The Value Of Hotel Guest Reviews By Lodging Interactive

It’s no secret to anyone by now that user generated content (“UGC”) in the form of guest reviews continues to be on the rise.  It seems as if there are new websites popping up everywhere to empower the consumer to provide their perspective as it relates to their experience with your business.  This sharing process is a natural evolution in social media and it is especially important for hoteliers to take it seriously and not “blow it off” as we have seen many do.

According to the recently published PhoCusWright Social Media In Travel 2011: Traffic, Activity & Sentiment report, the volume of posted hotel reviews in the U.S. alone has grown from 880,000 in 2008 to nearly 1.1 million in 2010.  The average number of posted hotel reviews per month, per 100 rooms,  was also up significantly from 2.5 reviews in 2009 to 3.1 in 2010.  Interestingly the report also stated that properties in the one, two and three star categories all saw a significant increase in guest review posts while four and five star properties both saw declines.

Unfortunately some General Managers still believe most negative hotel reviews are “planted” by their competition or posted by disgruntled guests looking for freebies or refunds.  While we have seen much evidence of this on review sites, and some hotels are reportedly banding together to form a class action defamation lawsuit against TripAdvisor, we believe all posted reviews should be dealt with as if 100% sincere; posted guest reviews do effect revenue opportunities for the property.

Studies have shown that 75% of online travel buyers will check at least three reviews sites before booking online.  Now imagine a hotel that doesn’t respond to a negative guest review post which is read by thousands of potential guests.  The revenue impact to the property is real and when you consider the cost involved to initially acquire the interest of that potential guest it is fiscally irresponsible to no respond to negative guest review posts; yet so many hoteliers do not reply.  The PhoCusWright Social Media In Travel 2011: Traffic, Activity & Sentiment report also describes that visitors to Online Travel Agency (“OTA”) hotel review pages are significantly more likely to book on hotel websites, and convert at a rate of 13-14% versus the average hotel conversion of 8-9%.  In support of the report, we have always recommended our clients respond to all guest review posts regardless the comment sentiment being negative or positive.

While there are many tools and services on the market, including our own Chatter Guard Online Reputation Management Services, to help hotels identify and manage their guest review posts, responding to posts is time consuming especially when posting responses on multiple review sites.  Moreover, beyond the overall sentiment scoring, careful focus should be placed on scoring guest review posts based on service attributes to ensure operational improvements are made in the problem areas.  We recommend our clients meet regularly to discuss guest review post areas of concern based on departmental attributes such as housekeeping, food & beverage, staff, etc.  Hoteliers should make the most of guest review posts to improve their overall service levels.

Find the perfect hotel with the Hotel Finder experiment

From Google - Inside Search The Official Google Blog:

"Finding the right hotel can make or break your vacation, so with this in mind, we’re introducing Hotel Finder, a new experimental search tool specifically designed to help you find that perfect hotel. Google Hotel Finder makes it easy to narrow down the options..."

Read all the details at Google - Inside Search The Official Google Blog

Google Removes Mashable, Sesame Street & Other Prominent Accounts From Google Plus

"Some of the biggest company/brand accounts on Google+ have now — finally, some might say — been removed.

The Google Plus pages for Mashable, Ford and Sesame Street are all gone. Our own Search Engine Land page has also been removed. Mashable was, according to SocialStatistics.com, the No. 4 most popular account on Google+ with more than 103,000 followers.

All of those accounts have been replaced by a 404 error message. (Update: see postscript at the end of this article.)

Google has been removing business/brand accounts for more than a week now, but some users were unhappy with the random nature of the process. Some accounts were zapped early on while others seemed to get special treatment, or at least were ignored, and continued to increase their following."

Read the full article at searchengineland.com

Another Try by Google to Take On Facebook

"Remember Google Buzz? What about Orkut, or Google Wave?

Google has tried several times, without much success, to take on Facebook and master social networking. Now it is making its biggest effort yet.

On Tuesday, Google introduced a social networking service called the Google+ project — which happens to look a lot like Facebook. The service, which is initially available to a select group of Google users who will soon be able to invite others, will let people share and discuss status updates, photos and links, much as they do on Facebook."

Read the complete article www.nytimes.com

Google launches indexed local directory portals

"Google has just released city-specific business directories that are clearly going to compete with Yelp, Citysearch, and for travel with TripAdvisor in terms of highlighting popular local businesses.

Google has been trying hard to get a secure position in the local scene. As Marissa Mayer described it, local was one of the important aspects of the current web – with the others being media, search, mobile, and social. With YouTube, Google has the media stage. With Android, Google has mobile. But the social sphere and the local platform are both owned by competitors (specifically Facebook and Groupon), and Google has to fight to catch up."

Via hotelmarketing.com

Lodging Interactive Partners With The State of Georgia

Lodging Interactive, an award winning Interactive and Social Media Marketing Agency exclusively servicing the hospitality industry, announced today that it has partnered with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to provide Georgia State Parks & Historic Sites with a customized online comment card system to capture guest comments and user reviews.

>> Click here to read more...

Lodging Interactive Advises: What Google +1 Means For Hotels

Clearly Google+1 is a direct ‘across the bow’ shot at Facebook.  While Google+1 might seem similar to Facebook’s Like button, it is a stronger power of influence when it comes to validating the popularity and authenticity of a website.

It should not be news to anyone at this time that the search engines have been quietly incorporating “social signals” into their search engine algorithms.  Algorithms are mathematical computations which help the search engines to determine where your hotel website listing will appear on a search results page.  Starting this week, if you are logged into your Google account, you can expect to see Google+1 buttons in your Google search results pages.  When a user clicks +1, they’re declaring their affinity for a particular search result, which Google is considering as ‘human vote of confidence.”  In the near future you will also see the Google+1 buttons on websites across the web, much like Facebook’s Open Graph and their Like button.

 

So here is the a-ha moment for hotels; Google has found a way to make us all become influencers of relevancy and as we +1 our way throughout the web, we will be shaping and helping to determine which website will be listed on a results page...and which one’s won’t.

We believe Google+1 is superior to Facebook’s Like button because in order to +1, you have to create a publicly accessible user profile.  This will make it difficult for companies to game the system by creating fake profiles.  While Facebook is closing in on 700,000 million users, we all know people who have multiple profiles as well as zoo animals who have their own profile pages.

So what does this all mean for hoteliers?  Clearly hotel search engine listings, organic and paid, will increasingly be influenced by Likes and +1’s.  Does your hotel have a strategy to ensure consumers +1 your search engine listings on Google when presented with the opportunity? If your website ranks well on Google now, are you prepared for the loss of rank position when your competitors have more +1’s than your hotel has?  Hoteliers should no longer think as marketers do, but rather think as publishers do.  Only relevant, informative not overly promotional content will encourage consumers to +1 your website.  Gone are the days of simply providing ‘marketing speak’ to get attention, now and in the future it will be all about providing valuable content.

For more information about Google+1 you can visit the Google+1 website:  http://www.google.com/+1/button/

Google, TripAdvisor redefine roles in distribution

"Although the most recent changes to the distribution landscape might not directly affect day-to-day operations today, experts say hoteliers should pay close attention as major players in the space are making moves that could shape the future."

Read the full article at www.hospitalitynet.org

Mobile in travel ‘happening fast’ says Google

"Latest data from Google has indicated that the rise of mobile for travel web browsing is happening now and is happening fast. Revealing figures at the latest Travolution Editorial Advisory Board meeting this week Robin Frewer, the search engines director for travel, said it was seeing “huge growth” from mobile."

Read the whole article at www.hotelmarketing.com

YouTube Expands Search Options With Filter & Explore

"YouTube has rearranged and updated its search options with a new feature called Filter & Explore.

When you perform a search in YouTube, instead of getting the usual array of options below the search box, you’ll be greeted with a single Filter & Explore option (or only Filter, if YouTube doesn’t have enough data to offer the additional Explore links). Click on it, and you’ll be offered a number of filters that you can apply to make your search more precise."

Read the full article at www.mashable.com