The importance of online reputation management for hotels

About 90% of travelers today rely on guest reviews when choosing the right hotel. Not only this, but they also carefully go through at least 10-12 online reviews across hotel booking and review sites during their research phase. It means they pay the utmost importance to what a hotel’s past guests say about its services and amenities. Yes, you got it. The point here we are trying to make is simple – your hotel’s online reputation is one of the most significant factors that influence guests’ booking decisions. In this blog, we will help you understand what hotel reputation management is and how to get it right. 

In today’s digital age, where information is quickly available at our fingertips, online reputation management has become crucial for your hotel’s brand. Today’s tech-savvy guests have access to online travel agencies, review sites, and social media, where they can read both positive and negative feedback about your hotel. Simply saying – you can’t hide anything from them. And that’s why your hotel’s online reputation is so important. And most importantly, that’s why you need to be on top of everything related to it. 

Before we dig deeper, let’s look at a few more benefits you will surely witness with a stronger online reputation:

• Get more bookings: Yes. That’s right. Almost every guest will book a hotel with higher ratings. 
• Generate more revenue: Not only do guests book a hotel with excellent ratings, but they are also more likely to spend more during their stay. 
• Enhance guest trust and loyalty: Once at your property, you can take the whole thing one notch up by serving them better. If you make them happy, they will likely return to you. Loyal guests will spread the good word about you, recommend your brand to their friends and families, and even write positive reviews. They, too, spend more during their stay. 
• Understand guest behavior: Guest reviews are excellent sources to understand their behavior and sentiment. 
• Attract and retain staff: This is another crucial benefit you must consider. Everybody wants to work for reputed brands; the same goes for your employees. 

It positively impacts your pricing

That is correct. A 1-point increase in your online ratings allows you to increase your room rates by at least 4% to 5%. For example, if you manage to boost your reputation score from 3.5 to 4.5, you can charge about 5% more for room and other non-room items. Remember that today’s guests don’t hesitate to pay a premium if your hotel has impressive reviews. Moreover, it leads to improved occupancy.

What does hotel reputation management mean for you?

Hotel reputation management, or online reputation management, is about strengthening your property’s digital image. It lets you control what others see about your hotel online. And to achieve this, you need to have a well-thought-out strategy to monitor each review while responding to positive and negative ones. 

A few essential ways to boost your hotel’s online reputation

Automate the process of getting guest feedback: It is imperative to personally invite guests to provide feedback. Before requesting a review, send a feedback survey form to gauge satisfaction and promptly address any issues before they deteriorate. You can achieve this by integrating your Cloud Hotel PMS with a guest feedback collection solution. It allows you to send out emails directly from the system once the guest checks out and prompts them to leave their feedback. 

Respond to all reviews: You must be very careful while doing this. Your potential guests would like it if they see you responding to all reviews – good and bad. In fact, negative reviews demand more attention. Moreover, it would be best if you kept doing this regularly. When you do this, your future guests feel you care about them. A nicely-drafted response to a  bad review can minimize the damage and turn it into an opportunity for you to emerge as a winner. 

Leverage hotel reputation management software: Today’s intelligent AI-powered online reputation management tools track everything being said about your hotel across hundreds of sources – OTAs, review sites, and social media platforms. They allow you to view and reply to all guest reviews in one place. You can even deploy them to respond to each feedback with personalized replies. These solutions can also help you get more bookings by promoting relevant reviews. 

Throughout this article, we have discussed the importance of online reputation management for hotels and provided strategies to improve it. But one thing should be your #1 priority – providing excellent guest service. Train your staff to deal with unhappy guests with utmost patience. They must handle untoward situations with extra care. You can get it right with the right strategy, competent staff, and suitable solutions.