What is online reputation management and how can it help your hotel

Online reputation management it can protect and grow your hotel brand.

In the world of instant review your hotel can make or break the brand identity online fairly quickly. In this tutorial we will explore what is Online reputation management and how can you implement it effectively in your hotel.

We said in this video we will learn about online reputation management.

So the first question is what is that? What is Online reputation management?

If you search in google or Wikipedia, you will learn that it is the process of monitoring and improving an organization’s reputation on the internet.

So in a nutshell that is what we want. To improve our hotels’ reputation.

So to do that we will have to use various tactics, such as listening to what the guests are saying online about our hotel and brand, and then responding to those customer reviews. We also need to manage the spread of information on social media and address negative content that appears on websites and social media channels.

Now for hotels and restaurants, there are many places where guests can leave their reviews. Some of the most popular ones are TripAdvisor, Google and sites like Zomato. Then there are other online travel agents like booking dot com or Expedia, where a guest who books on those channels can post their experience.

You can track your reputation manually by regularly searching for your brand name on search engines and social media platforms and responding to any mentions or reviews you find. If you tried to track reviews on all these channels manually, you will spend the whole day looking up these sites.

Fortunately, there are many tools available that can help hotels monitor their online reputation.

Some of these tools include:

• Social media monitoring tools, that allow hotels to track mentions of their brand on social media platforms and respond to customer comments and questions.
• Reputation management software like Revinate, or Trust U

Monitoring tools track customer reviews of the hotel on sites like TripAdvisor, booking dot com, and Google. These tools can help hotels keep track of their overall ratings and quickly respond to any negative reviews.

The other tools provides an overview of the hotel’s online reputation and allows them to track and respond to mentions of their brand on various websites and social media platforms.

These days with the growth in Artificial intelligence, Sentiment analysis tools have come up. These tools use natural language processing to analyze customer reviews and comments and provide a summary of the overall sentiment about the hotel. These tools can help hotels understand how customers feel about their brand and identify areas for improvement.

So first things first, you need to get reviews from your guests. Many guests will leave a review about their experience organically. That is you do not need to do anything to get it.

But You can also do a few things to encourage them to leave a review. Here are 5 ways to get some good reviews.

• Offer excellent customer service. Providing high-quality service is the best way to earn positive reviews. Make sure your staff are friendly and helpful and go above and beyond to make sure your guests have a great stay.
• Ask for feedback. Encourage your guests to provide feedback about their stay, either through in-person interactions with your staff or through online surveys. This can allow you to address any issues they may have experienced and can also remind them to leave a review.
• Respond to reviews. Respond to both positive and negative reviews politely and professionally. This shows that you value your guests’ feedback and are willing to listen to their concerns.
• Offer incentives. Consider offering incentives, such as discounts on future stays or special perks, to guests who leave positive reviews. This can help encourage more people to leave reviews and can also reward those who take the time to provide feedback.

Now while you do all this, you may find that the number of reviews about your hotel has increased. While I am certain, if you took great care of your guests, they will leave positive reviews. But sometimes, things do not go as per plan. You may find negative reviews about your hotel on these sites. So in those cases what can you do?

If you find a negative review about your hotel, the best thing to do is to respond to it politely and professionally. Here are some steps you can follow:

• Take a moment to calm down and collect your thoughts. Never respond in anger or frustration as it will only make the situation worse. Unless the situation is evolving live on Twitter, do not respond unless you have all your facts and understand the issue completely.
• Read the review carefully and try to understand the customer’s perspective. Consider whether there might be some truth to the review, and think about what you could do to improve the situation.
• Write a response that acknowledges the customer’s concerns and apologizes for any problems they experienced. Be sincere and offer to make things right, whether that means offering a refund, a discount on their next stay, or some other form of compensation.
• Thank the customer for their feedback and invite them to contact you directly if they have any further concerns. This shows that you are willing to listen and take their feedback seriously.
• If appropriate, consider posting your response publicly so that other customers can see that you are taking the review seriously and trying to address the issue.

Remember, the goal of responding to a negative review is to show the customer that you are willing to listen and make things right, and to demonstrate to other customers that you are committed to providing excellent service.

So that is it.

Online reputation management is a full-time job and if done well can help you build your hotel brand. By using the right tools, you can easily key an eye on the reviews that show up on the internet and take action.