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HOTEL BUSINESS REVIEW

SEPTEMBER FOCUS: Hotel Group Business

 

Successful Review Site Marketing Strategies and How Bad Reviews Can Impact Business

By Jennifer Dunphy Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Vayu Media | September 2013

With the growing popularity of consumer-generated media and review sites, it is critical for hotels to have a strong presence on the top review sites. Good reviews can create a solid foundation for future bookings, while too many negative reviews can lead to the demise of the hotels future booking potential. Up to 70% of global consumers say that online consumer reviews are the second-most trusted form of advertising. An additional 46% of travelers post hotel reviews after their vacations. There are strategies that can be implemented to take a proactive approach to receive more positive reviews and actions that need to be taken to mitigate the backlash from any negative reviews and to restore the hotels good reputation. In today’s hyper interactive and socialized online world, there must be room in the hotels marketing budget for managing the property’s online reputation on the top social media and review sites. This includes sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, TripAdvisor, Air B & B, Yelp, FlipKey, BookIt and dozens of other sites. Over the last few years, online guest reviews and social media have reached an unprecedented level of awareness within the hotel industry. With Google+ Local now utilizing Zagat reviews, and Bing now incorporating Yelp reviews, you are taking quite a big risk if you are not monitoring and responding to reviews. By incorporating a strategy for managing your hotels online presence into your marketing budget, not only are you taking a proactive step in improving you online presence, you are also able to become less dependent on online travel agencies. **Where are Hoteliers Spending Their Marketing Energy?** Hoteliers are finally beginning to see the writing on the wall, with 13.4% of hoteliers having stated that social media and review optimization are among their top 10 initiatives for their hotel marketing strategy this year. So where are hoteliers spending their marketing energy this year? While only a small percentage of hoteliers are pushing the envelope with their social media marketing and review site optimization strategy, 33% have stated that redesigning their website is a top priority, 27% are focusing on SEO, and 26% On SEM (Pay Per Click). Even with all of the advancements in digital marketing and all of the hot new ways to promote a property, 24.3% of hoteliers are still going the old school route and focusing on email marketing while 15.6% are ahead of the curve tackling exciting new opportunities with Mobile marketing, another extraordinary opportunity for Hoteliers that are early adopters. It comes as no surprise that 12% of hoteliers pegged online video marketing as a priority, 12.3% are focusing on retargeting strategies, 15.7 on display advertising and 14% on local search marketing. While all of these marketing endeavors are worthwhile, some are more deserving of attention than others and will yield a much higher return on investment. **Guests Booking Preference** Online bookings are continuing to grow and therefore what people are saying, or not saying, about a hotel online will make all of the difference in the hotels occupancy rate. The number of U.S. travelers booking and researching online is still growing. More than 114 million people will research travel online this year, while 94 million will actually book reservations. While more than 50 percent of travel bookings are made on the Internet, the online travel market has matured and will continue to grow and stabilize. It is predicted that by 2016, half of the travel industry will be using social media as a way of generating revenue and bookings. It’s really a simple concept. Have an online presence where your guests are spending time. With an all-time record high usage rate of social media, your hotel can’t afford to miss this bandwagon. Droves of travelers will be turning to their mobile devices, whether that may be in the form of a tablet or cell phone, to research travel options and accommodations and book and communicate room preferences directly with the hotel. Mobile bookings have increased four-fold between 2008 and 2010 according to Forrester Research. Google is also projecting that mobile will overtake PCs as the most common web-access device by 2013. With the growing role of mobile marketing for hotels, it has become increasingly more important to optimize a hotels presence on review sites. Not only are mobile searchers more likely to book immediately, but they are also pressed for time, thus relying on the reviews that are popping up on the first page of their mobile browser. With the smaller screens on mobile devices we are able to view fewer results on page one of our mobile browser than we are able to view on page one from a desktop. The better a hotels review site optimization, the more likely it is to pop up on desktop and mobile browsers alike. **The Impact of Consumer Generated Media** Consumer generated media (CGM), such as reviews and social posts, offer up the power of persuasion for many online shoppers. Whether the review is scathing or phenomenal, it will persuade guests one way or another to book accommodations at one hotel or pass on to the next. Furthermore, travel search engines, booking engines, and review sites offer tremendous value to your SEO strategy, while simultaneously leveraging the social integration and CGM factor. Not only do they drive qualified traffic to your website, and business to your hotel, but more importantly they can help to protect your brand. It is not enough to simply receive good reviews on sites like TripAdvisor, Expedia, Hotels.com, and Yelp, you need to be part of the conversation. You need to respond immediately to negative reviews and for good measurement, thank guests for their positive contributions. It is difficult work to build a good reputation for your hotel, but easy to lose it. It all boils down to risk management. By responding to reviews you are not only showing guests that you care about their experience, but you are also keeping your reviews fresh and more likely to achieve higher positioning in the search results. Travelers blog frequently about their experiences, the destinations they visited, the food they ate, the hotel they stayed at and the excursions that they embarked on. In fact, 70% of global consumers say that online consumer reviews are the second most trusted form of advertising. An additional 46% of travelers post hotel review after their vacations, while 76% will post their vacation photos to their social networks. User generated content can be a revenue boosting avenue for your hotel, but it can also deter potential guests and become an ugly situation to deal with when a guest ( or a competitor disguised as a guest) posts a less than desirable review of your property. Despite all of the benefits of maintaining a positive reputation on TripAdvisor and the OTAs, all of these reviews point to the OTA sites and compete with your own website for favorable rankings in the organic search results. By maintaining hosted reviews on your website, you are in control. They are live on your servers and drive SEO value back to your website. Strategies are constantly evolving to incorporate a mix of hosted reviews (which drive best organic SEO) and 3rd party reviews (which have a larger audience and lend greater impartiality and authenticity). **Were you aware that most consumers read online travel reviews, but not so many write them?** Exclusive research for Travel Weekly suggests that three out of four travelers seldom contribute reviews, meaning a minority have a disproportionate influence. Their research suggests that 35% of a sample of 1,000 recent travelers always check online reviews before booking. Two-thirds (65%) said they do so always or often. However, 34% never write a review and 77% seldom or never do. And with more and more people looking to online reviews for validation that their chosen destination is up to par with their expectations, some may find that what they get was not exactly what they had in mind. It is important for there to be a diversified portfolio of reviews from people with different experiences, different cultural backgrounds, and different hobbies and interests. Then a potential guest can get a more complete picture of a destination and make the best choice for their vacation needs. Nine out of 10 vacation goers look at online consumer reviews before booking their holidays and two out of three do so often or always. Research suggests that a significant number of people appear immediately put off booking a hotel or resort by a negative review. As a matter of fact, Explore Research found that 14% said they would seek another holiday option in the face of a bad review and 5% would search elsewhere for a holiday – meaning almost one in five react to a single bad review by looking elsewhere to book. Luckily, the majority (69%) said they look at other reviews before forming an opinion and 5% said they will seek other sources of reviews, suggesting three out of four seek another opinion in the face of a bad review. Only 3% said they ignored such a review. A small minority (7%) admit to posting mostly negative reviews, with a clear majority (65%) who contribute online reviews – whether occasional or often – claiming their contributions are neither positive nor negative. Almost one in three (30%) said their reviews are most often positive. Women appear more likely than men to check other reviews before reaching a conclusion: 77% of women respondents said they would do so, compared with 70% of men. Male respondents appear more affected by a poor review, 22% saying they would immediately seek another holiday option compared with 16% of female respondents. The Explore Research survey found that 40% of those aged 18-34 always look at online reviews before booking, against 37% of 35-54-year-olds and 24% of those over 55. Yet 97% of 35-54-year-olds said they check online reviews sometimes against 92% of younger vacation goers. Young people seem slightly more likely to form an opinion based on a review – 20% doing so on the basis of a single bad review – and less likely than older adults to check other reviews. Young adults are most likely to check online reviews routinely, but no more likely than older adults to look at online comments sometimes. The young are also the most likely to contribute reviews 36% of 18-34-year-olds saying they do so always or often, against 14% of adults over 55 and one quarter of 35-54-year-olds. However they are also the ones posting more negative reviews. The young and those with more money are more likely to post negative reviews: 11% of 18-34-year-olds said they do so, against 4% of 35-54-year-olds and 5% of the over-55s. The sharpest difference in frequency appears to be between better-off and less well-off households: 69% of ABC1 holidaymakers (those in professional, managerial or skilled jobs) said they always or often look at online reviews, against 57% among the rest of the population. Similarly, 10% of better-off adults said they write mostly negative reviews compared with 3% of the rest of the population.

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**How to Encourage Positive Reviews** So, how do you drive more top quality reviews for your hotel? It’s really quite simple. **Ask for them** - The best way to obtain more positive reviews is to simply ask for them. If a guest lets you know that they have had a wonderful stay, simply request that they share their experience on whichever review site that you are trying to enhance. Another effective way to encourage reviews is to arm employees with business cards that ask guests to "share your review". **Respond to reviews** - Show potential guests that you care about their experience. Be sure to respond to all of the negative reviews, a few of the positive ones, and a few of the average ones. Responding an "appropriate" percentage of the time can lift the quantity of incoming reviews by up to 35%. However, some research shows that responding too often can have a noticeably less beneficial effect. So be selective with the reviews that you respond to. Choose the ones that will gain the most credit for your hotel. **Publish your reviews** – Everyone knows that reviews matter! In fact, they matter so much that guests will leave your website for TripAdvisor or an OTA if they can't read objectives reviews there. The best strategy is to publish those same third party reviews on your site with tools like Revinate's Social Buzz. This will help to keep potential guests on your site, with the results of driving up conversion rates, paying smaller acquisition fees, gaining additional social followers, blog subscriptions and newsletter signups. As tempting as it may be, post ALL of your reviews. Don’t remove the bad reviews. Remember that bad reviews legitimize the good ones. This is especially important when you consider that brands are among the least credible sources of information in consumers' eyes. **Measure the impact** – Review optimization is just like any other form of marketing. You need to measure the quality, quantity, and freshness of your reviews, and always strive to achieve better reviews. You can learn just as much from the good ones as you can from the bad ones.
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**In Conclusion** No one knows what may come next in digital marketing for hotels, but one thing is for certain, investing the time now to develop best practices will pay long-term benefits. Watching the trends in the age group below your target market and reacting may help you stay ahead of the game. Regardless of the platform, device, or audience, understanding how to drive an abundance of high quality reviews will always serve you well. [1]: http://www.hotelexecutive.com/images/business_review/jennifer_08-13_1a.jpg [2]: http://www.hotelexecutive.com/images/business_review/jennifer_08-13_1b.jpg

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Any and all disputes or controversies of any kind, including but not limited to any performance, duty, obligation or liability arising under or related to this Agreement which are not first resolved informally, shall be determined by binding arbitration in San Francisco, California, in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association. The final award in any such arbitration proceeding shall be subject to entry as a judgment by any court or competent jurisdiction, provided that such judgment does not conflict with the terms and provisions hereof. The jurisdiction of the arbiter (or arbiters) with respect to legal matters shall be limited only by the statutory and common law of the State of California and the United States.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, any and all disputes, which the parties cannot informally resolve, regarding the scope of issues or matter with the jurisdiction of the arbitrator, shall be resolved by a separate dispute resolution process whereby HotelExecutive, in its sole discretion shall elect the dispute to be resolved by either (1) a court of competent jurisdiction in the State of California or (2) a panel of three new arbitrators.

This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California notwithstanding any conflict of laws provisions. You and HotelExecutive agree that the venue for all legal disputes, controversies, actions of any kind arising under or related to this Agreement shall be San Francisco, California. You and HotelExecutive further agree that in case of any litigation regarding this Agreement, you irrevocably and unconditionally (i) consent to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts in the County of San Francisco, California for any litigation or dispute arising out of or relating to this Agreement, (ii) agree not to commence any litigation arising out of or relating to this Agreement except in the California Courts, (iii) agree not to plead or claim that such litigation brought therein has been brought in an inconvenient forum, and (iv) agree the California Courts represent the exclusive jurisdiction for all litigation relating to this Agreement.

11. MEMBERSHIP FEES

Hotel Business Review Subscriptions

If you choose to purchase a subscription, member subscription payments can be made in U.S. Dollars, as well as a variety of international currencies. Membership terms are Annual Recurring, and Monthly Recurring. The Annual Recurring subscription is an annual commitment and subscribers will be charged each consecutive billing cycle. Annual Recurring subscriptions can be cancelled after the first billing cycle and within 30-days of the billing date for a full refund. Monthly Recurring subscriptions are ongoing and subscribers will be charged each consecutive monthly billing cycle. Monthly Recurring subscriptions can be cancelled after the first month and within 7 days of the monthly billing cycle for a full refund.

12. PAYMENT AUTHORIZATION

Payment for the services provided to you in, at, through or in association with HotelExecutive may be made by automatic credit card, debit card, direct debit, bankwire or Paypal and other approved payment means offered in, at, through or in association with HotelExecutive, and you hereby authorize HotelExecutive and its agents to transact such payments on your behalf.

You hereby authorize HotelExecutive's Internet Payment Service Provider to charge your credit card to pay for your membership to HotelExecutive. You further authorize HotelExecutive's Internet Payment Service Provider to charge your credit card for any and all purchases of products, services in association with HotelExecutive. You agree to be personally liable for all charges incurred by you in association with your access or other use of any content provided by HotelExecutive or any third party in association with HotelExecutive. You acknowledge and agree that your liability for all such charges shall continue after termination of your access or any type of membership arrangement with HotelExecutive.

In the event that you have chosen to have your membership automatically rebilled, unless and until you notify HotelExecutive that you wish to cancel or terminate your membership to HotelExecutive, you hereby agree and authorize HotelExecutive's Internet Payment Service Provider to automatically renew your membership to HotelExecutive on a continuing basis and to charge your credit card (or other payment means you have selected) to pay for the ongoing cost of your membership. You hereby further authorize HotelExecutive's Internet Payment Service Provider to charge your credit card (or other approved payment means you have selected) for any and all purchases of products, services and entertainment provided to in, at, through or in association with HotelExecutive.

13. PRIVACY POLICY

The following is the Privacy Policy for HotelExecutive

We can be reached via telephone, email, or online at our contact page. When you visit our site we do not log any information regarding your domain or email address. Information Sharing: We do not share user information with any third parties other than via press release distribution as described below.

Hotel Newswire is a newswire service that distributes press releases on behalf of our users. If you decide to submit a press release for distribution through our system we will transmit your entire press release including any personal information therein contained to our media contacts and online distribution points including search engines. This is the only redistribution of your information that we engage in. Your submission of press releases through our system indicates consent with this policy. The information we collect during your registration process is used to notify users about updates to our service and inform users of any special events hosted by Hotel Newswire. This information is not shared with other organizations for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

Cookies: Our system requires the use of cookies to enable the user to log back into our website to access information from the newswire, without having to log in each time using the required username and password.

If you do not want to receive email from us in the future, please let us know by following instructions included in our communication with you. Users who supply us with telephone numbers online may receive telephone contact from us regarding their account, or informing them of new products and services available on the HotelExecutive website. If you do not wish to receive such telephone calls, please edit your account and remove your phone number from your account profile. This can be done from your user account menu.

Ad Servers: We do not partner with or have any relationship with any ad server companies. From time to time, we may use customer information for new uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at any time, we will post the policy changes to our website to notify you of these changes and provide you with the ability to opt out of these new uses. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our website periodically.

Upon request we provide site visitors with access to all information (including proprietary information) that we maintain about them. Users can access this information by logging in to their account.

Security: We always use industry-standard encryption technologies while transferring and receiving user data exchanged with our site. We have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information that we have collected from you on our site. We do not store credit card information in our systems.

If you feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact us.

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