An unfortunate and inevitable outcome of an online hotel presence is receiving negative guest reviews. These unpleasant remarks may feel harsh, and your initial reaction is most likely to respond by defending your hotel’s reputation. A guest review may critique cleanliness, housekeeping, or service. You may even remember the guest who stayed at your property and know their comments are illegitimate and wrongfully placed. Whatever the situation, you want to remain composed and keep these words of advice in mind.

Review Responses Apply to All Travelers:

When you respond to a guest review online, you not only respond to the original guest who wrote the review, but you are also speaking to future travelers. Knowing this, this is a perfect opportunity to set guest expectations for all travelers through your hotel review response strategies. Setting guest expectations is critical. If you can proactively inform guests about what they can look forward to during their stay, they will not feel the need to write a negative review post-stay. However, if you respond professionally to a negative review, the guest will feel much more at ease and better about the circumstance they wrote negatively about.

A Bad Response is Worse than a Bad Review:

It may surprise you, but a bad response is worse than a negative review. People expect that every hotel will have a handful of negative reviews. On the other hand, guests do not expect the hotelier to respond poorly. If you respond to a negative review by blaming the guest, being short-worded, or making excuses, potential travelers will not want to do business with your hotel. A review response forum is a place to redeem your reputation, explain situations professionally, and encourage future guests to book a stay at your property. 

Align Your Responses with Your Hotel Brand Voice:

When responding to a negative review, you want to appear genuine and sound like your hotel brand voice. The importance of sounding engaged and invested in what the guest says can not be overstated. Readers want to know that you care about what they say. It will be very off-putting if you come across as robotic or generic. Remember, the goal is to make an authentic connection with your audience through review response is the goal. 

The Ultimate Guide to Responding to Hotel Reviews:

Responding to guest reviews is not always the easiest thing to do, especially if they are negative. Hotel websites vary, and there are different ways that you can respond. Many hoteliers seek help when responding to guest reviews, and Travel Media Group is always there to assist.

We offer a comprehensive hotel review response solution to address your online review needs in addition to providing a review response guide that details all there is to know about managing guest feedback and how it directly influences a hotel’s reputation.