The Travelwriters can help you manage both ...
"Testimonial" or "review"? ONLINE TESTIMONIALS & REVIEWS: While the "Travelwriters" have helped quite a few hotel and restaurant owners in dealing with "online reality", for obvious reasons their testimonials would not be published here. This not withstanding, let's focus on what exactly is a "testimonial":
A "testimonial" is a subjective account by an individual, quoting a real experience, one which the person "testifying" can "attest" to! A testimonial by definition is like saying: "I have been there, I have seen the place".
A "review", in contrast, should be a more objective opinion, one given by an expert in the field who - by nature of their job or position - can actually compare whatever they are reviewing with other examples, and with established standards. This is exemplified by a rating system, such as the five stars in hotel classifications - which, incidentally, seems to have been plagiarised in the Tripadvisory 5 "bubble" scheme (?).
This clarifies why the comments left by TripAdvisor users are by design named "reviews", and not "testimonials", does it not? The website owners play on their users' sense of self-worth by implying that their subjective comments can somehow be considered an "expert opinion" of sorts. People log in to tripadvisor, write a review, but there is certainly nothing objective about it ... and indeed there is also no expressed claim by that person to "have been there, and seen it". Verification of TripAdvisor users posting reviews, as of this writing, remains wishful thinking.
You should be interested in testimonials, on YOUR website. Imagine someone reads bad reviews about you on the Tripadvisor website , then visits your website, only to find good, authentic testimonials by real, happy clients there! Their first thought will be that the testimonials on your site must be fake ... but what if the remainder of your web presence manages to cast significant doubts on this notion - for example, by welcoming visitors in a short, friendly, heart-warming INTRODUCTORY VIDEO?
Better yet, use your own website to convince web visitors, on your own terms, and on your own territory, what they can expect when booking your hotel! Then use TripAdvisor to help drive web traffic to your own website (not the other way around)! The "Travelwriters" explain how this can be done. When someone types the name of your hotel into google, your website should come first - not some Expedia, Booking.com. Hotels.com, Yellow Pages, or TripAdvisor listing! Continue reading on this site, to make it happen.