GLOBAL REPORT—Though TripAdvisor is regarded as the heavy-hitter in the online review arena, user-generated feedback on online travel agencies can influence booking behaviors as well, panelists said last month during a webinar.
“Reviews play a key role in travel decisions on OTAs, too,” said Daniel Edward Craig, founder of Reknown, an online reputation consultancy, and industry advisor for ReviewPro.
The truth is in the numbers—many of which he and his fellow panelists shared during “Optimizing reviews, ratings and revenue on OTAs,” which was hosted by ReviewPro.
For instance, Adam Anderson, director of industry relations at Expedia, cited data that found 66% of travelers polled in 2012 said hotel shopping and booking was influenced by traveler reviews. That number is expected to rise to 68% by 2016.
More convincing: Hotels on Expedia with more than 50 reviews are 1.4% more likely to convert, he said.
Craig underscored the point by quoting Sam Fulton, senior VP of retail for an Expedia competitor, Orbtiz Worldwide.
“‘Hotels with no reviews or a limited number of reviews normally translate into hotels with lower volume,’” he said.
Hoteliers shouldn’t mistake quantity for quality, however, the panelists agreed.
Although TripAdvisor’s sheer volume vastly outweighs that of its OTA peers with more than 100 million reviews, the balance is beginning to shift. In a recent 30-day period, according to ReviewPro data, there were 1.5 million reviews posted on TripAdvisor, compared to 2.6 million for the top five OTAs combined.
OTA reviews typically carry more weight, Craig said.
“Most OTAs’ reviews are verified, meaning that only travelers who booked through the OTA can post a review. It’s generally accepted that travelers trust verified reviews more than non-verified reviews,” he said.
Reviews driving bookings
Jennifer Rota, GM of the Distrikt Hotel New York City, lent a concrete example to the discussion.
When the Distrikt opened in 2010, customers had a difficult time finding it. The property was buried deep on various OTAs. A default search for hotels in New York on Expedia would find the Distrikt on page four, while Booking.com displayed it on page 10.
Rota and her sales team tried to compensate by paying “placement fees” on the likes of Booking.com so the Distrikt showed up higher in results, until they realized their efforts were better spent elsewhere.
While the hotel was built with a clean design and high-end amenities as a means of differentiation, “it was service that grabbed our guests’ attention,” the GM said. Positive guest rankings and reviews followed suit, which propelled the Distrikt high atop the rankings on various OTAs when guests sorted by rating.
“Guests were not just searching by star, geography or rate, but by reviews,” Rota said. “And when they did, we were consistently on page 1. … We immediately started treating these sites as we would TripAdvisor, responding when allowed.”
Soon Rota stopped allocating resources to placement fees, saving $55,000 annually. At the same time, the increased OTA traffic driven as a result of the Distrikt’s ratings scores enabled the hotel’s team to increase rates through the OTA channel by 16%.
Best practices
The panelists offered a number of best practices to increase reviews and guest engagement.
1. Encourage reviews.
Anderson and Rota agreed hoteliers need to encourage their guests to leave reviews, especially if a guest is recounting a positive experience at the check-out desk.
Anderson pointed to anecdotal evidence of some hoteliers incentivizing guests by offering extra loyalty points or similar perks.
Rota said she’s had the most success ending follow-up emails asking guests to share their experiences.
2. Respond to reviews.
“The more you respond to reviews, the more people will leave them. I think people like to see hoteliers respond and almost crave it sometimes,” Rota said.
Should a hotelier respond to all of them? Not so, Craig said. Many reviews are incoherent fragments or jumbled sentences, he said. Hoteliers should instead focus on impactful reviews—those comments that articulate a clear complaint, call for clarification or laud a great experience.
3. Mine user-generated content for actionable insights.
Don’t just respond to reviews, Rota said. Act on them. Often, those reviews offer a treasure trove of insights that can clue a hotelier in to changes that need to be made in operations, aesthetics, amenities or even associates.
4. Engage guests before they arrive.
The relationship between a hotel and guest doesn’t begin at check-in, Rota said. As soon as a traveler books a stay, hoteliers should be proactive in reaching out to engage guests and learn more about them.
Fostering a relationship makes it more likely guests will leave positive reviews when they leave the property. It also makes it more likely guests will cut the hotel some slack if there’s a hiccup or mistake.
It’s like having a good friend who isn’t afraid to point out the spinach stuck between your teeth, Rota analogized. A stranger is far less likely to say anything, causing you more pain and embarrassment down the road.