More and more people are booking hotels online. We’re all becoming internet-savvy and using digital technologies to our advantage. In fact, 93% of people looking to book hotels check the reviews online, regardless of how they book their stay.
In our last post, we ended with the question about how cleanliness impacts overall hotel performance. To answer that question, we can take a look at the CompIndex KPI. The CompIndex shows you how your hotel’s scores compare to the average scores of your competitors. It is basically a ratio, which if being over 1.0, means you are outperforming your competitors. We decided to look into the CompIndex for the Performance score to understand if there is a positive or negative trend in the last couple of years for hotels using TrustYou, in comparison to their competition, meaning the hotels that have been selected as competitors in the platform. The results were quite positive.
In my last post, we shared data from TrustYou’s database that indicated 1 in 4 guest reviews over the past 18 months mention “cleanliness” - a huge lift compared to other keywords related to public healthy & safety! Where we left off, we wanted to understand if the underlying guest sentiments were positive or negative. The spoiler alert is already in the title of the blog, so let’s go ahead and jump right into how we made these discoveries.
There is little doubt that topics like safety, public health, hygiene, and cleanliness have been on everyone’s minds since the beginning of the pandemic. The hospitality industry is no exception to this trend, as we recently discussed in our latest webinar, The Power of TrustYou.
When it comes to the guest experience, we have long ceased to refer to a single time and place - it’s called a journey for a reason. The overall experience, which goes to impact the final feedback and therefore, the hotel’s online reputation, doesn’t start with the check-in process; hoteliers have a chance to make a positive impression even before the guests step foot in the hotel. In fact, the guest experience begins with consideration, ahead of the search and booking phase, which can happen months in advance of the actual stay.
There are many things that influence a hotel’s reputation and overall success. While being on top of every single one can easily become overwhelming, the good news is that all aspects of a hotel experience can easily be analyzed through guest feedback. The way travelers rate different categories, amenities, or services has a significant impact on a hotel’s overall score. Especially during these times of crisis, travelers rely heavily on the opinion of previous guests when making a booking decision and are more likely to judge the hotel stay through a different, more selective and cautious perspective.
Last week we discussed how to repair a damaged reputation. But what if you already have a good reputation? If your reputation is good you don’t want to get complacent. Regardless of what kind of reputation you currently have among past guests and interested travelers, more work can and should be done in order to ensure the future success of your business.
In the hospitality and travel industry, a property lives and dies by their reputation. In order to boost guest loyalty, get more referrals, and continue growing your business year after year, you have to spend time proactively managing your reputation. For some property managers, reputation management might involve working to fix a damaged reputation, and for others, it might simply mean doing what you can to improve the already-good reputation that you’ve worked hard to establish and maintain as a business over the years.
The reputation management system by the hospitality technology provider will aid hoteliers in tracking and managing the reviews they get online under a single roof.
CoMMingle LiveSM provides the highest level of reputation management by writing and posting guest review responses on all major OTA’s, social media platforms and for major hotel brands. The service also ensures franchised properties remain in compliance with brand guidelines while maximizing brand quality scores.