While summer may be drawing to an end, hotels and hotel managers should not fret. Not only will summer return sooner than you think, but the busiest travel days are also yet to come this year. Yes, summer is a time where a lot of people travel, but the holiday season comes in a very close second. Many online reputation management companies will be guiding hotels through the process of boosting or maintaining their online reputation.
We cannot overstate how vital an excellent online reputation is for the hotel industry. There are several reasons for this. One is the volume of both company and customer-related content about hotels. Another is that expert opinions are starting to carry less weight with the average consumer than they did in the past. Presently, consumers are attracted to the things other consumers have to say about their experiences. We feel the reason for this is that hotels are tipped off to experts that are arriving. Therefore, they tend to treat them a little better than the average person. That is why most people are leaning to check reviews from regular people versus experts.
A final reason that hotel reputation is so valuable is that people are venturing into the unknown. If they were staying in their hometown, they could probably tell you a little about the hotels in the area. However, most people don’t regularly stay in hotels in their area. Travel is usually associated with a hotel stay. When customers are on vacation, they are spending a lot of money for a place to sleep for the night. They want to make sure they are getting their money’s worth.
For all the above reasons, we are providing you with some tips that can boost or, at the very least, maintain your online reputation.
Giving Attention to Your Online Presence
While you may not have control over the things customers say about you in their reviews, you do have control over your business profiles on Google and other internet sites – specifically social media. Be sure you have claimed all of your review site profiles. Complete the information as accurately as you can. Double-check to make sure that the information you are providing matches the information on your website. Not only will this allow your customers to see that you are completely transparent, but it will also assure them that they have a way to get ahold of you.
The reason for this is twofold. The first one, we explained above. The other is that accurate information will allow Google to catalog your information and associate all these profiles with your company. This will help when it comes to working on your search engine optimization (SEO). Check your profiles regularly and update them when necessary.
Social Media
While this could be lumped into the above topic, we feel that special attention should be paid to this part of your online presence. An often-overlooked opportunity is the chance to communicate with the client through social media. Larger companies may have the ability to dedicate a team to this project. The smaller companies will not. In either case, you are going to want to make use of a third-party application that will “listen” to your customers for you. We know that you will not be able to monitor your brand name, 24/7/365. That is where these third-party applications can help. You set them to look for anything related to your brand. Once the app finds something, it will notify you. This can be by email, text message, or an alert on your computer. Once you have been told, you will want to interact with the post as soon as possible.
Having these applications looking for you will let you grab some of the best reviews and display them proudly. Alternately, it will provide a road for you to interact with a client that might not be too happy. Check some of our other posts to see what to do in the case of a bad review.
Respond
No matter what kind of review you happen to get, you need to make sure that you are responding to your customers. You may want to set aside some time to do this during your week.
On the subject of negative reviews, we should mention that you should not worry too much about them. Negative reviews do happen. Fortunately, customers are now taking into account the overall rating as opposed to a single or handful of negative reviews. Some people cannot be pleased, and there is little you can do about that. Most review sites allow others to see the other reviews that have been made by the same customer. If they have nothing but bad to say about everything, they pretty much disregard their report.
When it comes to an optimal rating, you will want to aim for between 4.2 and 4.7. This is where customers feel that a business is the most trusted. Anything higher and they think you are buying reviews. Anything lower and they don’t believe you are serious about your reviews and making them better.
Ask and Open
If you are not asking your customers for reviews, you are missing a huge opportunity. Additionally, you will likely see your review profiles fill up with negative reviews. The reason for this is that most people don’t care to provide a review if they had a great experience. Conversely, customers that had a bad experience can’t post their opinion on enough review pages. So, ask your customers to provide you with a review in a follow-up letter after their stay with you.
Another way to get some reviews coming in is to host an open house. In other words, open your doors to local influencers. Offer them things like tours and a cocktail hour at your bar. If you don’t have a bar, you can host a regional meet up for gamers or book clubs. While they may not stay the night, they will get to see what you have to offer and could likely recommend your hotel to a friend or family member that is coming into town for a visit.
Conclusion There you have it. Some straightforward and easy ways to boost or maintain your online reputation. We hope this has been informative and that you have found a few new ways to do that for yourself. If you are looking for a more professional approach, do not hesitate to contact us, and we will be more than happy to get you on a plan.