When you’re shopping for products or services, the reputation of a business is important to you. You’re probably more likely to pick a product from a reputable company based on its reviews, market presence, and several other factors. This may be why 97% of consumers read reviews online before making a financial commitment.
The same attitude is applied to those looking to spend money at your hotel. Travelers are encouraged to look through the media to find the answers they’re looking for. Which hotel has the cheapest rates compared to which hotel has the best service? This is when hotel reputation management comes in.
Your hotel’s reputation is how the public views your business. Decent hotel reputation management software can help hoteliers harness the market and revamp their public perception. Let’s get into why this type of software is important for hotel management, and the benefits of applying it to your business.
Why is it important for hotels to work on their reputation?
Consider what you look for when you’re shopping for a hotel. Are you more likely to choose a 5-star hotel with minimal amenities, or a 1-star hotel with a swimming pool? According to 57% of other consumers, you might need to see at least a 4-star rating before choosing to do business.
With an overwhelming audience of potential guests, a minimum of 4-stars may seem like a lot to ask for. Nevertheless, a hotel needs to work on its reputation as much as any other business.
There is thick competition in the hotel industry. Everyone is trying to scale and recover from the pandemic. Each hotel is also trying to be the first spot a person thinks of during their travels. One of the most obvious ways to do this is to have a strong, positive reputation.
Consumers look at a minimum of 7 online reviews on average before coming to a decision. If your hotel reviews have 5 stars where it counts, hotel seekers are more likely to stop by your hotel for the night. How can you make sure your hotel keeps a notoriety that’s unique from your competitors?
What impacts a hotel’s reputation in the modern world?
Word of mouth is still relevant to decision-makers. The difference is today, word of mouth spreads like wildfire. This is due to the constant presence of the internet. Travelers use sites like TripAdvisor, search engines like Google, and social media like Facebook to gather information and opinions about their options.
Their first impressions of our hotel potentially come from the experiences of others online. Sites like these are where guests can share their experiences in real time. That means if something unfortunate happens to them within your hotel’s walls, you can bet your potential guests will hear about it at some point.
The internet makes online reputation a slippery slope for any business. One negative review that is relevant to the public can deter them from booking your hotel. This is simply money down the drain due to a small oversight. What’s more, the internet is always active. What used to be a reputation that could stick for months now only lasts a day at a time.
This is what makes the internet greatly impactful for the reputation of a hotel. The existence of hotel reputation management software can look at all these influences and optimize your presence online. Hotel management software can help you create and maintain engaging websites, inform you of the latest market data, and then some. With intelligent attention directed at the market, you’re left to facilitate bigger and better marketing tactics to drive more notoriety.
What does hotel reputation management entail?
Hotel reputation management encompasses everything that influences a hotel’s market presence. It involves building your hotel’s reputation, monitoring it constantly, and repairing it as needed. It gives you an understanding of what comes to mind when people think about your establishment.
With that information, hotel reputation management can help you begin to create new ways to augment the perception of your hotel. With a better reputation comes happier guests which turns into more profit. As such, hotel reputation management is a vital piece of your marketing team.
A broad view of reputation management can be broken down into 3 parts:
- Reputation Building: Building an outstanding reputation means facilitating a positive brand image that can attract more traffic to your establishment.
- Reputation Monitoring: Reputation management can constantly evaluate market fluctuations and your presence online. This way, you can always see where your hotel stands against the competition.
- Reputation Repairing: There have been cases where something goes awry, and your reputation is in jeopardy of being tarnished. Hotel reputation management software can repair damaging content and detect negative results to help you fix whatever is broken with your hotel.
Key Benefits of Reputation Management
Hotel reputation management software is extremely beneficial to hoteliers. It streamlines the process of monitoring and tracking engagement so you can focus more on important matters. Time is money. You have no time to waste on consistently manually checking your hotel’s current fame.
Since the processes are immediately taken care of, you can imagine the benefits that come from software like this. For a little insight, here are just 5 ways hotel reputation management can enhance your hotel’s presence, expand your revenue, and help you scale.
Enhances Visibility
Positive reviews online give your hotel the leverage to increase exposure. The more positive reviews you have, the more sound your reputation is, and the more likely someone is to come across your hotel.
Many times, a person looking for accommodations will do a quick Google search. Lots of them will never look past the first page or even the first few listings to find what they’re looking for. Google knows this and puts the most searched hotels at the very top of the very first page.
Hotel reputation management optimizes your reputation to get you on that first page. This allows more people to see your hotel during a search and visit your site for more information. The more site visits you have, the more relevant Google thinks you are, and the more visibility you gain.
Builds Credibility
The amount of trust you build with your guests is a very important factor. Your potential guests who read reviews are looking at negative reviews as much as positive ones. They want to see what, if anything, is wrong with your hotel before they contemplate it. So, the better your hotel performs over others makes you look more credible to hotel searchers.
Hotel reputation management is always checking your hotel’s mentions, reviews, and feedback. The more platforms you have, the more places it can check for the trust you’re instilling in your guests.
Improves Brand Image
Your image was one of the first things you thought of when you built or inherited your hotel business. You know what your hotel is trying to say to people, and how your brand is supposed to impact the industry. Building a positive brand image is important for your reputation. Your image lets the public know that you are trustworthy, nurturing, and attractive to other people.
Catering to a positive brand image with hotel reputation management software means it can alert you to negative reviews. You can easily find these reviews and make the error right for them. As people see that your business is attentive to mistakes, they will perceive your brand as caring and accountable.
Provides Business Insights
With hotel reputation management software, you can get a better look at the underbelly of your business. Reviews are considered unstructured data that can be analyzed and picked apart to find the finest details of your hotel. Social media posts are data too, and they can give you lots of information about your business that you may not have been aware of.
Several reviews about inventory issues may help you take a deeper look at your hotel inventory management system. In the same breath, several complaints about your housekeeping may point to a problem with employee satisfaction.
Boosts Sales
We’ve already talked about how a better reputation makes people come to you. The happier they are, the better reviews they leave. The better reviews people see, the more they’ll come. The more they come, the more money you make, and the cycle continues.
More revenue also comes from the existence of great employees. Potential talent is also looking at reviews of your hotel to see what they’d be getting themselves into. Satisfied employees create more productivity and better guest service. Thus, beginning another money-making cycle thanks to hotel reputation management.
Conclusion
Regardless of how big or small your hotel is, you can bet someone is judging you. Your reputation is everything in this industry, and you will do well to keep it up. The right hotel reputation management software is available for you to begin perfecting your popularity. This type of software is beneficial for you to increase your income, enhance your online presence, and create a money flow that you can be proud of.