One of the most powerful tools any hotel operator has today is the review. We have gone over the numbers regarding the importance of reviews several times, so I will not waste your time going over them again. However, what I would like to address is where you should concentrate your reviews in order to get more bookings.
Understanding Your Numbers
I worked in several hotels during my career, and something I rarely heard discussed among the sales team was the search and landing page numbers for the hotel regarding bookings. Granted, social media and search may not have been as prominent a decade ago, but OTA sites like Travelocity, Orbitz, and Hotels.com were obviously responsible for providing guests.
Today, those websites are playing an even more prominent role, but the role of the sales team should be to dial in every outlet to understand where you need to concentrate more and for what reason. For instance, is your hotel showing a disparity vs the industry standard in OTA bookings vs direct bookings? If the hotel is seeing more than 35-40 percent in OTA bookings, there is a very good chance it is because the online presence of the hotel is very weak.
Review Websites v. Google Reviews
Not so long ago, the only review website that mattered was Trip Advisor, but that has significantly changed in recent years. Trip Advisor is still important, but so are Google reviews along with reviews on OTA websites. Additionally, Trip Advisor has proven it can be easily manipulated for both the good and the bad. Point being, consumers are no longer putting as much emphasis on Trip Advisor as they once did, which means the hotel must have a more well-rounded online presence to be successful.
The first area your team should be looking at is conversions on each OTA. If, for instance, you notice a lower booking rate or a booking rate that is declining on a specific OTA, there is a good chance it is directly related to a falling review rating. If that is the case, you obviously want to get more guests to leave good reviews on that page.
The second area to look at is direct bookings. If your property does not get a lot of direct bookings, the first area of concern should be page ranking and Google reviews. Reviews are a major part of the ranking algorithm on Google, so a lack of reviews or an influx of bad reviews will hurt your ranking. Additionally, few reviews will also hurt the overall ranking of the page. Point being, when guests are doing Google searches for properties, your property is not showing up. If that is the case, you want to have your guests focus their reviews to Google.
How to Point Guests
For every OTA site as well as Google reviews, there is a profile page for your specific property. To better ensure guests are leaving reviews where you want them to, you will need to direct them to these pages. The most effective way to do this is by providing them with either a short link or a QR code directly to that page.
The most opportune time to have a guest leave a review is during checkout when the front desk agent has been assured everything was satisfactory with the stay. To promote more reviews, create QR codes and short links for your different review sites and make them visible at the front desk. The code and/or link can also be put on the receipt for the guest to use later. The important thing here is that the front desk agent brings the review to the guest’s attention. Even if you are only successful with one or two percent of the guests, you are still creating a steady flow of reviews each day that will result in dozens of positive reviews every week.
In all honesty, there is no one “tell-all” answer to the question. This is something that needs to be constantly monitored based on what the analytics tell you at any given time. The important thing is to continue to monitor your numbers and make the appropriate adjustments so you concentrate reviews where you need them at any given time to improve both the booking rate and overall online presence of the property.
How is your property performing in guest reviews? If you see room for improvement and think a management change would be beneficial, it’s time to call Joseph David International. We are ranked as the #1 hotel recruiter for good reason, because we take the time to find the ideal candidate for your specific property and needs. For more information about our hospitality recruiting services, please click here.