Online Reputation Management for Hotels in 2011

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What‘s New in Online Reputation Management in 2011

Report: What‘s New in Online Reputation Management in 2011

January 2011

by Josiah Mackenzie

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Contents

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What can you do in 2011 to build and protect your hotel’s online reputa7on? 3

Trend 1: Customer service goes public as marke8ng 4

Trend 2: More personaliza8on with social graph integra8on 6

Trend 3: Reputa8on becomes a key part of sales 7

Trend 4: More crea8vity in asking for reviews 10

Trend 5: Seman8c analysis as a marke8ng tool 11

Trend 6: Search op8miza8on for reputa8on management 13

What’s Next 14

About 15

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The basics of reputa8on management are 8meless. Listening to customers, ac8ng quickly on their sugges8ons, and delivering extraordinarily service are fundamentals that will never become obsolete. Yet, some of the tools and methods we can work with changes as technology evolves. As our guests begin using new channels of communica8on, we have to adapt and grow along with them. This special report contains a number of these important developments to consider as we head into 2011.

What can you do in 2011 to build and protect your hotel’s online reputation?

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Trend 1:

Many hotels we see have set up accounts on social media networks by now, but too many s8ll see them as exclusively an adver8sing and promo8ons opportunity. The problem with this is more and more guests see social media as a direct communica8ons channel to the hotels they’re staying at. These people are pos8ng ques8ons and complaints on public websites like TwiPer or the hotel’s Facebook fan page. And they expect a public response. Responding quickly, in a way that shows you care and will do what it takes to solve problems, is cri8cal for your online reputa8on. It’s a great chance for you to provide solu8ons that not only meet the needs of one customer, but also answer ques8ons for whoever else comes across that issue.

Customer service goes public as marketing

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Samovar Tea Lounge is not only one of my favorite tea spots in San Francisco, it’s also a very social‐savvy company. In this example, look how owner Jesse Jacobs responds to a nega8ve review with a very thoughUul explana8on that would be relevant to anyone reading it: To manage this area of your online reputa8on in this way, it’s crucial to have tools and systems that alert you of men8ons as they happen. Not responding sends nega8ve messages about your level of service. Appoint one of your staff members ‐ a concierge or someone else with knowledge of your hotel and surrounding area ‐ to monitor and respond as needed.

Example: Samovar Tea Lounge

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Trend 2:

People are looking for advice from within their exis8ng social network, friends and family. Websites such as TripAdvisor are using Facebook integra8on to bring a person’s personal connec8ons into the website experience. While browsing a city page, they will have the opportunity to see which friends have visited that city, and can ask ques8ons about recommended ac8vi8es. This is part of a bigger trend in social media–moving connec8ons beyond just one website and making them portable. How can you do this on your website?

More personalization with social graph integration

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Trend 3:

Savvy hotels are beginning to understand the importance of using guest and customer reviews to increase confidence and encourage more sales. This happens in two ways. On your website, you can increase customer confidence and direct bookings by publishing posi8ve reviews. Tools like the ReviewPro Quality Seal provides an independent, third‐party verifica8on of what guests think about your hotel. If you’re doing a good job, consider placing this seal on your website ‐ like Landmark Hotel does ‐ and watch your direct reserva8ons increase. On third‐party websites, managing reputa8on and encouraging more reviews plays an integral role in your posi8oning on these distribu8on sites. Make sure that you’re listening to and serving guests coming in through these channels, and encourage them to go back and leave review on the site they made reserva8on with. On many sites, the rankings are based on a hotels’ quality and quan8ty of reviews, so make sure this is a priority for you.

Reputation becomes a key part of sales

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In December 2010, Accor Hotels became the first major hotel group to publish guest reviews on their own website. Now, when you go to the site of Mecure, for example, you’ll find TripAdvisor guest reviews next to the booking engine. And this is true for all hotels on accorhotels.com. Maria Taylor, VP Loyalty and Direct Sales at Accor explains: 'We believe that we need to listen to our customers and we are not concerned about this feedback. We are confident in our brands and our customer service and believe that any increase in consumer generated content, either posi<ve or nega<ve, can only improve our offerings to our customers.'

Example: Accor Hotel Group

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Hotel SO goes a step further in presen8ng these guest reviews. They upload scanned images of their hotel guestbook:

Example: Hotel SO

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Trend 4:

As more and more hotel managers begin to see the power of reviews for genera8ng sales and increasing customer confidence, they’re becoming more strategic in asking for reviews. Yes, some hotels have a policy of asking every single person who walks through the front doors for a review, but you may end up annoying some people so much that they leave nega8ve feedback. A common theme I see in highly rated hotels is this: when guests to tell a manager they’ve had a good stay, the guest is then asked to share that great experience with others online. You can start with sending out post‐stay e‐mails asking people to leave a review, and perhaps provide a more personalized touch by having the general manager follow‐up with an e‐mail on all posi8ve guest survey comment cards. The key is to keep it personal. Here’s an example: Hello NAME,

Thank you for choosing HOTEL for your recent stay in CITY. I was delighted to hear you had an enjoyable 8me at our hotel.

At your convenience, would you please take a moment to share your experience online with your friends and others on your favorite travel review website?

It was a pleasure to have you as our guest. We hope to see you again soon.

‐ STAFF NAME HOTEL Direct phone: Personal email:

See what others have said about our hotel on TripAdvisor: [ TripAdvisor hotel link]

Or, you can build the review process directly into your hotel’s technology. For example, if you offer wireless internet access, what if the landing page people see ager logging in linked to important review sites, and asked visitors to share their experience there with others? It’s all about crea8vely trying to reach the right people at the right 8me.

More creativity in asking for reviews

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Trend 5:

Seman8c analysis is a growing area in the reputa8on management industry. Understanding guest’s sen8ment–their feelings about a certain aspect of their stay with you–is important for both opera8ons management and marke8ng. If someone had an overall good stay at your hotel, but leg nega8ve comments about the air condi8oning being broken, this feedback should encourage managers to invest in repairing or replacing the air condi8oning in the room. From a marke8ng perspec8ve, seman8c analysis can be used to determine which aspect of the guest experience is most enjoyed by your customers. You can then emphasize this in your marke8ng communica8ons. You can also determine which part of the hotel stay annoys guests, and reduce and minimize that in your marke8ng. It’s all about seing expecta8ons. If, for example, people find that the loca8on is too far from major tourist aPrac8ons, make sure that you don’t have anything sugges8ng otherwise in your marke8ng materials. If people come with the right expecta8ons, the likelihood of them leaving him nega8ve review is less of a chance.

Semantic analysis as a marketing tool

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Olivia Plaza Hotel in Barcelona, Spain used seman8c analysis to improve the hotel’s breakfast. “Through ReviewPro’s Seman8c Analysis, we discovered the details of what people were saying about our breakfast online and, for the first 8me, were able to analyze the overall sa8sfac8on with our breakfast offering. We found out that guests would like a wider variety of op8ons above all and that they wanted to have addi8onal warm dishes” says Ricardo Samaan, Revenue Manager at Olivia Plaza Hotel. “With that knowledge, we started introducing new products liPle by liPle, always changing the breakfast just a bit, un8l we saw an increase in posi8ve comments about it. This has had a huge impact and has allowed us to receive higher rankings overall.”

Example: Olivia Plaza improves their breakfast with guest feedback

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Trend 6:

Search engine op8miza8on is playing an increasingly important role in online reputa8on management. Great reputa8ons are useless without being seen by poten8al buyers, which is why SEO is our final big trend to watch in the year ahead. With more and more people beginning their buying decisions with a web search, you need to ensure that people see what you want them to see. The best way to do that is to maximize your presence on search engine results pages. Make sure that your web pages fill up as many lis8ngs is possible for each keyword on that page. You don’t want nega8ve reviews or compe8tor informa8on coming up if possible. How do you do that? • Puing your blog on a separate domain • Publishing news on a subdomain on your website • Working with 3rd‐party travel informa8on websites • Crea8ng and ac8vely upda8ng social media profiles on TwiPer, YouTube, Wikipedia, Flickr, Linkedin, Facebook, Wordpress, etc • Beginning an overall coordinated SEM campaign Do everything you can to influence the conversa8on happening about you on the social web. Avoiding par8cipa8on lets others control it ‐ and your success.

Search optimization for reputation management

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Keep learning! ReviewPro monitors what’s changing in the world of online reputa8on management and passes along prac8cal ways to use that in hospitality. Read the blog for more ar8cles and reports like this: hPp://reviewpro.com/blog Follow us on TwiPer for daily ideas and 8ps: hPp://twiPer.com/ReviewPro

Like this guide? Retweet it to your TwiPer followers!

What’s Next?

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About

Josiah is the publisher of HotelMarke8ngStrategies.com, where he shares a new idea each day for using technology to serve your guests and make more sales. Get a weekly summary of these ideas with a complimentary subscrip8on.

Josiah Mackenzie

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ReviewPro offers the most complete global solu8on for online reputa8on and social media management for the hotel sector. The company offers hoteliers a web based analy8cal tool that enables them to maximize direct reserva8ons and online distribu8on revenue as well as increase market share. By providing invaluable analysis, business intelligence, compe88ve benchmarking and repor8ng func8onality, ReviewPro gives hotels the means to improve guest sa8sfac8on and make bePer decisions on where to focus marke8ng resources and sales ac8vi8es.

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Online Reputation Management for Hotels in 2011