Today’s travelers rely heavily on reviews. In fact, 96% of travelers say looking at reviews is an important part of researching hotels. With such a large number of potential guests scrolling through your hotel’s reviews, you want to turn as many of those lookers into bookers as you can. 

However, if your reviews are mostly negative or even if your hotel doesn’t respond to guest reviews, you could be losing out on business without even realizing it. While there’s not much that can be done about a guest leaving a negative review, you still have the power to write a thoughtful and professional response.

Why You Should Respond to Reviews

It may seem like responding to a negative review is doing too little too late – the damage of the review has already been dealt. However, 80% of travelers believe hotels that respond to guest reviews care more about their guests, so not responding can actually cause even more harm to your reputation.

Luckily for your hotel, online reviews are no longer a one-way street. All review platforms allow managers to leave responses to reviews. Some, like Yelp and Facebook, provide the option of even privately messaging a reviewer to further resolve any issues.

Reviews Are Everywhere

Online reviews go further than just TripAdvisor. When travelers book on OTAs, they are prompted to leave feedback. Facebook and Google prompt people to leave reviews of local businesses based on their current location. Even your brand website will place your hotel in competition with other properties in your area by aggregating reviews.

Plus, with more and more travelers researching and booking hotels on their phones, they always have access to view your hotel’s reviews. In addition, your guests can leave reviews at any point during or after their stay. Staying on top of guest reviews is critical since they can be posted and viewed from anywhere at any time.

Addressing Reviews and Creating Change

The most important aspect of managing online reviews is to invest in improving the experience future guests will have at your hotel. Simply responding with a copy and paste phrase like, “Thanks, we’ll look into this,” will show travelers that change is not really coming and give the impression that you don’t care about the guest experience.

When you avoid addressing underlying problems it can snowball into a real reputation nightmare. Instead of ignoring or brushing off the issues and complaints guests bring up within their reviews, you should consider taking action to resolve any problems that appear frequently. Maintain what your property is doing right, and keep an eye on reviews to identify problems you may not have known about.

Analytical reporting can help you identify trends in guest feedback and enable you to prioritize improvements based on what guests think is important. Be sure to tell reviewers in your responses what updates and renovations are in progress so that future travelers can look forward to the property improvements. 

This will help instill confidence in guests that their voices are being heard and that you value their input and experiences. Additionally, 85% of travelers feel that a hotel’s thoughtful response to an online review improves their impression of it, so your responses are also helping secure the support of future guests.

Shifting Perceptions to Drive Revenue

Online reviews are essentially free consumer research waiting to be harnessed and should be treated as such by hoteliers. Your customers are telling you exactly what they would like to see changed in order to enjoy their stay more and, by proxy, give you better reviews.

By elevating the perception of your hotel online and investing in property improvements for future guests, hotel reviews provide a significant opportunity to turn reputation management into increased revenue.

Not only will more travelers be willing to book with your hotel, but they will also be willing to pay more. Research shows that guests will pay 24% more for a hotel with a 3.9 rating over one that’s rated 2.4 and 35% more for a hotel with a 4.4 rating over one with a 3.9 rating. Putting time into crafting review responses is an investment that pays off in the long run.

Invest in Review Response

The experts at Travel Media Group know just how busy hoteliers are these days. Between ensuring positive experiences for your guests and dealing with staffing shortages, many hoteliers don’t have the time it takes to sit down and individually respond to guest reviews the way they should.

With Respond & Resolve™, we make sure that all of your hotel’s reviews get the thoughtful and professional responses they deserve. Save time, focus on your guests, and invest in your property all at once.

Learn about our Reputation Management programs, including industry-leading sentiment analysis reports and best-in-class review responses. Here’s a look at our sentiment analysis tagging system available to all Respond & Resolve clients.