This article about the importance for a hotel to take into account of all reviews online (negative and positive) and, how to take advantage of negative reviews, is very interesting.
Today, it is more and more popular to edit a review of a hotel on one website like Trip Advisor. With this increasing popularity of reviews online, hotels have more and more problem in order to control “what is being said about them online”, but, they can totally control their manner to react at the negative reviews. For that, the article makes some suggestions on the manner of answering the negative reviews:
- Speak up
- Engage
- Show leadership
- Take the high road
- Make reputation management a priority
- Create a cycle of positivity
- Prevent escalation
- Take the good with the bad
With these possible actions, hoteliers can turn negative reviews, into positive changes in their hotels.
I think that the increasing popularity of reviews online is an important and a good thing in the hotel industry. In this sense, when a hotelier read a negative review about his hotel, he has two possible actions: Reply to this review or not. If, he responds to this negative comment, he can show the quality of his staff, and he can develop the quality of his hotel. In contrast, without a response to this review, he takes the risk, for me, to multiply the number of negative reviews online, to deteriorate the brand image of the hotel, to lose some potential clients...
So, I think that a hotelier must answer at all negative reviews and, he must adapt the actions of his staff in order to turn these negatives reviews into a positive thing for the hotel.
Websites specialised in hotel reviews can be very positive for hotels, but it is mostly seen and felt as the pet hate of the industry. Some people take pleasure into posting negative reviews, just for fun. But for us hoteliers it provoques a decrease in revenue, so not good for us. I agree with what Agnès said, that hoteliers should definitely respond to the negative reviews. But I believe they should also respond to positive reviews. As we say, it is good to point out what's negative, but let's not forget to point out what's positive also. Do training sessions or strategies exist to help hoteliers know how and what to answer to reviews? I doubt it.
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