How important is Online Reputation Management for Hotels?

In today’s fast-paced world, online reputation can either make it or break it for a hotel. Hotels, planning on expanding their presence online should consider online reputation management as no one depends on traditional advertising or word of mouth anymore. People are vigorously using internet to gather information about hotels, services or any other information. This is where an online reputation management becomes vital as having a good online reputation will boost your business, regardless of the industry type.

Here are a few cases of big brands that failed at reputation management:

Dark Horse Café received a tweet criticizing their lack of electrical outlets for laptops. Their response was something like: “We are in the coffee business, not the office business. We have plenty of outlets to do what we need.”

This type of negative response and negligence doesn’t work in today’s online market. So avoid being negative and consider it your responsibility to respond to such reviews politely.

Nestlé received negative comments about their environmental practices a few years ago, and they did not address them. People started becoming aggressive and posted altered versions of the Nestlé logo, forcing the company to close their public page.

Never do the mistake of not responding to reviews from your guests as online world has a reach that you can’t even dream of and one such laxity can cost you a huge loss.

Amy’s Baking Company fought fire with fire against a one-star internet review. Their insults against the reviewer eventually were picked up by the local news.

Media is a powerful weapon that can either take you to highs or bring you down to ashes so make sure you don’t end up making a mistake of responding to the reviewer gravely.

Since majority of people spend enormous amount of time on the internet nowadays, it is ideal for every hotelier to manage their online reputation efficiently.