Your hotel's online reputation can make or break your business. In the digital age, customers rely on reviews, ratings, and social media to choose their accommodation and share their experiences. That's why you need to manage your online reputation proactively and effectively. Here are some tips on how to do that.
The first step to managing your online reputation is to know what people are saying about your hotel online. You can use tools like Google Alerts, TripAdvisor, and ReviewPro to track reviews, ratings, mentions, and feedback across different platforms. You should also monitor your own website, social media accounts, and blog for comments and inquiries. By monitoring your online presence, you can identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and respond accordingly.
Find past, potential, and in-house guests through social search functions and social listening -- not just tracking mentions, but looking at location tags and posts using keywords. Cultivate ongoing engagement with guests so that it is possible to identify the guests who are the five most active advocates for the brand online. Also, create a level of service and engagement online that matches the in-person experience. An interaction online is as much a hospitality experience as a phone call or front-door interaction.
Having a centralized place to monitor reviews, ratings, and feedback from different sites is critical to reputation management. There are a number of excellent review aggregation tools designed with hotels and hospitality businesses in mind, including Revinate, ReviewPro, and TrustYou.
The first and foremost step is to identify the platforms suitable to your industry, where your target audience is usually present. The next step is to monitor your presence including the guests interaction with your brand or posts.This also helps you to be updated with the dynamism of new platforms and evolving online options to reach your audience
The second step to managing your online reputation is to respond to reviews and feedback, both positive and negative. Responding to reviews and feedback shows that you care about your customers and value their opinions. It also gives you a chance to address any issues, apologize for any mistakes, and thank your loyal guests. You should respond to reviews and feedback promptly, politely, and professionally, and avoid being defensive or aggressive. You should also encourage your customers to leave reviews and feedback, as they can help you improve your service and attract more bookings.
I typically approach this by determining an achievable response rate benchmark, then setting aside time each week to respond. It's important to address each review individually, responding to comments with specificity and, when applicable, explaining actions that show you've taken their feedback seriously.
Reviews and feedbacks are your mirrors. By monitoring and responding to positive reviews you could easily know what people are liking about your property and use it as your USP, whereas negative reviews helps you know what people dislike about you and make corrections after acknowledging the gaps.This is extremely powerful tool to attract repeat clients.
The third step to managing your online reputation is to showcase your strengths and values. You can do this by creating and sharing engaging content that highlights your hotel's features, amenities, location, and unique selling points. You can also use content to showcase your hotel's values, such as sustainability, social responsibility, or innovation. You can use different formats, such as photos, videos, blogs, podcasts, or infographics, to showcase your strengths and values. You should also use keywords, hashtags, and tags to optimize your content for search engines and social media.
Our values speaks of our characters and if people are ble to experience this with our actions and posts you start getting clients which are half closed. Your vision, your initiatives towards sustainability, your failures and the ultimate success, your initiatives for guests care, all these soeajs of your character. Your online Presence should also help your guests understand your niche and positiong
The fourth step to managing your online reputation is to handle complaints and crises. Sometimes, things can go wrong, and you may face unhappy customers, negative reviews, or bad publicity. When this happens, you need to handle the situation calmly, professionally, and transparently. You should acknowledge the problem, apologize sincerely, offer a solution, and follow up with the customer. You should also communicate with your staff, partners, and stakeholders, and update them on the situation. You should avoid ignoring, deleting, or hiding complaints and crises, as they can damage your credibility and trust.
The social media is slowly evolving as important medium to voice concerns due to its transparency speed and ease of usage due to unstructured option to raise queries and complaints. Mastering the art of handling complaints with intelligent mix of technology and writing skill could be very impactful
The final step to managing your online reputation is to build relationships and loyalty. You can do this by engaging with your customers online, and providing them with value, information, and entertainment. You can also use online platforms to offer incentives, rewards, discounts, or special offers to your customers, and encourage them to book directly with you. You should also use online platforms to collect feedback, suggestions, and testimonials from your customers, and use them to improve your service and products. By building relationships and loyalty, you can create a positive online reputation that reflects your hotel's brand and identity.
In simple terms, making friends with your customers online is key. Share stuff that matters – helpful info, fun stuff, or whatever adds value. Throw in some perks like discounts or special offers to encourage them to book directly with you. Also, ask for their thoughts and feedback. Use what they say to make things better. It's all about building a positive online vibe that shouts out what your hotel is all about.
Feedback given by the customers has to be rectified and informed them via Proper channel will attract them to come back again.
If you wish to build a no frill client acquisition mechanism building a relationship with your guests plays a vital role. Providing consistent value through your posts and running a loyalty program to attract and make them your loyal customers are effective tools for repeat visits.
To manage your hotel's online reputation, regularly monitor customer reviews on platforms like TripAdvisor and Google. Respond promptly and professionally to feedback, addressing concerns and expressing gratitude for positive reviews. Implement improvements based on feedback to enhance guest satisfaction, showcasing your commitment to delivering a positive experience. As someone knowledgeable in the luxury hospitality industry, I recommend leveraging social media to engage with guests and showcase the hotel's strengths.