Does Guest Review Management Really Pay Off?

Does posting guest reviews and using social media to air travel grievances really make a difference? Lodging Interactive, an interactive and social media marketing agency exclusively servicing the hospitality industry for the past 10 years, knows that it does. Together with its subsidiary CoMMingle, a social-media marketing consultancy, the two companies have spent the last five years helping hoteliers grow and better manage their use of social media channels for hotel marketing, of which monitoring and managing guest reviews is a big part.

Consider this scenario. In a recent USA Today column titled "Airing your hotel problem on Twitter can pay off," Travel Columnist Barbara DeLollis recaps a story shared with her by one of her "Hotel Check-In" readers:

"About 18 months ago, I checked into the [hotel] for staycation when a friend was visiting from Seattle. When I opened the mini-fridge, to my horror and disgust, there was a leftover box frozen solid into the freezer section, with strong odor of what may have been a lovely Mexican meal gone bad. I immediately took a picture with my iPhone and Tweeted [the hotel] before heading out to dinner with my friend. In the middle of our appetizer, I received a Tweet apologizing for the mishap and an offer of free breakfast for two the next morning. When I arrived back in my room, a bottle of wine and a hand-written note were waiting for us. Needless to say, the frozen dinner was gone. Since then, I have used [the Twitter handle for the hotel] for everything from confirming early check-in to ordering room service. The consistent, immediate and non-intrusive service of [the hotel's Twitter handle] is probably the No. 1 reason I've remained loyal to the chain. Since the above-mentioned incident, btw, I have made Diamond status with [the brand] and will probably be a customer for life."
Lin told USA Today's DeLollis that he believes "Twitter is almost always faster than calling the front desk or corporate to get results." The biggest bonus, he said, is that "he can just type a quick message while on the go instead of taking the time to get someone on the phone and talk."

While this situation was resolved via Twitter, Lodging Interactive professes that using a hotel's own website to enable guests to post reviews works equally as well, and it helps to better manage channel shift from third-party sites to the brand or property site. In addition, for hotel managers who may not be as social media savvy, being able to reply to guest reviews via a laptop or desktop onto the hotel website makes the response process that much quicker and easier.

"Social media is more about psychology than marketing," said Rosella Virdo, Director of CoMMingle Social Media Marketing. "When guests take the time to post a review on Twitter or the hotel's Facebook page, for example, someone needs to be monitoring the channel ready to post a response. It's a way to take online marketing to the next level. Frequent traveler Lin who corresponded with USA Today was fortunate that he stayed at a hotel that had social media monitoring tools in place. Most hotels don't; but that's where Lodging Interactive and CoMMingle come in."

Lodging Interactive has developed an easy-to-use and extremely affordable Guest Review System that enables guests to post reviews directly on the hotel's website. By allowing management to respond to comments in real time, hotels are improving hotel-to-guest communications and boosting guest retention and loyalty. The Guest Review System alerts management in real time when reviews are posted. This ensures that there are no delays in communication, and the appropriate staff can immediately fix any pending problems before the customer leaves the property. Additionally, consumers can share their guest reviews on their Facebook wall and to their network of friends. Hotels are notified in real-time of new guest reviews and have the ability to validate guest stay information before reviews are posted on their website.

With Lodging Interactive's low-cost, turn-key Guest Review System, hotels can be up and running in 10 minutes. If finding the time to respond is an issue, Lodging Interactive is staffed to reply on the hotel's behalf.

"It's important for hoteliers to know that they can easily and affordably compete with brand guest review programs and take control of their online reputations today through Lodging Interactive," said DJ Vallauri, Lodging Interactive Founder and President. "Those that want to go the extra step and also monitor the various social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and blogs can benefit by partnering with CoMMingle. This group is designed to assist hotels with social media engagement via strategic planning, growing and managing social media channels, word-of-mouth marketing and experiential marketing, reputation and consumer sentiment monitoring, and social search engine optimization."

The challenge for hoteliers is not just being visible via the various social channels, but being interactive and engaging, constantly monitoring content and keeping the conversations going, Vallauri said.

"If a hotel does not have a dedicated staff member serving as its social media watch dog, it's easy for the plan to fall apart," he said. "That's where CoMMingle comes in. We become the eyes and ears of the hotel, monitoring conversations and posting instant replies if desired. So the next time your hotel gets a Tweet from a disgruntled guest like Mr. Lin, management will have a team in place to Tweet a reply and turn the negative situation into a positive one. Easier yet, by adding the Lodging Interactive Guest Review System to the hotel website, management can monitor reviews and respond to complements or concerns in a format that they are more comfortable with."

FREE OFFER!
Lodging Interactive is offering a free trial of its Guest Review System. There is no contract to sign and hotels can cancel anytime. For more information, visit http://www.guestreviewsystem.com. The offer is being made available now through June 28 at the conclusion of the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition & Conference (HITEC).

AAHOA Members Offered FREE Guest Review System from Lodging Interactive

Members of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) attending the Annual Convention this week at the Omni Hotel and the Georgia World Congress Center are receiving an unprecedented offer from Lodging Interactive. For the first time, the interactive and social media marketing agency exclusively servicing the hospitality industry is offering 90 Day FREE USE of its Guest Review System by simply visiting Booth No. 124 and registering for the service.

Lodging Interactive's Guest Review System enables guests to post reviews directly on the hotel's website, making it easier to verify, review and display customer comments and instantly post management responses to comments for better hotel-to-guest communications and heightened customer-relationship management.

Lodging Interactive's Guest Review System posts traveler's comments and scores their hotel experiences based on service attributes. Hotel managers receive real-time alerts advising when pending guest reviews pop up, eliminating delays in addressing concerns and turning potential problems into new opportunities.

"Hotels risk losing website visitors if those potential bookers are forced to leave the website in search of guest reviews on third party websites," Vallauri said. "Once gone, they may never come back or worse, they may book with the competition or third-party distributor such as Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia or Hotels.com that sell rooms at a considerably lower rate. Adding the Guest Review System keeps guests on the hotel's website and turns lookers into bookers at rates owners are comfortable with."

Integrating the Guest Review System with Facebook is key to expanding a hotel's social media effectiveness. This link enables hotels to collect and share their guest reviews right from their hotel Facebook pages. In addition, past guests can share their own reviews via a hotel's Facebook page.

Ed Reagoso, General Manager of The Wilshire Grand Hotel in West Orange, N.J., had this to say about Lodging Interactive's Guest Review System:

"I'm a big believer in soliciting guest reviews, but unfortunately, due to the nature of the Web, there's no real way to validate whether or not a person claiming to be a guest with a bad experience actually stayed at your hotel. The Guest Review System from Lodging Interactive puts a stop to fake reviews posted by competitors or dishonest guests looking for refunds. This not only helps us to maintain our impeccable reputation, but it gives me an opportunity to interact personally with our guests. Thanks to the automated GRS tool, I can post responses to comments quickly. Not every hotel review site makes that type of interaction possible. It's not only great customer service, but it gives me the chance to really sell our hotel. Almost daily our reservations agents hear from guests who say they read the reviews on our site and truly appreciate that we took the time to respond. We attribute it all to Lodging Interactive and the excellent training they provide to us as part of their service."

Added Offers Abound
As an Allied member of AAHOA, Lodging Interactive strives to build relationships with hotel owners and assist them in all areas of online marketing, from reputation management and guest reviews to Web presence and direct web bookings. Therefore, the award-winning company will introduce new financial models at the AAHOA Convention designed specifically for small hotel owners and those running full-service properties with multiple flags.

Members also will be encouraged to sign up for a no-cost, no-obligation social media marketing audit through CoMMingle, Lodging Interactive's full-service social-media marketing agency. The CoMMingle team will assist AAHOA members with planning their unique social media strategy based on their individual property goals. Then they will teach members how to socialize online, 'comingling' and managing their message on the channels (blogging, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and more) that work best for their properties. CoMMingle ensures that each hotel's message is communicated smartly, efficiently and effectively, constantly measuring each plans' critical success factors and fine-tuning each strategy for long term success.

"By leveraging the support of Lodging Interactive and CoMMingle, we are confident that AAHOA members will be widely successful in 2012 and beyond," Vallauri said. "We encourage anyone interested in our FREE Guest Review System, FREE Social Media Marketing Audit and learning more about our new financial models for web design, web optimization and content management, visit Lodging Interactive in Booth No. 124 at the 2012 AAHOA Annual Convention & Trade Show."

For more information on Lodging Interactive, visit http://www.lodginginteractive.com.

Reputation Management Software Tools: Are They Enough?

Due to the rapid acceleration of social media and the growing desire of travelers to read reviews before booking their accommodations, more and more hotels are subscribing to reputation management software tools to assist in monitoring their social media reputations and guest responses. What they are finding, however, is that having the tools is not enough. To be successful, Lodging Interactive, an award winning interactive agency exclusively servicing the hospitality industry, says that by "combining people with technology," hotels are managing their online reputations far better.

CoMMingle by Lodging Interactive is an outsourced social media marketing agency that develops customized solutions for hotels, restaurants and spas. The company works with hotels to grow and better manage their use of social media channels, provide reputation and consumer sentiment monitoring, and social search engine optimization. CoMMingle has teamed up with leading hospitality reputation-management companies, such as Revinate, to supplement their technology applications whereby CoMMingle provides the human resources necessary to respond to guest reviews and manage the entire guest response process on behalf of its hotel clients.

"Implementing reputation management software is good, but combining that technology with people will equal far greater results," said DJ Vallauri, Lodging Interactive Founder and President. "Here's how: Before, hoteliers had direct control over their branding and could direct people easily to their hotel. Then social media came along. Savvy travelers use Facebook, Twitter and travel review sites such as TripAdvisor, to find unbiased reviews. It only takes one unhappy guest to post a bad review, then the company's reputation is damaged, which in turn effects their sales."

To regain control over their reputations, Vallauri said “companies have developed software tools that scour the social media universe for reviews or mentions about the brand. It's like having an in-house intelligence agency providing actionable information and allowing management to see what guests like or don't like. The technology tools come equipped with sentiment analysis and workflow tools to enable each hotel or brand to engage with prospects and drive loyalty. Easy-to-use reports analyze the data, track the program's success and see how the hotel or brand is stacking up against the competition.”

"Now here's the dilemma," Vallauri added. "If the hotel doesn't have the resources available to do the aforementioned tasks (ie. analyzing the data, tracking program success and monitoring the market), the technology investment was for naught. CoMMingle is designed to complement a hotel's existing reputation-management technology tools with 'our people.' It doesn't matter what type of guest-review technology platform a hotel is using; CoMMingle can work within the tools to maximize the messaging and deliver more consistent responses."

Best Practices for Reputation Management
In a recent article titled: "Social media matures, forcing hotels to focus on reputation," Dennis Morris, director of revenue development for Meyer Jabara Hotels, said: “Reputation is so important from a customer standpoint because they read postings and believe they are real. If you are not focused on your online reputation, then what are you doing about your online reputation? There needs to be best practices in place to see that you are managing your reputation."

Lodging Interactive's Vallauri said he believes following a "Technology + People = Reputation Management" formula is a best practice that should be implemented industry wide.

"Purchasing reputation management software is only the first step in managing and monitoring a hotel's or brand's online reputation," Vallauri said. "Technology is critical to capturing information. But unless a hotel has the human resources in place to interpret that data and respond to reviews to manage their ongoing guest relationships, the technology alone isn’t the total solution. At Lodging Interactive, we understand that having the manpower to tackle these tasks is a challenge. CoMMingle brings the much needed talent to the table."

In a recent article titled: "Reputation management an evolving consideration," Associate Editor Andrew Sheivachman, wrote: "More than just proactively responding to reviews and opinions, looking at aggregated data on guest opinions can help to improve a brand's reputation." CoMMingle provides the intelligence and resources to analyze that aggregated data, and then some. Since 2009, CoMMingle has been providing social media assistance to hundreds of hotels. For more information about CoMMingle, visit http://www.commingle.me/.

5 Steps to Manage Negative Guest Reviews Every Hotel Should Know

With 75% of online travel buyers checking at least three reviews sites before booking online, not responding to a negative guest review post which is read by thousands of potential guests could result in severe revenue consequences. Unfortunately, many hoteliers do not take the time (or have the time) to respond. Lodging Interactive has developed an easy-to-use and extremely affordable Guest Review System that enables guests to post reviews directly on the hotel's website, making managing the response process far easier and much quicker for management.

Lodging Interactive is an interactive and social media marketing agency exclusively servicing the hospitality industry for the past ten years. The company's Guest Review System is a web-based tool that is successfully helping hotels verify, review and display customer comments directly on their websites. By allowing management to respond to comments in real time, hotels are improving hotel-to-guest communications and boosting guest retention and loyalty.

"Remember when your mother said: 'If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all?' Those days are long gone, and rightly so when it comes to online customer reviews," said DJ Vallauri, Lodging Interactive Founder and President. "Posting comments about bad experiences is a good way to warn consumers about shoddy business practices and inferior products and services.

"In the hospitality arena, warning travelers about poor hotel accommodations and inadequate service has fueled management to raise the bar on standards and strive to continually do better," he said. "That's a good thing for travelers, owners and the industry overall, because negative reviews give owners and operators an opportunity to fight back and use social media to turn unhappy customers into brand advocates, and actually win back guests, thereby driving loyalty."

A study conducted online by Harris Interactive found that 68% of consumers who posted a complaint or negative review on a social networking or ratings/review site after a negative experience got a response from the business. Of those, 18% turned into loyal customers. By listening and proactively responding on the review site to the customer, businesses were able to turn disgruntled consumers into social advocates. The survey also found that, of those who received a reply in response to their negative review, 33% turned around and posted a positive review and 34% deleted their original negative review.

While some hoteliers are still wary of negative reviews, fearing that they are simply propaganda started by competitors, Vallauri said "responding" is key to preserving a hotel's online reputation.

The Guest Review System alerts management in real time when reviews are posted to their web site. This ensures that there are no delays in communication, and the appropriate staff can immediately fix any pending problems before the customer leaves the property. Additionally, consumers can share their guest reviews on their Facebook wall and to their network of friends. Hotels are notified in real-time of new guest reviews and have the ability to validate guest stay information before reviews are posted on their website.

"Establishing an online Guest Review System gives owners and operators control over what they want to display on their website," Vallauri said. "It boosts the hotel's credibility and displays trustworthiness on behalf of management. Not only can management capture lost potentially business from third-party review sites, but they can vastly improve communications with guests. After all, that's what hospitality is all about."

Lodging Interactive offers the following 5 Tips for responding to negative reviews:
1. Thank the guest for his or her comment
2. Acknowledge that there was a problem and offer an explanation
3. Tell how the situation is being corrected to improve the guest's experience
4. Invite ongoing communication and provide direct management contact information
5. Encourage the guest to return

"The fact that a negative comment occurred isn't the issue; Rather it's how the company responds to the bad review is key to maintaining an impeccable online reputation," Vallauri said. "When a negative comment arises, it's critical that the hotelier respond as quickly as possible. Be thankful, polite, and respectful of guests, even if you feel their complaint is not warranted. Remain calm and always be courteous. Tell the guest how you are going to address their complaints, and what the next steps are. Tell the guest that you take his or her complaint seriously, and that there is a plan in place to resolve the matter. More importantly, give him or her a way to stay in touch with you, and invite further feedback."

With Lodging Interactive's low-cost, turn-key Guest Review System, hotels can be up and running in 10 minutes. If finding the time to respond is an issue, Lodging Interactive is staffed to reply on the hotel's behalf.

"It's important for independent hotel owners and operators to know that they can easily and affordably compete with brand Guest Review programs and take control of their online reputations today through Lodging Interactive," Vallauri said.

Lodging Interactive is offering a free trial of its Guest Review System. There is no contract to sign and hotels can cancel anytime. For more information, visit http://www.guestreviewsystem.com. The company will be exhibiting at the 2012 AAHOA Annual Convention & Trade Show in Atlanta May 2 to 5 at the Omni Hotel and the Georgia World Congress Center in Booth No. 124.

Lodging Interactive Offering Free Mobile Website to NEW Customers Signing Full Agency Services

Lodging Interactive, an interactive and social media marketing agency
exclusively servicing the hospitality industry, is offering FREE Mobile
Website Development to all new customers contracting full agency
services. Any hotel company partnering with Lodging Interactive for website
design and development, search engine marketing, social media marketing, and
online reputation management — beginning May 2 with the Asian American Hotel Owners Assn. (AAHOA) Convention through the Hotel Industry Technology Exposition & Conference (HITEC) June 25-28 in Baltimore — are eligible.

With a mobile website, hotels can offer mobile users a dynamic and streamlined user
experience regardless of mobile device. Up to 10 static pages will be provided
as part of the package, with an option to purchase more. Pages can detail the
property, including description of rooms, amenities, premise, packages,
restaurants, spas, recreation facilities, loyalty programs and online
reservations. Additional features may include mapping and directions,
click-to-call functionality, photo gallery, embedded video capability, convention
and/or meeting listings, social media links, guest reviews and more. Mobile
website management and hosting also is provided by Lodging Interactive.

"We understand just how important it is for hotels to have a mobile web strategy today," said DJ Vallauri, Lodging Interactive Founder and President. "Industry analysts predict that
the mobile web will be bigger than desktop Internet use by 2015. Therefore
there's no time like the present to jump on the mobile bandwagon and start
reaching mobile savvy travelers via the channels and devices they depend on
daily."

Hotels interested in launching a new mobile website can visit Lodging Interactive at both the 2012 AAHOA Annual Convention & Trade Show in Atlanta May 2 to 5 at the Omni Hotel and the
Georgia World Congress Center in Booth No. 124 or they can call 877-291-4411
ext. 701 to get started. Deadline for the FREE service is June 28, 2012.

Technology + People = Reputation Management

Is your hotel using its reputation management software to its fullest potential? Are you responding to guest reviews in a timely manner? Are the reports you are generating being analyzed to correct issues in operations or guest services? For the majority of hotels, the answer likely is "no." Adopting social media technologies that monitor a hotel's or brand's online reputation is critical today to better connect with travelers. But unless those tools are being maximized, reputations and business practices can still suffer.

CoMMingle by Lodging Interactive has teamed up with leading hospitality reputation-management companies to supplement their technology applications whereby CoMMingle will provide the human resources necessary to answer guest reviews and manage guest responses on behalf of the hotel.

Consider this data provided by ReviewPro:

• A negative review or comment on the Twitter, Facebook or You Tube Web sites can lose companies as many as 30 customers (Convergys Corp)
• 92% of Internet users read product reviews and 89% of people say that reviews influence their purchasing decision. (e-tailing group)
• 85% of executives use social media during a purchase decision (Forrester research)
• TripAdvisor reviews are viewed three times more often on partner websites than on TripAdvisor.com (Tnooz)
• 69% of online shoppers said they trusted the Internet for advice, vs. 43% for magazines and 35% for TV (Yahoo)

"With guest review management becoming critical to the success or failure of a hotel's social media program — and its online marketing campaign overall — hotels would be remiss not to dedicate a full time team to social media monitoring," said DJ Vallauri, Lodging Interactive Founder and President. "But let's face it, unless you are a mega brand or luxury resort, finding the financial or human resources to monitor social channels to their full potential and creating effective responses to guest reviews in a timely fashion, is increasingly difficult. That's where CoMMingle comes in.

"We have spent the last few years building relationships with guest-review companies so that we can complement their technology with 'our people,'" Vallauri said. "Hotels that are using systems such as Revinate, for example, can outsource social media monitoring and guest review responses to us. Our teams log in as the hotel, and reply to guest reviews accordingly, always keeping the hotel apprised of comments and alerting it to concerns. It doesn't matter what type of guest-review technology platform a hotel is using; CoMMingle can work within the tools to maximize the messaging and deliver more consistent responses. Hotel General Managers especially appreciate this service, since it saves them considerable time in personally responding to reviews."

Lodging Interactive is an award winning interactive agency exclusively servicing the hospitality industry. CoMMingle by Lodging Interactive is an outsourced social media marketing agency that develops customized solutions for hotels, restaurants and spas. The company works with its customers to grow and better manage their use of social media channels, provide reputation and consumer sentiment monitoring, and social search engine optimization. CoMMingle is designed to assist hotels in engaging online with social media strategic planning, growing and managing social media channels, word-of-mouth marketing and experiential marketing, reputation and consumer sentiment monitoring, and social search engine optimization.

Technology + People = Success
Revinate is a software platform designed exclusively for the hospitality industry that makes it easy for hotels to take control of their online reputation by using online reviews and social media to learn from and connect with travelers. CoMMingle works side-by-side with Revinate customers to provide staff to respond to the reviews.

"As a software company, we provide software, extensive training and best practices, but look to partners for managed services," said Marc Heyneker, Revinate Co-Founder and VP of Sales. "Having partners such as Lodging Interactive’s CoMMingle division handling the social media at hotels makes it a very robust solution for online reputation management -- as well as using data to drive operational changes and engage with clients. Revinate provides the technology backbone, while CoMMingle serves as the eyes, ears and mouthpiece of the hotel, monitoring conversations and posting instant replies if desired."

CoMMingle has been providing social media assistance to hundreds of hotels since 2009. The company works closely with each property to understand its goals and objectives, then crafts a strategic plan, backed by proprietary technologies and experienced social media marketers.

"Hoteliers need to understand that just because they purchase reputation management software, it can only do so much to improve communication between the property and its guests," Vallauri said. "While hotels receive a dashboard of information as to how the property and its service is perceived by travelers, it also needs to interpret that data and respond to reviews to manage their ongoing relationships with guests. That alone can get overwhelming. CoMMingle, however, is able to help."

How Good Is Your Hotel’s Social Media?

Does trying to manage your social media presence have you in a tail spin? Are you still unsure of the value that social media brings to your hotel's online marketing program? Would you like add social marketing expertise without adding overhead? If "yes," than it's time to CoMMingle. CoMMingle by Lodging Interactive is an outsourced social media marketing agency that develops customized solutions for hotels, restaurants and spas. The company works with its customers to grow and better manage their use of social media channels, provide reputation and consumer sentiment monitoring, and social search engine optimization.

"Social media is more about psychology than marketing," said Rosella Virdo, Director of CoMMingle Social Media Marketing. "Those in charge of managing social media need to understand the mindset of each audience on each network. It's a job that requires the wearing of many hats. It's not just about selling a hotel experience or product. It's about engagement. Content is important. Social channels exist for communication. When guests — past and present — post on your hotel's Facebook page, for example, someone needs to be monitoring the channel ready to post a response. It's a way to take online marketing to the next level."

In a recent article titled "Top 10 hospitality industry trends for 2012," Robert Rauch reported: "By 2016, half of the travel industry will be using social media as a way of generating revenue and bookings. Currently more than one-fifth (22 percent) use social media as a revenue generating tool with a further 27 percent planning to do so over the next five years. Plus, social media will become more of a key component of Search Engine Results Page (SERP) algorithms. Facebook's posts are already integrated into Bing search and Google+ emerged with native integration into Google search. Hotels can no longer afford to linger over adding social media to their marketing mix. It's now a necessary element of traffic-driving success."

Peter O'Connor, Professor of Information Systems at ESSEC Business School in France, recently said: "2012 will be the year when hotels wake up to the power of social media." In an article titled "Hotels Start Putting Their Own 'Social Media House' in Order," O'Connor wrote: "Since travelers enjoy talking about their experiences, discussing future plans and seeking the recommendations of others, social media sites such as blogs, social networks and review sites have become important information resources. Such sites provide consumers with easy access to a pool of high-quality, topical and most importantly, unbiased information, generated not by commercial interests but by other consumers, thus helping to reduce, if not totally eliminate, the aforementioned credibility issue. As a result, social media have had an almost immediate and dramatic effect on how travel is researched, planned and bought."

Engaging with Social Media
With social media becoming such an integral part of consumers' global travel habits, hotels are struggling with finding the internal resources to manage social networks and establish effective social media marketing campaigns. CoMMingle is designed to assist hotels in engaging online with social media strategic planning, growing and managing social media channels, word-of-mouth marketing and experiential marketing, reputation and consumer sentiment monitoring, and social search engine optimization

"The challenge for hoteliers is not just being visible via the various social channels — including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and blogs — but being interactive, constantly monitoring content and keeping the conversations going," CoMMingle's Virdo said. "That's where the success or failure of a social media marketing program comes to play. If a hotel does not have a dedicated staff member serving as its social media watch dog, it's easy for the plan to fall apart. That's where CoMMingle comes in. We become the eyes and ears of the hotel, monitoring conversations and posting instant replies if desired."

Not only does CoMMingle become an extension of a hotel's Public Relations and Marketing teams, but the company also serves as a consultant to its customers, advising hotels how to deal with social media reviews and giving them tools to manage their social presence effectively. For instance, CoMMingle will nip a bad review in the bud by contacting the hotel and having the appropriate person address the situation — or CoMMingle can manage the conversation. A neglected Tweet can turn into negative Facebook post and eventually turn into a devastating TripAdvisor review.

"As a CoMMingle customer, hotels are not buying Facebook 'maintenance,' but rather they receive a vast array of services that can be adjusted hourly, daily, weekly or monthly," Virdo said. "We literally go with the social-media flow, identifying for the hotel where its strength lies. If a hotel is strong on Twitter, CoMMingle will suggest a campaign that addresses the Twitter audience; If the hotel's strength is on Facebook, then we will suggest posts that drive traffic back to the hotel's Website and/or blog and also continue the conversation on Facebook and Twitter."

According to travel market research firm PhocusWright, social networking is one of the most powerful forces driving travel planning today. The firm found that social media use among travelers is growing far faster than the travel industry itself. A survey conducted by travel social network WAYN for the World Travel & Tourism Council and carried out in conjunction with Frommer's Budget Travel magazine, asked nearly 3,580 people (780 U.S., 2,800 non-U.S.) a range of questions about how they plan, book and use technology with travel. The study revealed that 38% percent of U.S. travelers and 64% of non-U.S. travelers are using social networks while travelling. Of those, 32% of U.S. and 22% of non-U.S. travelers frequently blog about their experiences.

"Social media marketing must be part of every hotel's strategic marketing plan," said DJ Vallauri, Founder and President of Lodging Interactive. "But it's important to note that one size social media marketing does not fit all. CoMMingle takes the time to understand each hotel's overall goals and objectives, then the team crafts a social media strategic plan for that specific property, backed by proprietary technologies and experienced social media marketers. With experts predicting that social media will continue to grow by leaps and bounds through 2016 and beyond, there is no better time than the present to CoMMingle."

HOW GOOD IS YOUR HOTEL'S ONLINE REPUTATION? Lodging Interactive Sites 5 Top Reasons Why Hoteliers Should Add a Guest Review System to their Website

Today's travelers love to tout their experiences whenever and wherever possible. Whether they post their travel reviews on Facebook, Google+, TripAdvisor, Amazon.com, Yelp, or simply send an email to their universe of friends and colleagues, the bottom line is, good or bad, the information is going to get out. As hoteliers, the best possible way to stay aware of that content and control the hotel-to-guest relationship is to add an easy-to-use and extremely affordable Guest Review System from Lodging Interactive directly onto their website.

Consider this: Statistics show that the average Facebook user has approximately 130 friends. In the social media realm, that equates to approximately 10,000 friends of friends, and over 1,000,000 friends of friends of friends. If a Facebook page has 500,000 fans (fans are people who clicked ‘Like’), you can imagine the vast reach each guest review can have in attracting travelers.

"There are many reasons why a hotel -- especially an independent property -- should add a Guest Review System directly onto its website," said DJ Vallauri, Lodging Interactive Founder and President. "In addition to the obvious need to take control of their online reputations, the Guest Review System from Lodging Interactive is the easiest way for travelers to automatically link their reviews from the hotel's website to Facebook, instantly sharing their adventures with their network of friends. When you consider that one review has the potential of reaching thousands of “friends”,' it's counter-productive not to embrace this technology. This is just one of many reasons why website-based reviews are so critical to business today. Her are a few others . . ."

Top Five Reasons Why a Website Guest Review System is Critical to 2012 Operations:

1. Gain Control Over What You Want Displayed on Your Website.

Due to the nature of the Web, there is no real way to validate whether or not a person claiming to be a guest with a bad experience actually stayed at your hotel. Placing guest reviews directly on the hotel's website puts a stop to fake reviews posted by competitors or dishonest guests looking for refunds. This not only helps hotels maintain an impeccable reputation, but it gives hotel owners and managers an opportunity to interact personally with their guests more frequently. By having complete control to approve or deny any guest review that appears on your site, hoteliers can better manage their online reputations.

2. Boost Credibility and Display Trustworthiness.

As travelers are doing more and more of their research online, hotels and resorts are relying on online reviews to entice new guests to stay at their properties. But consumers are getting smart. With critics complaining that an entire cottage industry of paid reviewers has sprung up, travelers are questioning the validity of reviews found on booking sites like Orbitz, Travelocity and Hotels.com. This makes moving reviews to the hotel's website even more valuable. Hotels that post replies -- both positive and negative -- will be seen as more credible and trustworthy.

In an recent blog post titled: Keeping negative Facebook comments leads to more trust in your brand, Internet consumer psychologist Dr. Brent Coker wrote: "It is rare that a brand does not have some unhappy customers on occasion. These customers should be given the chance to publically display their disgruntlement. In other words, brands should never tamper with their Facebook page by deleting negative comments, only allowing the positive comments to shine through. Ideally, responding to negative comments creates an opportunity to show the world that you care. The result is greater feelings of trust, honesty, and genuineness towards your brand."

3. Capture Lost Business From Third Party Review Sites.

Hotels risk losing website visitors if those potential bookers are forced to leave the website in search of guest reviews on third party websites. Once gone, they may never come back or worse, they may book with the competition or third-party distributor such as Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia or Hotel.com that sell rooms at a considerably lower rate. Adding a Guest Review System keeps your guests on your site and turns lookers into bookers at rates that you are comfortable with.
Studies have shown that 75% of online travel buyers will check at least three review sites before booking online.

4. Improve Communications with Guests Via Real-Time Email Alerts.

According to Forrester, 49 percent of people won't make a reservation at a property that has no reviews; only 7 percent of hotels are responding to reviews even though 71 percent of travelers say that seeing a management response is important. In addition, 79 percent of people say that seeing a response to a negative review is reassuring. When deciding between two hotels, Forrester reports that 65 percent of people seeing a management response would sway them to book with the responding hotel. But be careful in how you respond. Forrester advises that aggressively worded management responses will do more harm than good according to 60% of the people.

By adding a Guest Review System to the website, hoteliers receive real-time email alerts for every guest review submitted, ensuring their business is always on top of what guests are saying. This means no more delays in addressing guest reviews. If a problem is identified, real-time damage control is rendered, and a potentially lost customer can be saved.

5. Expand Social Media Effectiveness Quickly and Cost Effectively.

Integrating a guest review system with Facebook is key to expanding a hotel's social media effectiveness. This link enables hotels to collect and share their guest reviews right from their hotel Facebook pages. In addition, past guests can share their own reviews via a hotel's Facebook page.

"Implementing these five steps is easy via the Lodging Interactive Guest Review System," Vallauri said. "Our web-based tool empowers hotels to collect their own guest reviews and post management responses on their websites. The Guest Review System lets consumers post their comments and score their hotel experiences based on service attributes. Additionally, consumers can share their guest reviews on their Facebook wall and their network of friends. Hotels are notified in real-time of new guest reviews and have the ability to validate guest stay information before reviews are posted on their website. The Lodging Interactive Guest Review System is a low cost turn-key system any hotel can use to manage their guest reviews. There is no programming required and hotels can be up and running in 10 minutes."

Lodging Interactive is offering a free trial of its Guest Review System. There is no contract to sign and hotels can cancel anytime. For more information, visit www.GuestReviewSystem.com.

Lodging Interactive Launches 'InnterACT' Website Analytics & Social Tool

In keeping with its ongoing investment in technology, and a solid commitment to increase the service levels to its clients, Lodging Interactive is rolling out a new solution this month that provides real-time website analytics, key performance metrics, and the latest social media monitoring tools. The InnterACT online client portal is available immediately to Lodging Interactive customers at no additional cost.

Lodging Interactive is an award winning interactive agency exclusively servicing the hospitality industry, and its subsidiary, CoMMingle is an outsourced social media marketing agency that also develops customized solutions for hotels, restaurants and spas.

"The InnterACT branded portal is yet another way in which Lodging Interactive is providing proactive web monitoring tools to our customers," said DJ Vallauri, Lodging Interactive Founder & President. "The digital dashboard provides hoteliers with the ability to remotely access analytical production information about their website performance, search engine ranking performance, as well as the bounce rate and average time spent on the site.

"It's an online repository that contains the data necessary for our clients to access key metric reports to see how well key words are performing," he said. "This means Lodging Interactive customers don't have to go elsewhere to see how well their campaigns are running. They can log in and access real time ranking reports to determine where their website is positioned on Google, Yahoo and Bing, and view their traffic and determine where it's coming from. For example, managers running a new banner ad for their hotel can use this tool to see how much traffic the spot generated as early as the day after the campaign began. Because the dashboard can be customized, hoteliers can view these reports in such a way that is personal to them, so that when they log in, the information they need most is always present, such as website traffic analytics and landing page views."

InnterACT Integrates Social Media Key Performance Indicators
Another key aspect of the InnterACT system is its ability to pull key performance indicators for social media activity. Now hoteliers can see at a quick glance how many "likes" they have on Facebook, "tweets" and "retweets" on Twitter, and "views" their video attracted on You Tube.

"In essence, InnterACT is a business intelligence tool that offers transparency to hoteliers in regard to what is happening with their online marketing," Vallauri said. "Now, in addition to the scheduled delivery of client PDF reports, managers can access data any time they want it or need it."

InnterACT offers hoteliers the ability to:

• View real-time analytics for a website and/or blog (traffic, keywords, top landing pages,
referring sites, etc.)
• Access real-time Search Engine Rankings and keyword reports
• Download archived weekly and monthly management reports
• Monitor a hotel's social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
• Create personalized analytics via the dashboard for quick reference on key performance
indicators
• Create customized PDF reports to share with others
• Export data into Excel

In the future, Lodging Interactive will roll out additional functionality within InnterACT -- at no charge -- in order to continually drive relevant analytical data to hoteliers.

Lodging Interactive, CoMMingle Recognize Excellence with Director Promotions

With more than 50 employees serving more than 650 hotels, Lodging Interactive values the expertise and dedication of its team members and rewards them accordingly by promoting from within whenever possible. Recently Alicia Pavignano was promoted from Manager to Director of Client Services for Lodging Interactive, and Rosella Virdo was advanced from Manager to Director of Social Media Marketing for CoMMingle by Lodging Interactive.

Lodging Interactive is an award winning social media marketing agency exclusively servicing the hospitality industry, while CoMMingle by Lodging Interactive is an outsourced social media marketing agency that also develops customized solutions for hotels, restaurants and spas. The company works with its customers to grow and better manage their use of social media channels. CoMMingle also provides reputation and consumer sentiment monitoring and social search engine optimization.

"At Lodging Interactive, we believe it's critical to acknowledge employees for a job well done and show each person how much he or she is appreciated," said DJ Vallauri, Lodging Interactive/CoMMingle Founder and President. "Alicia Pavignano and Rosella Virdo have each contributed a great deal to our company, and not only is the workplace better because of their efforts, but our customer satisfaction is at an all time high. These promotions are a reflection of jobs well done."

As Director of Client Services, Pavignano oversees and directs experienced client teams focused on providing a consultative, hands on approach to website maintenance and advising on web strategies and Internet marketing reporting.

"From a client-service perspective, the No. 1 challenge I see hoteliers facing today is being able to remain one step ahead of their competitors as it relates to their own website marketing," Pavignano said. "With the Internet playing an ever increasing role in room reservation revenue, as well as group/event revenue, it is so vital that the information that is put out there is current and advertised in a timely manner. This promotion to Director of Client Services is enabling me to work more closely with clients to overcome online marketing challenges and assist them in reaching definable goals."

By taking a more active role with Lodging Interactive clients and actually becoming an extension of the hotel's marketing department, Pavignano said she hopes to further nurture the company/client relationship.

"I've had the great fortune to work at Lodging Interactive for the past five years, and during that time I have witnessed firsthand the incredible growth in our client base, advances in the services we provide, and tremendous growth and stability of our staff," she said. "Although my role is constantly changing, I am confident that under the direction of DJ Vallauri, everyone at Lodging Interactive will continue to provide services that truly satisfy our customer's needs for assistance with Internet marketing."

Prior to joining Lodging Interactive Pavignano held senior management positions with various national media companies based in New York. She is a graduate of Hunter College, where she received her Master of Science in Education and Pace University, where she received her Bachelor of Business Administration and was awarded a four-year, full-tuition academic scholarship.

Improving Social Circles
As Director of the CoMMingle Social Media Marketing operating division and its related departments, Virdo is responsible for client reputation management and responses, social platform blogging and micro-blogging, report management and tracking, copy writing and overall CoMMingle office operations.

"This new position gives me the opportunity to lead the CoMMingle team while working hands-on with clients while planning the direction of all Lodging Interactive's social media efforts," Virdo said. "Our customers directly benefit from the in-the-trenches experience I gained related to social media marketing for hospitality. Because of my experience, I am able to work closer with each client and help them coordinate their marketing efforts into the social media arena. It's a win-win for everyone."

Virdo said keeping up with the ever-changing social media landscape is a real challenge for hoteliers today. CoMMingle brings much-needed expertise to the table that enables managers to easily blend social media into their traditional marketing efforts to achieve the best possible results.

"One of the great advantages of being a CoMMingle customer is that we tackle social media challenges on behalf of our customer hotels, teaching and sharing with them the nuances of each social network so they can continue to evolve throughout the process," Virdo said. "We are very fortunate not only as employees, but as an industry to have DJ Vallauri directing this effort. He has continually remained three steps ahead of where social media is heading and shares his vast knowledge through us to the industry.

"For example, with Google's search algorithm, Panda and the Freshness initiative, hoteliers can now blend in their social media efforts to remain optimized on search engines," she said. "DJ saw this search shift coming three years ago and lead CoMMingle in tracking this crucial need for our clients. His vision, enthusiasm and foresight creates an infectious energy in this company. It is from those qualities that he created a service for our hospitality customers that we as a staff believe passionately in and which delivers results. To say that I feel fortunate to be part of his 'work family' for the past three years is an understatement."

Virdo joined CoMMingle with more than 25 years advertising and marketing experience, working in operational and management positions for various advertising agencies throughout New York and New Jersey. She studied Hotel/Restaurant Management at The College of Technology of the City University of New York.