The TripAdvisor Situation ... Managing a Necessary Evil in the Tourism & Hospitality Industry!
OUR APPROACH TO THE "TRIPADVISOR SITUATION"
As everyone who has ever designed a website knows: the key to consistent online success is a website with regularly updated, fresh, new, interesting content.
A substantial portion, if not the majority of reviews on TripAdvisor are published there by people driven by ulterior motives. Why does TripAdvisor not seem to really care? All these reviewers, fake or real, are content writers for their website! And the fresh, interesting content thus generated does not cost them a single penny!
Because people want to read reviews. It's about jogging their mind. Some simply look at the star rating to make a quick decision. Others actually browse 1 star reviews first, if only to see how some users make a fool of themselves posting online. Not a few prospective customers can tell if a negative review was written by an antisocial person. They will read the negative reviews for entertainment, if nothing else.
Often, these 1 star reviewers are the same type who feel it is ok to fling their fingernail clippings throughout their hotel room, leave garbage under seat cushions, and exhibit other antisocial behavior patterns during their stay. Just a note on the side: Contrary to the implications conveyed on e.g. the TV show "Hotel Impossible", no, paying for a hotel room does not entitle the guest to act like a total slob with utter disregard to the cleaning personnel's task, or the plight of guests subsequently staying in the same place!
As a professional in the hospitality industry you know you cannot pick your customers. You have to take them as they come. The good education of some travellers was neglected a long time ago and you will have no chance of helping them catch up on it during a mere one or two night stay. You also have an obligation to your other guests who are conducting themselves properly, to not focus too much attention on the inevitable misfits walking through your door. It's all about people management! Often you have to just keep a straight face, and say "Yes", "Amen", and "You are welcome" ... even though this is totally dishonest on your part because judging by how you feel deep inside of you, you cannot possibly mean it! But without such play-acting your business simply would not function, your employees would not get paid, taxes would become overdue, and the bankers hungry for interest would come knocking on your door.
As everyone in business who deals with people on a daily basis knows all too well: some people just want to be betrayed! They simply cannot not handle the truth!
The same holds for TripAdvisor reviews, which have come to be so "impactful" as some travel industry professionals describe it, as to be able to make or break a property's fortune.
So, let's manage the TripAdvisor situation, just like we manage the people situation ...
Customers trust a business with some negative and a lot of positive reviews more, than they trust a business with only positive reviews.
Which means, if you only had positive reviews before, some negative reviews actually pose an opportunity to improve your business reputation, and convince new customers that you actually care about them. This is regardless of whether these reviews were posted maliciously by your competition, or by obstinate or even genuinely disappointed customers.
The ratio of positive to negative reviews written by real travellers (who are not professional review-writers) is at least equal, i.e. 1:1. You have to really please a customer to land a positive online review, but revengeful or mean-spirited customers will be quick to post negative reviews. For quite a few properties, there are probably more negative than positive reviews on TripAdvisor written by customers who sign up for an account on TripAdvisor just for the purpose of leaving that review.
A business on TripAdvisor with only 5 star reviews, and maybe a few 4 star reviews will be regarded as rather not trustworthy, compared to a business with lots of 5 star reviews, even more 4 star reviews, and a few below, including a few bad apples with 1 star (point). People know that everyone makes mistakes, occasionally suffers from unreliable employees, or has customers who will see only what they want to see no matter how hard you try to please them. People also know that reviews are being manipulated as a matter of course, so they become suspicious when you have only 4 or 5 star (point) reviews to show for, and no negative ones at all.
And their suspicion is justified, because there are a lot of dishonest people out there successfully gaming the system.
Believe it or not, even the owners of TripAdvsior have admitted that it is best to simply ignore both 5 star, and 1 star reviews!
The key issue is managing the disparity between authentic reviews available, and the porportion of star (point) ratings of 1 to 5 that people want to see so they feel they can trust you. The only solution is to increase the count of positive reviews for your own business. Don't post negative reviews with your competition - you might be doing them a favor, due to reasons stated above!
TripAdvisor's internal ranking system rewards properties with a regular, and steady flow of new reviews. Their algorithms stipulate that reviews posted must be spread over time, at random! So you will inevitably suffer damage to your business reputation and have your property publicly flagged if a multitude of reviews are posted within a short period of time! Also, many good but older reviews do not help as much, as time goes on. To improve your TripAdvisor ranking you need to have a PLAN - no quick solutions here.
TripAdvisor specifies that all reviews must be authentic, posted by real travelers, who really stayed with you. However, they have steadfastly refused to implement any kind of verification system to validate this, thus making honest property owners fair game for all manner of con-artists. The reason is very simple: if they would require validation, the number and volume of reviews would fall sharply. Less new website content on TripAdvisor in the form of reviews means less traffic to their site, and lower google rankings. Validation of reviews would reflect in potentially hundreds of millions of $ in lost advertising revenue for the owners of TripAdvisor!
Leaving the reviews and property listings aside, there are also the traveller forums on TripAdvisor worthy of note. These forums actually pose a fantastic opportunity to promote your property using authentic comments posted by real travelers, and destination experts. While these forum comments will not immediately affect your star (point) rating, they can channel prospective customers to your online presence, ready to be converted to actual bookings. And this online presence can be your TripAdvisor page AND/OR your own website! So the forum comments about your property on TripAdvisor can also be fantastic SEO for your own website! In any case, interested users can be channeled directly to your website, even potentially bypassing a google search.
Be aware that most users visit TripAdvisor for travel advice. The forums actually receive a sizeable portion of all user attention. At the same time they offer a possibility for you to let traffic bypass your Tripadvisor listing and hit your site directly - where you have every opportunity to impress your prospective customers on your own terms, and on your own turf! This is especially helpful in case someone else has started a TripAdvisor listing for your property without your consent! And yes, on a positive note: forum posts are allowed to have your site URL listed, and linked directly!
Negative, 1 star or 2 star reviews, be they fake or real, offer an unrivalled opportunity to increase the reputation of your business: What matters is how you respond to these reviews. Users of TripAdvisor will know: the actual review might be fake, but your answer definitely will be real!
As anyone in customer service or sales will tell you, "turning around" a dissatisfied customer is a better way of fostering overall customer satisfaction, client retention, and repeat business, than if everything is great, or even if everything is "no complaints". So addressing negative reviews is a fantastic opportunity to increase the reputation of your business ... not with the reviewer (who might be fake) but with the other readers studying your reviews - who definitely will be real! It is not only about the star (points) rating, it is how you react to this. People want to see how you manage. People want to see that you honestly care!
>>> In reputation management consulting we use existing negative reviews - real or fake - to bolster your business reputation and actually enable conversion of readers of negative reviews into booking customers:
We help you in wordsmithing your responses carefully, and properly. Addressing negative reviews is an emotional challenge for many business owners: they either let anger take over, or ignore the problem. We as a third party can take a step back, analyse the facts, and write a reply for you to approve (select from multiple possible answers we offer). After approval you then post this reply yourself, using your own property manager account with TripAdvisor. We are the ghostwriters for your competent replies to negative reviews. In the event that you do not even have access to the property manager account on TripAdvisor, because someone else started the TripAdvisor listing in the first place, please see comments below under "CLAIM ONLINE REAL ESTATE WHICH IS RIGHTFULLY YOURS".
>>> We help you adjust the ratio of negative reviews to positive ones in your favor by posting more authentic reviews emphasizing positive aspects for your property. This process can only be managed over time!
Our global community of travel-writers and seasoned business travelers when mystery-shopping your property can highlight the positive aspects you have to offer to customers in their reviews. This provides a fantastic opportunity for readers of reviews, i.e. prospective customers, to learn more about what makes staying, enjoying free time, or dining at your property unique and desirable!
>>> TripAdvisor forums enable the use of the TripAdvisor website for the benefit of your own. Links originating from the forums directly to your website bypass the actual listing on TripAdvisor, and also avoid users having to google your property - the URL to your site can be spelled out directly inside the forum post. Forum comments by authentic travelers and destination experts provide objective information to users of TripAdvisor about what makes your business so special, triggering immediate organic and extremely targeted traffic to your own website.
>>> Keep unfair competition at bay! Initiate and manage a steady flow of positive, authentic reviews, posted by real travelers who are also good writers!
We manage the random posting of reviews, spread over time, to foster a steady, carefree, and automatic process of rejuvenation and maintenance of your online business reputation.
This process is enhanced by inviting reviews from foreign tourists, posting in their native language. For this purpose we focus on German, Austrian, and Swiss travelers who are known the world over for honesty, impartiality, high standards and high expectations! Reviews in other languages of your targeted customers, e.g. Russian, Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, are of course also possible. Likewise we manage posting of authentic reviews including misspellings and colloquialisms.
Write us an e-mail. You may click the button ... your e-mail client will open, with our address already copied into the addressee field.
You can include the name of your property, or a link to your TripAdvisor listing, now, or in a subsequent e-mail. We would love to see your own website as well.
If you would like us to act swiftly, we are ready for that. If you would like to approach us step by step, we understand that as well. Some phony review writers have been known to use customer details for blackmail and racketeering. While we can assure you this is not the case with us, we want to give you every opportunity to actually also ensure this is not the case with us.
We look forward to helping your business succeed, in a legally compliant, honest, and most importantly effective manner, with a mind to:
OFFER #1: NEGATIVE REVIEW MANAGEMENT RESPONSE - DRAFT
Draft response to 1 negative review on your TripAdvisor property listing
One trial draft response to one individual review per new client (1 response variant)
Draft response (3 response variants) to one individual review
OFFER #2: TRAFFIC TO YOUR ONLINE REAL ESTATE
SEO for your website & links to your TripAdvisor listing, manifested by authentic TripAdvisor FORUM entries
ADDITIONAL OFFERS ... Please download our SERVICES BULLETIN
For payment you have the option to open a NETELLER account.
This is a very simple process, and you should find NETELLER to be useful above and beyond the scope of this purchase!
By studying the NETELLER website you will understand:
Recommend NETELLER to your travelling customers, as it is the perfect way to manage travel cash, and maintain credit card security while on the move!
When all else fails ...
Tripadvisor may, at their discretion, remove your current property listing and all reviews if:
So it is possible to get a second chance on TripAdvisor, and start over on a clean slate for your property.
Using these situations to your advantage, we can help you gain the correct "trustworthy" ratio of balanced reviews for your property from the very get-go of a "new beginning".
Not infrequently, TripAdvisor listings are not started by the actual property owner. A common scenario goes like this: a traveller wants to leave a review about you on TripAdvisor, and cannot find your business. So they simply start a new listing with your name! TripAdvisor does not care because this is again new content for their site. In their mind, you should have started the listing yourself and if you failed to do so - tough luck!
Obviously this situation brings a lot of problems: that reviewer who started a TripAdvisor listing with your property name is now the "property manager" - who can therefore also leave a "management response" ... impersonating you, in the eyes of any potential customers. And you have no control over the data posted about your property, you have no chance of keeping it up to date, and cannot be selective about information provided there. Basically, someone else is squatting on your online real estate! Legally, you should have full control over that listing! And there should be no duplicate listings about your property!
hese situations pose special challenges, and we are happy to look at each individual case and provide you with actionable options. One of these options is to simply start another listing, and validate this new one by linking it from your own website, while also referring to the unauthorized listing as being exactly that! Other possibilities for mitigating these issues abound.
Make sure to get the SERVICES BULLETIN downloadable as a PDF file.