How To Improve Online Reputation For Hotels

What's in it for me?

A treasure box containing a plethora of ways in which you can see your online reputation score climb up! A lot of people think of enhancing the online reputation for their hotels as some sort of rocket science. With the right strategy and dedication, and with a little more attention towards your social media platforms, you'd have learnt the correct technique by the end of this article...take it from us!:)

Let us divulge a real, quick secret to having a good online reputation! The answer is:

Effective management strategy for online reviews!

Don’t trust us?

81% of people frequently or always read reviews before booking a hotel!

The growing relevance of online reviews can be easily gauged from the fact that 52% of individuals would never book a hotel that had zero reviews. Having a positive online reputation for hotels is important for any hotel as it is the general opinion formed by the customers with previous experience of staying in that hotel. The aim of every hotel should be to improve its online reputation as it is directly associated with online booking. This can be easily done through a careful online reputation management.

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What Is Hotel Reputation Management?

Online reputation management (ORM) has gained immense popularity over the past few years. It is considered to be an important factor behind the performance of a hotel. It is usually directly linked to the image of the hotel and, in turn, linked to its financial performance.

Hence, it has become critical for hospitality organizations to address this particular aspect and have a proper strategy to deal with online reviews. ORM can be defined as being responsible for concocting and perpetuating a positive perception of your property among the potential guests in the virtual domain.
However, ORM is not merely related to content management in search engines!

It is equally about the management of negative reviews and providing encouragement to satisfied guests to share their experiences in the form of feedback.

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Why Is It Important To Maintain The Reputation Of The Hotel?

Thanks to the advent of technology, more and more customers choose to book their travel online! The online travel booking market share is assumed to form around 63% of the estimated $1.2 trillion revenue of the travel industry.

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Coming to these online platforms, people usually perceive any particular service or product based on its reviews! These opinions form the reputation of the product which, in turn, affects the brand image.

While a positive online reputation helps you attract more potential customers/guests for your establishment, a negative reputation can have the opposite effect on your business.

Therefore, it is recommended that every entrepreneur adopts a proactive approach to monitor and improve the online reputation for hotels. This can be easily achieved through having an effective strategy.
Yes, this includes things like optimizing your website content to monitoring your social media platforms.

So, relax and keep exploring further...

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How Do You Build Hotel Reputation?

YOU NEED A BOB-THE-BUILDER-LIKE-DEDICATION!

        To find the right fix!!!

The current business environment is primarily dominated by faceless online business entities with the willingness to adopt and use tools that might provide them a pole position in the present cut-throat market environment. Earlier, businesses with ample resources could easily invest significant amounts in creating and improving their brand image.

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However, the presence of social media has led to a level playing field for every stakeholder associated with the hospitality industry. The single most common aspect to have a successful and everlasting business is perhaps “reputation”.

Online reputation has the potential to make or break your business!!!

and much of the online reputation for hotels depends on your effective management of addressing online reviews.

According to TripAdvisor, the rate of people using online reviews reaches 93%. Furthermore, 53% of the people surveyed by TripAdvisor stated that they would not book a hotel that did not have any online reviews. Therefore, it is important to have a clear understanding of the steps/procedures that can contribute to the creation of a hotel’s reputation.

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How Can I Improve My Hotel Reputation?

In so many ways!!!

Having a great online reputation for hotels can be regarded as an excellent means to enjoy a great relationship with your customers. Your hotel reputation is usually influenced by multiple factors such as, the nature of your business, content quality, visibility, customer service among others.

A large part of improving hotel reputation depends on the effective management of hotel reviews. However, a great hotel reputation management consists of so much more than just that!
A positive online reputation also

• Makes it easy to find the hotel on maps and online.
• Helps answer certain questions such as what is the opinion of the guests about you, what is the opinion of the OTAs about you, can travelers engage with you on social media, etc.

It is your responsibility to own the narrative in each of the aspects mentioned above!

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Some of the techniques/methods that can be implemented to improve online reputation for hotels are as follows:

Techniques To Improve Online Reputation For Hotels

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1. Create your website and have a strong social media presence

"55% of consumers learn about new brands on social media."

Creating a great online reputation primarily commences with a solid web presence. This requires a well-designed website and booking engine that is fully responsive and supports display on all devices.
Also, in order to have a strong social media presence, it is recommended to have social media accounts across various social media domains such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, Snapchat among others. It is important to have a robust engagement plan to engage with your potential guests.

"68% of consumers agree that social media enables them to interact with brands and companies."

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2. Make sure to regularly update your website, OTAs, booking engine with photos, videos and creative content

We are all familiar with the term “rate parity”. However, the term “content parity” is just as important. Consistency regarding your content such as photos and videos is crucial to remain a popular and attractive destination for your potential customers. It is recommended to maintain and include multiple OTAs and platforms while marketing your hotel across multiple channels.

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3. Encourage guests to leave reviews

Online reviews come in handy for boosting your website’s SEO. Therefore, it is important for you to encourage guests to share their experiences in the form of reviews. In this particular instance to improve online reputation for hotels, quantity triumphs over quality. A hotel with 240 reviews and a four-star rating is considered more trustworthy than a hotel with 12 reviews and a five-star rating.

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4. Resolve negative issues as soon as possible

Negative reviews are often considered a stumbling block for hotels as they more often than not lack an effective strategy to address them.
It is recommended to respond to negative reviews. Never let consumer complaints go unanswered or unnoticed!

"85% of individuals say a hotel’s thoughtful response to an online review improves their impression of it."

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5. Tell your story, emphatically and unapologetically!

“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but the stories you tell.”

Send out the unambiguous message of what your brand stands for. It’s not just plain marketing! It’s about acquainting your audience with your brand identity!

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6. Wear your positive reviews as your badges of honor!

Gathering positive reviews and providing excellent and quality services do not always guarantee a positive online reputation for hotels. It is also important to share positive reviews left by satisfied guests across the different social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube among others.

Including your WEBSITE!

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Conclusion

Implementing reputation management tools to foster customer-centricity has the potential to impact the way hotels respond to guests reviews with the aim of providing a better customer experience. As a hotelier, it is important for you to realize the growing relevance of online reputation for hotels and how having an effective strategy is absolutely critical for achieving success in the present day.

Having a robust guest engagement strategy can not only help your business reach unprecedented heights but can also help you gain an edge over your competitors. On the contrary, a negative online reputation can result in a severe loss for the hotel and might end up facing closure. Hence, it is advisable to invest time and resources in improving your online reputation and enjoy the benefits for a sustained period of time. 

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With GuestTouch, Let A Stellar Review Score, Actionable Insights, And Boosted Social Media Engagement Do All The Talking!

100+Properties have been able to build a strong online presence for themselves by:

• Collecting 5x more reviews
• Preventing possible poor reviews
• Enhancing the guest feedback strategy
• Going global and speaking with guests in their languages

Book A Free Demo To Get A 360-Degree Plan For Your Property Today!