Building Customer Confidence

Your hotel’s success this 2020 winter season will hinge on a lot of different factors: some within your control and some outside of the property. One of the most important factors within your control is your hotel’s online reputation, specifically when it comes to building customer and guest confidence. We have shared the importance of increasing consumer confidence in your hotel’s ability to keep your guests safe and provide them with a positive hotel experience during and after this pandemic. One of the best ways of building that confidence and trust is by generating online reviews. Every positive review your hotel receives increases traveler confidence and represents the type of experience that guests can expect today. As the rating of review falls so does the amount of which it increases confidence. Negative feedback does very little increase confidence, but it does show the traveler relevant content of what the hotel experience is like now at your hotel. 

Relevant information is absolutely critical for hotels due to the fast-changing nature and variability of this year. An extreme influx of cases or large rollout of restrictions to an area could make the review information and feedback on your hotel’s profile irrelevant to a traveler searching for what the hotel experience is like today. This winter it will be the hotels that have a healthy balance of recent and quality reviews that will win travelers’ bookings. Let’s look at an example of 3 properties and how this could play out in a real-world situation.

During week 1 of the winter season:

• Hotel A receives 1 positive online review
• Hotel B receives no feedback and has not gotten an online review for several months. 
• Hotel C receives 3 mixed reviews: 1 positive, 1 neutral, and 1 negative.

Let’s fast forward a couple of weeks to Week 3:

• Hotel A has not received any new feedback since Week 1. 
• Hotel B finally receives one review and it is a neutral, 3-star rating 
• Hotel C does the same and generates only one neutral online review

Now, I want to pause for a moment and take a look through the lens of a traveler in 2020. Prior to the pandemic, most hotels would want to be Hotel A – and more often than not, most travelers would choose Hotel A. In 2020, a lot can happen in the span of just two weeks. With no new feedback from Hotel A during this time, that last positive review could feel like a lifetime ago and not relevant to the traveler researching your property for a booking in the here and now. That’s why Hotel C’s level of traveler confidence is built to the level that it is.

Now is it important for Hotel C to generate more positive reviews? Of course! Just look at Hotel B. As we fast forward to Week 5 it has captured more recent reviews than hotel A, but the level of traveler confidence remains low due to its poor review ratings. 

Capture Leisure Occupancy This Winter

This pandemic should really be a wake-up call and warning for hotels that have maybe relied on only a few good reviews every couple of weeks to carry them through the winter. This year is different. The way travelers are researching your hotel and making booking decisions is different. I challenge you to take a look at your property’s reviews and ask yourself: what information out there is building customer and guest confidence? What feedback on these sites is actually relevant to a traveler looking for a place to stay tomorrow? 

The key during this winter season is to not just focus on the quality of reviews, but also the quantity. The more reviews and feedback you have, the more relevant it is for travelers searching and making those booking decisions. 

At Travel Media Group our reputation management program does exactly that, helping you increase not only the number of reviews but the rating of those reviews. We help by facilitating you in eliminating negative feedback that can be so damaging to your hotel’s bottom line. Paired with a strong social strategy tailored specifically to your property’s needs and targeting your ideal customer and it will be a very merry winter season for you and your hotel property.