revenue.

R.J. Friedlander is the founder and CEO of ReviewPro. The company enables hoteliers to increase guest satisfaction and increase revenue by proactively managing their online reputation and presence in leading social media Websites. This is achieved by providing clients the analysis, customer intelligence, competitive benchmarking and automated reporting needed to help them more effectively manage their organizations. The companies solution is designed to serve the needs of individual hotel operators, multi-establishment chains and asset managers. Mr. Friedlander can be contacted at +34 93 451 0454 or rfriedlander@reviewpro.com Extended Bio...

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