Online reputation management for hotels is not a groundbreaking concept in the hospitality industry, but many establishments still struggle in this area.
In this blog, we provide valuable insights and tips to enhance your online reputation, ensuring that guests not only enjoy their stay but are also inspired to share their positive experiences with others.
Here’s our list of tips at a glance:
- Embrace Automation
- Hire Top Talent
- Explore Brand Partnerships
- Ensure Compliance With Rules and Regulations
- Prioritize Cleanliness in Your Hotel
- Establish Your Online Presence
- Send Well-Timed Feedback Surveys
- Respond Quickly
- Have a Crisis Reputation Management Plan
- Hire Hotel Online Reputation Management Specialists
Let’s go over each tip on online reputation management for hotels below:
1. Embrace Automation
Hotels can become quite hectic, especially during peak season. Automation allows you to serve your guests better. From handling online reservations to streamlining check-ins, check-outs and daily housekeeping tasks, automation allows you to do more with less stress.
Furthermore, automation can also help analyze customer data to personalize experiences, improve guest satisfaction and enhance overall business operations, ultimately allowing a hotel to stay consistent even during peak seasons.
2. Hire Top Talent
Having the right people on your team means you can stay confident in how they’ll represent your brand in front of guests. But be sure to still provide training and regular refreshers. This way, in difficult situations, your staff knows how to de-escalate.
Enlisting top-notch talents not only enhances your team’s ability to represent your brand but also positions you to meet customer expectations across various facets of hotel operations, including key areas such as guest services, housekeeping and overall customer experience.
Your staff is a big factor in the success of your hotel online reputation management efforts.
3. Explore Brand Partnerships
Collaborating with neighboring businesses within the community provides hotels with opportunities to leverage shared resources, insights and skills. Moreover, it allows you to tap into the customer base of each partner, fostering increased awareness.
Hotels can explore diverse avenues of partnership with local businesses to enhance their marketing initiatives. This may involve partnering with nearby restaurants or tour and activity providers. You can also hold events showcasing local artists, musicians or artisans, as well as tap local retailers to create enticing package deals for hotel guests.
4. Ensure Compliance With Rules and Regulations
As a hotel owner, it is imperative to maintain strict compliance with applicable rules and regulations. Ensure that all licenses and permits required for your hotel operations are not only obtained but also regularly renewed to remain current and valid.
Familiarize yourself with the licenses and permits essential for your business. These may include but are not limited to health permits, fire safety certifications, liquor licenses and zoning permits. Understanding the specific requirements of your locale and the hospitality industry avoids potential legal issues and maintains the smooth operation of your hotel.
5. Prioritize Cleanliness in Your Hotel
The most common complaints from hotel guests often revolve around unclean rooms or subpar housekeeping services. It is entirely justified for guests to anticipate nothing less than a meticulously clean and well-maintained hotel environment.
Implement rigorous housekeeping protocols, ensuring that rooms are thoroughly cleaned, sanitized and properly maintained, paying attention to details. By consistently delivering on this front, you not only address a key concern of guests but also establish your hotel as a reliable and inviting destination.
In the next tips, we focus on key areas of online reputation management for hotels.
Related blog on online reputation management hotel-specific: Why Online Reviews Matter So Much for Hotels
6. Establish Your Online Presence
Ensure your presence on review platforms is secured, and actively manage your listings. Your social media channels should serve as a seamless extension of your website. This involves not only sharing visually cohesive content but also maintaining a consistent and on-brand tone in your communications across the board.
Social media and review platforms are dynamic tools to connect with your audience, showcase your hotel’s unique offerings and promptly address customer inquiries or feedback. So, strengthen your online presence to boost visibility, resonate with your audience, drive bookings and create a positive perception of your hotel.
Moreover, an established presence is key to hotel review management and review generation.
7. Send Well-Timed Feedback Surveys
Rather than immediately soliciting positive hotel reviews, initiate a quick feedback survey first. This approach encourages guests to share their genuine feedback. It allows you and your staff to address any concerns before the guest expresses dissatisfaction through an online review.
By employing this strategy, you not only gather valuable insights into the guest experience but also proactively address issues, enhancing the likelihood of positive online reviews. This thoughtful approach demonstrates your commitment to guest satisfaction and allows you to continuously refine your services based on real-time feedback.
In online review monitoring and review generation, quick surveys can be as simple as a yes or no question.
8. Respond Quickly
Timeliness is key in answering calls, responding to emails, addressing website inquiries or engaging with social media comments. This principle also extends to handling reviews; responding promptly is essential. Promptly responding enhances the overall guest experience, even before their stay.
In the fast-paced world of hospitality, a swift response contributes to a positive perception of your hotel, fostering trust and loyalty among guests. So, regularly monitor communication channels and prioritize timely responses to build a reputation for excellent customer service.
Automated online review monitoring allows you to stay on top of every mention and track even those on less popular platforms.
9. Have a Crisis Reputation Management Plan
Given the nature of the hospitality industry, hotels are particularly susceptible to reputational risks. Essentially, you’re welcoming people into your home, and they will see your business almost from the inside out. The quality of their experience during their stay can either make or break your reputation.
Remember, in the age of online reviews and instant sharing on social media, the reputation of your hotel is constantly left vulnerable. A crisis online reputation management hotel plan serves as a preemptive measure that allows you to address issues promptly, protect your brand image and demonstrate resilience in the face of challenges.
10. Hire Hotel Online Reputation Management Specialists
With the right experts, your hotel can benefit from the following:
- Proactive reputation and review management strategy: With real-time online review monitoring, experts allow you to identify and respond to potential issues before they escalate.
- Crisis prevention and management: If a crisis does happen, experts help to avoid and minimize the impact of negative incidents on your brand.
- Hotel review management and sentiment analysis: Analyzing data like trends helps identify areas for improvement and provide actionable insights.
- Consistent online presence: Specialists handle your listings and other online content to ensure cohesiveness.
- Prompt hotel review management and response: Experts excel in crafting thoughtful and timely responses to reviews, whether positive or negative.
- Competitive advantage: Not all are engaged in online reputation management hotel solutions. So it can set you apart from competitors.
- Powerful hotel reputation management software: The use of cutting-edge technology enhances the precision and effectiveness of reputation management strategies.
Professional Hotel Online Reputation Management
Review generation to get more positive hotel reviews is important, but it’s a two-way street. Responding should be a priority in your overall review management strategy.
Rize Reviews can help you do both – generate reviews and respond to them. All while keeping professionalism. Our team also employs hotel reputation management software for better monitoring and management.
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