Bad Reviews – OUCH! What can you do to come out on top?

Feedback can help you improve your whole property — but you can’t just rely on checkout feedback forms. After all, your guests won’t limit themselves to that. They’ll go to the internet to share bad experiences on social media or review sites.

What can you do? Read all new reviews posted about your hotel and respond to angry customers with a soft reply.

Remember: Word of mouth is your most powerful marketing tool.

Bonus tip: Keep an eye on your competitors’ reviews, too. Use their reviews to determine their strengths and their challenges. Where can you take the steps to thrive where they are falling short?

Best ways to respond to bad reviews:

1.     Respond Quickly

2.     Always Respond

3.     Don’t Take the Review Personally

Bad Review Response Tips:

·      Introduce yourself and your connections to your team in your review. This helps people feel like they are personally being heard. Example: "This is Katie, and I am the Business Development Manager. I wanted to let you know that I see your review."

·      Thank the customer for taking the time to write or “help you improve your business”

·      Make EVERY review response authentic and personal. How many times have you read reviews and every company response is the same? The goal is to humanize your response as much as possible.

Show empathy & understanding. When you receive a negative review, the first response is to get defensive. This is totally normal! Instead, try to read the review in “their shoes”. If they took the time to write the bad review, they must have been very upset. Imagine yourself on your worst day and empathize. Sometimes a good response to a bad review can be better than a good review! This is a way to publicly show how you respond to criticism and/or mistakes.