Online customer reviews are of important significance to many consumers, and this is especially true for the hospitality and tourism industry. Travelers expect to read reviews about your accommodation through sites like Tripadvisor and Booking.com. It is increasingly important to maintain a good online presence and reputation. With social media becoming a more pivotal role in marketing, the platform not only allows you to communicate directly with your customers, but also allows your customers to communicate with each other.

We give you an overview on how to ask for, respond to, and use the reviews you get, and an example of what to say in each of those instances.

GET REVIEWS

A range of reviews is not a bad thing, as it adds legitimacy to your hotel. To get these reviews you could ask customers to leave a review when you check them out. Alternatively, you could also send out a post-stay email thanking the customer for their stay and asking them for any feedback and a review on some sites. You could also publish some social media posts, reminding guests to review their stay.

What to say: We’d love to hear how your stay with us was! Leave us a review on these websites <insert links>, or send us an email with your feedback.

RESPOND TO REVIEWS

It is extremely important to respond to guest reviews. Engage with both positive and negative reviews in a professional and friendly manner. Make sure your responses are genuine and always be appreciative of the feedback and the time it took the guest to leave the review. While negative reviews are not ideal, responding to them in a friendly, professional manner is essential to maintaining a good relationship with the guests, without losing potential customers. It is important to apologize for their negative experience and address how you will do better in the future.

What to say: Thank you for taking the time to leave us feedback, and we are extremely sorry for the negative experience you had with us. We are always working on improving, and in the future we will <insert improvements you will make>.

USE REVIEWS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

Reviews can be extremely effective in your marketing and to know where you need to improve. Use the feedback you receive from customers to improve on your services or facilities. Use the positive reviews to help with marketing, let potential customers know how good of a time people have had when they’ve stayed with you. Use them on social media, and through your marketing emails. Showing consistently good service and reminding people of the wonderful time they had with you, will also encourage repeat bookings.

What to say: What our guests have to say about their stay with us: <Insert review>. Or See what others have to say: <Insert review>.

I had the opportunity to go to a session with Expedia last week.

To start with, I was slightly frustrated by the way they claim to “help us with our bookings”, all I could see was the fact that I had to pay 15% commission and just because everyone else was on Expedia I had to be as well.

After listening and talking to fellow operators I re-thought my position somewhat. I would still prefer everyone booking from my website and if I was perfectly honest, I actually prefer the option of people talking to us directly as we can give them the best advice, but in reality we know OTA’s have a strong presence talking with guests with their mass marketing ability.

I think as operators, we must spend time (or employ someone to) to manage these OTA sites on a regular basis. The best way to get to the top of the page is to make content changes regularly. This can simply be done by changing the words describing your property or updating a photo or changing the rates. The way these sites operate is that they have algorithms to calculate who should feature at the top of page one. These are based on the content adjustments we make. There is another option of paying more commission but, why would you?

This information does not just relate to Expedia but to all OTA’s. We must make sure our content is correct at all times and it is important to look at these sites as a customer would on a regular basis to see what they are seeing about our properties.

The other conversation we had was with an extra revenue manager from a big hotel. This provided some really good information and basically made me realise I have to get over myself and start charging premium rates for premium events. The hotels do it but as we know they can increase their prices by 200%-300%. This physically makes me feel sick but adding $50 per night onto a room when the whole town is fully booked makes sense. She talked about having several different price points on any given day, personally I think that could become too complicated for a small business but, if you have only a few rooms left add something extra on because you can. T

Accommodation owners and operators are already time poor with the many duties the role encompasses. This is why a system that removes repetitive tasks and automates time consuming processes is a vital component for front desk and back office operations. Choosing a Property Management System (PMS) is an important decision for any hotelier. A PMS affects front desk operations through to accounting and IT, which is why knowing what to look for is important. A PMS can help in streamlining the workflow that comes with managing a property, saving you time and increasing your revenue. It’ll also give you more time to interact with your guests. Here we provide some key tips on choosing the best PMS for your property:Integrations Your PMS should be able to integrate with other systems that you’ll need to run your property. Related software like a point-of-sale system for on-site restaurants are important to help with a seamless guest experience. It’s also important that your PMS connects with a Channel Manager that lists to your desired Online Travel Agents (OTA). Many channel managers also include a booking button you can embed into your website. Integrating with specialised systems is beneficial for your property as each system is an expert in its field.Cost It is important for you to look at what your business requires, and then match it with a PMS that meets your requirements. While cost will factor, it is more important to have a system that streamlines your workflows and meets your requirements. Always take advantage of the free trial or demo to see if the system is suitable for your property. Opting for a cloud-based, rather than premise-based system can also help reduce the cost. Cloud-based means no IT infrastructure to manage, just your computers or tablets to look after.Set up time Choose a PMS that’s easy to set up, and one that is intuitive to use. Cloudbased systems thrive in this, as they do not need complex software downloads. Look for a system that employees at every level can use and understand. Having one that is intuitive and simple to learn will make the transition to the new PMS less time consuming. It’ll also make training new staff a breeze.Training and support Hospitality is a 24/7 industry; look for providers that offer support to suit your hours of operation. This means they’ll be on hand to troubleshoot any problems you may encounter. Choose a PMS that offers ongoing training, this will be helpful when you first start using the system, and great if you need a refresher later on. Ongoing training and support will be vital in helping you understand integrations and any new features too. It’s also important they have some help resources available so that you can look up some helpful articles on any issues you may have.Features Look for features that are essential to running your property at its optimum. Make sure you are happy with how reservations are displayed, and that the check-in and checkout process is simple. You’ll also want the ability to store guest information, so that you can contact them pre and post stay. Another good feature to have is the ability to track returning guests, and create detailed guest profiles, allowing you to personalise every visit. You’ll also want the flexibility to add and package extras together with a room, for any specials, extra charges or up-sells. A housekeeping feature is also essential in managing the daily tasks, make sure it is intuitive and provides adequate detail for your housekeeping staff. Finally it is important the PMS provides some analytics and reporting. This will help you track performance and targets so you can maximise revenue by making good financial decisions. Upgrading your legacy PMS isn’t as time consuming or difficult as you may think. Preno can help migrate your existing booking data over, and we’ll be there to support you via our 24/7 in-app chat support. Curious if Preno is right for you? You can book in for a live demo now!

A new report published by SiteMinder has revealed the budget priorities for thousands of hoteliers all over the world.

SiteMinder asked hoteliers, from both independents and groups, to rank their priorities, challenges, and issues from high to low on everything from financial plans to focus areas, and of course, the future.

Chapter two inside ‘SiteMinder’s Global Hotel Business Index 2017: A visual look at financial plans, focus points, and future predictions’ asked hoteliers to outline the areas they’re planning to distribute their budgets over the next 12 months.

Hoteliers could choose from a matrix of options –

Revenue-generating strategy managementDigital marketing including your website and SEOSocial media strategy and managementAmenities including room upgrades or new facilitiesBooking / hotel management technologyHotel staff recruitment and training programs

Boosting revenue by spending on strategy management came out on top with a ranking of 50% – closely followed by digital marketing activity.

Hoteliers said they would be allocating less budget to staff training and recruitment – ranked at 28% in comparison – indicating the need to spend more money on newer skills such as SEO.

What did hoteliers tell SiteMinder about their financial plans?

Many hoteliers surveyed spoke about improving their digital marketing and online presence and the need to put money behind these efforts to make headway.

Here’s what they told SiteMinder:

“We should get a new website. Should look at a better WiFi service for our guests, possibly even free WiFi.”

“Our hotel is only 18 months with great loyal staff. Our website is being upgraded and we pay to have Facebook managed.”

“We have a website, probably expanding into the mobile-friendly market is desirable, however we have outgoings dedicated to structural changes in 2017 that will probably defer this to 2018.”

What’s the SiteMinder perspective on the findings?

Chapter two’s results show just how many hats hoteliers wear and the difficulty they face, not only managing them all, but also prioritising where to spend their crucial budgets.

Similar to chapter one’s findings, which looked at business goals for 2017, investing in hotel technology came low down the list of financial priorities. Hoteliers should look for solutions, whether it be an online booking engine or website builder and editor, that suit the property’s need. Smart and simple hotel technology is a more affordable option than hoteliers perhaps realise.

Improvements in hotel technology have been enabling properties to think less about the behind the scenes processes and concentrate more on guests.

Two years ago about a quarter of US hotels were using pen and paper to manage their properties but, fast forward to 2017 and they are looking increasingly to cloud-based systems to improve processes.

NB: This is research from purchasing advice company Software Advice.

In its latest report, the company says 96% of hotel software buyers are now looking for a cloud-based system because it means lower investment costs and more flexibility, especially for independent hotels.

The ‘Hotel Management Buyer Report – 2017’ looks at current hotel management software buyer behavior.

It also identifies the most popular software functionality most hotels use to attract guests, facilitate direct bookings and improve the guest experience.

Key findings

The use of a hotel-specific system is increasing alongside modest industry growth—hotel management system adoption increased by 2% in the past two years.

Sixty-two percent of buyers are looking to replace problematic software, while 38% are new users looking to automate and increase organization.

Hotels are almost entirely in the cloud—96% of HMS buyers opt for web-based deployment.

US hospitality industry growth boosts hotel management system HMS Adoption

Hospitality companies use a wide array of methods to handle daily tasks, such as taking reservations, checking guests in and out and tracking housekeeping.

As the industry continues to see modest growth in supply and demand in 2017, we see that the adoption of a hotel-specific management system has increased by 2 percent from two years ago.

At the same time, there’s a 2% decrease of manual methods, which include pen and paper or spreadsheets.

This suggests that more hospitality companies recognize the benefits of a hotel-specific property management system.

These systems offer features crucial to hospitality. As a hotel manager, your standard PMS addresses the needs of apartment or condo managers; an HMS includes functionality that you need to stand out from the competition, including:

Reservation managementRevenue managementChannel managementGuest relationship managementPoint-of-sale

An HMS serves as an all-in-one system. HMS users don’t have to click around different windows or log-in and out of different programs because these systems integrate all systems into one, seamless experience.

For HMS seekers, a combined 62% cite specific problems with the software—it’s old, it lacks features or it’s hard to use—as their reason for shopping around. Another 27% are just starting out and want a new system to help them stay organized from the beginning.

We also looked at the applications buyers request most to find out their must-have functionality. Front desk applications, unsurprisingly, ranked first; every hotel needs proper front desk capabilities to check guests in and out and generating key cards.

Beyond the basics, buyers need to make sure their hotel has an online presence that can attract guests who can book directly from the hotel’s website. It’s no surprise, then, that an online booking engine was a close second at 23%.

The facts are undeniable: about 148 million travel bookings are made online each year. That’s 57% of all travel reservations made in a year.

Even more importantly, 65% of same-day reservations are made on a smartphone.

As travelers consistently and increasingly perform research and book online, your goal should be to use an online booking engine to get your property in front of them as soon and often as possible during their selection journey.

An online booking engine also offers other useful capabilities:

Customization and branding. Most OBE vendors allow hotels to embed the engine within a branded landing page, so guests stay engaged with your specific logos and themes throughout the booking experience.

Image gallery. In addition to logos, hotels can also insert professional photos and galleries into the page to show off your rooms and amenities.

Real time pricing and inventory. The rates and availability of rooms are pulled from the HMS directly, minimizing double bookings or other guest inconveniences.

In the past six months I’ve written about increasing hotel brand fees (Hotel Loyalty Rate Analysis) and increasing loyalty fees (The Great Loyalty Rate Debate).

Both articles prompted some very interesting and much needed industry debate about how best to proactively manage hotel online distribution.

In what was a sea of negative OTA sentiment, I opted to take a deep dive into the issue and explore some of the lesser seen and even lesser understood facets of the hotel online distribution conundrum, in particular, the notion that direct bookings are always cheaper.

Thankfully in more recent times OTA disdain has been waning and my feeling is that it will continue to diminish over the next few years for several reasons.

Firstly, Airbnb seems to be emerging as the hotel industry’s next big disruptor, making it a convenient target for the sector’s woes.

Consumer adoption is accelerating, with one-in-five travelers already using peer-to-peer sites for business travel, and nearly half of those surveyed indicated that they have substituted what would previously probably have been a hotel stay with a homestay.

With such a large threat looming on the horizon, and a new potentially potent enemy to battle, the sector’s prior gripes about unfair OTA competition look likely to pale into insignificance.

In fact, facing a common enemy, OTAs and hotel brands are increasingly working together to unlock new potential and keep the hotel industry competitive against alternative accommodations.

OTAs are also starting to provide value in some interesting ways that the industry is not seeing from search engines, meta sites, or even chain brands. For example, Booking.com’s BookingSuite is powering brand direct sites, and thus in effect competing against itself.

Expedia’s Rev+ is making big data consumable for hoteliers, helping make revenue management practices smarter and more efficient than they’ve ever been before.

Now hoteliers have free tools to drive rate when the market supports it or occupancy with promotions and discounts when they need it most. Expedia is also signing up its customers into chain loyalty programs as well as sending qualified travelers directly to book direct channels.

And perhaps most interesting, after being an initial proponent of the anti-OTA book direct campaigns, Marriott International is itself now leveraging Expedia’s packaging technology to provide additional functionality and drive a totally new customer to their portfolio of brand.com sites.

It seems that when the chips are down, the enemy of my enemy is actually my friend.

Incremental customers?

Supporting this shift in sentiment is the fact that OTAs are typically an incremental source of customers for the travel industry.

According to Expedia, less than 0.5% of their customers search for a particular hotel brand when performing a hotel search.

A recent BDRC survey of US lodging loyalty members indicates that OTA loyalty programs have a 71% higher proportion of millennial leisure travelers and a 44% higher proportion of millennial business travelers than chain loyalty programs.

OTA program members also have a higher proportion of international travelers and frequent travelers (11+ nights per year) than hotel loyalty members. Despite hotel chain’s efforts, these customers are displaying loyalty to the OTA, not the hotel brand, but can be exploited by hotels smart enough to build synergistic relationships with their OTA partners.

With such renewed cooperation, perhaps it’s time to put another age-old fallacy to bed, that OTAs are making vast profits on the sale of hotel rooms off the back of hardworking hoteliers!.....

And many others have tried, promising innovative low cost, ‘hotel-friendly’ business models with much fanfare, but all have fallen by the wayside once their initial funding ran out.

Thus, while OTA costs might to some appear high, those who really understand the realities of the hotel distribution and online marketing game are increasingly realizing that, comparatively speaking, they in fact represent outstandingly good value for the money.

By leveraging their economies of scale and global reach, they provide hotels with a cost-effective way to generate incremental bookings in a highly competitive market, all on a pay-per-performance basis.

So when are we going to stop kidding ourselves that focusing solely on direct booking is a better strategy for the hotel industry?