Reviews are everything. Your guide on reputation management

In the hospitality industry, reviews and reputation are everything. While positive reviews can positively impact your revenue, negative reviews can dent your reputation and negatively impact your hotel's reputation. Gone are the days when travelers would just see an ad and make a hotel reservation. Today, travelers are empowered with technology, and they do thorough research before deciding where they want to stay during their travel. For hotels, it is now of utmost importance to build and manage their online reputation.

A study conducted by Cornell University reveals that positive hotel reviews can increase the occupancy rate by 0.54%. It also revealed that a positive review could increase the revenue per available room by 1.42%. Going by a study done by TripAdvisor, when given a choice to select between two identical properties, 79% of the travelers chose the property with a higher rating. The study also mentioned that 81% of travelers read reviews on different social sites before making their booking decisions.

So, if you’re a hotelier and want to grow your business, you need to have a reputation management system in place.

What is a reputation management system?

The hotel reputation management system manages, monitors, and tracks every review and rating that you receive across different platforms on the web. A reputation management system enables you to engage with your potential customers, build trust, and influence travelers’ booking decisions. If done right, hotel reputation management can help you build reputation and brand awareness and ultimately increase your revenue.

Why is reputation management important for hotels?

As we mentioned already, travelers now do their research online before making their booking decisions. They read reviews of other travelers and trust it more than they trust the hotel website. When travelers visit a new and unknown place, they would like to know the experience of other travelers more than what’s mentioned on a website, which can be biased. But the sheer volume of reviews is easy to believe. Also, today’s travelers are spoil with choices. So, they tend to choose the best option based on the reviews and experiences that other travelers have shared.

For all these reasons, it is so crucial to maintain the reputation of your hotel. If a disappointed guest puts a lower rating or negotiates feedback about your hotels, it can be a big turn-off for your potential guests. To maintain and protect your hotel's reputation, you cannot ignore the importance of having a reputation management system in place

Here are three tips for effective reputation management

1. Leverage social media: Different social media platforms are great way to build relationships with your potential guests. Leverage these platforms to ensure them that your property is safe and that you follow all the COVID-19 protocols to keep your guests safe. Share videos to showcase different aspects of your hotel. Guests trust and learn about brands when they see videos, so leverage it to build trust.

2. Use tools like Swyftin: Swyftin is a web-based app that tries to collect reviews from your guests by strategically sending them mails asking for reviews or through the web app during their stay. With such a smart product by your side, you can be rest assured that only positive reviews are posted on the web, and negative reviews are removed. The optimized reviews will help you gain the trust of your customers and build a positive brand image.

3. Respond to reviews: Collecting reviews is not enough if you’re not acting upon them. It is equally important to respond to the reviews, both to the positive and negative ones. According to TripAdvisor, 65% of users would rather book a hotel that responds to reviews and 85% of users say that their impression of a hotel improves when they read a good manager response to a bad review. When you respond to the reviews especially the bad ones, it shows that you care. So, draft your words carefully and you can turn a bad review into an opportunity.

Thriving your hotel business is not easy, especially when there are so many choices. A lot of positive reviews can be a game-changer for you. You can do all of these on your own, which is time-consuming, or leave everything to Swyftin that can help you optimize your online reputation.