Web reputation: everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask!

The abundance of travellers’ sites, social network sites and blogs of any nature (especially those that favor bad company stories over happy customer tales such as http://consumerist.com) has put much pressure on hoteliers about the need of monitoring their reputation on the web.

There are very easy and rudimentary ways of monitoring what is said about your hotel. Using technorati watchlist and google blog search will allow you to monitor all the blogs in the world and google alerts will send you an email everytime your name is used in a web site. 

However, much more needs to be said and explored on that topic. I have asked Brendan May, Director of Client Services at h2c consulting and Research Analyst PhoCusWright Europe Inc., to share with us his opinion about web reputation.

Hi Brendan, thanks for taking the time to answer these questions.

Leo Stassi (L): Can you help us define “Web reputation”? and can hoteliers ignore it for the moment?

Brendan May (B): Web Reputation: “Reputation is the opinion (more technically, a social evaluation) of the public toward a person, a group of people, or an organization. It is an important factor in many fields, such as business, online communities or social status.”  (Wikipedia) – Fundamentally, that definition holds for “Web Reputation” in that the web is only a medium that allows people to communicate their social evaluation faster, and broader than previously.  In other words, there is nothing new here, other than the range.  Word of mouth was always important to hoteliers; it will always be important to hoteliers. 

Rather than putting the web reputation in a negative light, I like to think of it as an opportunity for hoteliers.  In the past, hoteliers have spent lots of money trying to figure out what their guests think.  Now, all they have to do is go to TripAdvisor.  That being said, I think hotels should review, and more importantly respond to what is being said about them.  This not only allows them to improve, but also gives reassurance to a potential guest that the hotel cares.

L: What do you think are the tools to monitor it on the web? And how can they be implemented in the hotel?

B: TravelCLICK has launched an interesting product that will allow someone to monitor much of what is being said, from one central login.  This could certainly help, but the most important tool is a web browser.  Go out there and find it yourself. Just as you would walk around the hotel as a manager, walk around the internet. That being said, there is a limit to what one person can manage without support or training. H2c consulting has developed an Internet Distribution audit, that provides a benchmark (to their competitive set) for hotels to allow them to understand what operational and strategic requirements should be met. The difference is that our analysts provide the insight that is missing from a “tool”, that allows the hotels how to really gain competitive advantage. In addition, we provide training to help the hotel better understand, and learn how to solve these challenges themselves. 

L: Who should be in the hotel in charge of monitoring it?

B: In the hotel I think this should go to Sales and Marketing, but the GM has to back it up.  I believe though that the chain should have the ultimate responsibility as in all marketing and PR communications.

L: Do you believe UGC can help industry to de-commoditize the hotel product?

B: I think User generated content can help the industry inspire travel.  If a hotel is not outstanding, essentially a commodity, then the reviews of the property will not change that, whether they are professionally or user generated.

L: Do you think they will (positive ones) drive more direct booking?

B: Without a question, positive reviews on big portals like TripAdvisor drive more bookings to that property. That is an undisputed fact.  The interesting piece is, do positive reviews create demand?  I believe the answer to that is also yes, but less so.

L: What do you think of hotel video guides ?

B: It remains to be seen if they will drive enough bookings, have enough traffic to be profitable.  Video as a supplement will be successful, but not as a stand alone.  It will of course strongly depend on high speed internet penetration.

L: Do you think that user generated content can become as much popular as the “classic” reviews?

B: A balance will be found between user generated and professional reviews.  Those reviews that reflect the needs of potential guests best will succeed.  I think a mix / a balance will be found eventually.

Leonardo Stassi (Guest Blogger and Student at IMHI-ESSEC MBA)

Comments

[Philip Caines]

Hello,

Your blog has recently been featured on http://travolution.blogspot.com/ as one of the more influential travel blogs on the internet, and I would agree. You should include some of your posts in Stephen Joyce and Jens Thraenhart's Tips from the T-List book.

Go to http://tourismtechnology.rezgo.com/2007/09/celebrating-t-list-in-print.html to submit.

Hope to see your work included.

[Jean-Claude MORAND]

With a such positive attitude toward UGC, I still don't understand why so many hoteliers are not believing/supporting such approach.

Jean-Claude MORAND - Cyberstrat.net