Online customer reviews are very influential for any business, and the hotel business is no exception. If people are on the fence about whether or not to book a reservation at a hotel, sometimes all it takes is one positive or one negative review to sway them one way or the other.
In fact, a simple review on Google or Yelp can be even more influential than an online advertisement. According to Zendesk, for every ten people who booked a hotel last year, nine of them said online reviews played a factor in their decision making process.
This is why gathering positive four star and five star reviews for your hotel website should be a top priority for you, but at the same time, you need to be strategic about how you go about collecting these reviews.
Here are the best ways to get more reviews for your hotel website:
Create A Positive Customer Experience
The very first thing you need to do is ensure that your customers have a positive experience at your hotel. If they do not, then how can you expect them to leave a positive review? Word-of-mouth is best spread through a highly positive customer experience that you can consistently provide.
Set Up Profiles On Review Websites
Set up a profile for your hotel on as many review websites as possible in order to maximize exposure. Examples of the best review sites to set up on profiles on include Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Angie’s List, Yelp, CitySearch, and TripAdvisor. Don’t skip for any of them.
Don’t Ask For A Review Until After The Guest Leaves
While it’s perfectly fine to ask a guest staying at your hotel for a review, you should wait to do so until after they leave. Not only can it make your customers feel pressured or uncomfortable, it can also trigger warning flags since the reviews would be coming from your hotel’s IP address.
As an alternative, shoot an automatic email to your guest around forty eight hours after they have left your hotel. In that email, thank them for staying and invite them to leave honest feedback on an online review site.
Give The Customer A Goodbye Gift
You can further increase the odds of a customer leaving you a positive review by giving them a simple goodbye or parting gift at checkout. Examples of small gifts you can leave them include chocolates, a nice pen, a postcard, or a notepad. At the very least, it shows the customer that you appreciated them staying with you.
Securing More Reviews For Your Hotel Site
Securing as many positive reviews for your hotel as you can will almost guarantee that you’ll get more bookings and reservations in the future. However, you also want to be careful and deliberate about how you go about gathering these reviews, and that’s why you’ll want to put each of the tips you have just learned to good use.