Reputation management has been lately gaining ground in the digital world, and the same is particularly earning a lot of prominence in the hotel industry. So today, let us take a closer look at the rising significance of hotel reputation management and the different facets of it.
30-second summary:
- Sites like Yelp, Booking.com, and TripAdvisor have made sure that consumer-generated content has all the influence.
- Investing in online reputation management creates the possibility to harness the new and growing revenue stream.
- Online reviews are crucial resources for hotel managers to identify the results of their work from the point of view of the customers.
Hotel reputation management is all about monitoring and influencing how a hotel is perceived online. Though the concept emerged within public relations, it has shifted its focus towards the newly emergent review sites, search engines, and social media platforms. As such, at present, it involves keeping track of the review sites, posting and engaging on social media, optimizing the website for search, and the likes. In simple words, the online reputation of a hotel is crucial to its overall business, and staying on top of it is what hotel reputation management is all about. It makes a major difference in how the property performs against the ever-increasing competition in the field and registers sustained growth through each financial year.
In a world where 93 percent of the people read online reviews to determine which hotel they want to stay at and 53 percent of the people surveyed wouldn’t book a hotel that didn’t have online reviews, the importance of hotel reputation management cannot be stressed enough.
Keeping that in mind, we, at Avlon Shiksha Niketan, a well-known Tourism Management Institute in Kolkata, will take a closer look today at the different facets of the rising significance of hotel reputation management in current times.
Consumer-generated content can make or break hotel reputations
Before the internet boom, travelers referred to guide books like their very own Rough Guide or Lonely Planet. Get a good review in one of these popular publications, and your hotel’s reputation stays safe for years. But not anymore!
In fact, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that reputations can now change with a single click. One glorious review can make a potential customer consider staying at the hotel, and one full of scathing remarks can turn away customers by the bunch. In fact, studies reveal that when it comes to deciding between two similar properties, 79 percent of consumers are more likely to reserve a room at a hotel with a higher rating.
Sites like Yelp, Booking.com, and TripAdvisor have made it easier than ever for the travelers to share their experiences in real-time, and it impacts the decision-making of travelers more than nearly any other information that is available. Travelers rely more on the words of another traveler, and thus, consumer-generated content has all the influence.
The connection between hotel reputation management and revenue management
In this highly competitive environment of the hospitality industry, online reputation directly impacts sales volume. Efficient hotel reputation management aids you in securing a major competitive advantage. On the contrary, poor online reputation can potentially lead to huge losses. In fact, a one-star decrease in ratings can lead to almost 5-9 percent decrease in revenue.
Not paying heed to negative reviews and comments that come up on page one of Google tends to cost more in lost revenue than investing sufficient resources into efficient hotel reputation management. In most cases, business owners end up spending years creating a positive image of the brand and are surprised by how fast the hard-won reputation takes a hit, and the only way to prevent such an occurrence is by being proactive.
Corin Burr, director of Bamboo Revenue, London, sums up the link between revenue performance and guest reviews: “Of course, there are many contributing factors, but to watch your Revenue Generation Index increase as your Guest Satisfaction Index increases puts more science into the instinct.”
Investing in online reputation management creates the possibility to harness the new and growing revenue stream. After all, the way customers perceive and interact with your business gets directly impacted by your online reputation.
Hotel reputation: An indicator of the performance of the hotel
Hotel reputation management and the data derived from there also acts as a performance indicator for the business. Hotels can take advantage of online reputation as an operational tool, setting it as a key performance indicator as it lets hotels monitor and measure guest satisfaction and its enhancement.
This enables the hotels to establish a ranking or objective to be achieved within a stipulated period of time, recognize strategies and how the goal will be achieved, implement actions and analyze whether the changes are working and making a difference on the online reputation. Furthermore, online reviews act as crucial resources for the hotel managers to identify the results of their work from the viewpoint of the customers since there are often differences between the actual and perceived issues in the operations.
In other words, there are times when the hoteliers are left wondering where they are going wrong if they are doing everything by the book. The varied markers of hotel reputation clearly outline the issues to offer businesses an opportunity to be better than yesterday. If 76 percent of consumers are willing to pay more for a hotel with higher review scores, it makes sense for the hotels to go the extra mile for them, as well.
So, all in all, we can safely say that hotel reputation management has gone from being a possible addition to the revenue strategy of hotels to a crucial element for maintaining competitiveness in the industry. And as a future professional of the hospitality industry, you have a crucial role to play in ensuring that the reputation of the company you join is upheld and glorified consistently. Thus, if you have the ambition to join the hotel industry and wish to get acquainted with the industry-specific know-how that can help you rise as a successful professional in the domain, we, at Avlon Shiksha Niketan, one of the leading tourism management institutes in Kolkata, are right here to guide and mentor you on that path.
As your guiding light in becoming a proficient hotel management professional, we, at Avlon, leave no stones unturned to provide you with the necessary knowledge and hands-on training to help you excel in this regard. Get your skills honed at Avlon Shiksha Niketan to rise and shine as a highly valuable resource for your future employers.