Reviews are back with Hotelicopter! Any good?

Hotelicopter (ex VibeAgent) has released back guest reviews on their website with a mash up with Facebook. If you have submitted reviews to VibeAgent before, these are finally available to your peers who connect with you via Facebook.

Hotelicopter management team believes that consumers would rather read reviews from their friends, colleagues, family than browsing hundreds of reviews from strangers.

So how it works?

Step 1: You go to Hotelicopter website
Step 2: You sign in with your Facebook credentials.
Step 3: You can read reviews from your Facebook contacts and also see yours on a separate tab

Easy. But not that useful to me.

What about if my friends don't have any hotels reviewed in a destination I am planning to go?

Where is the search box if I want to find reviews at the Marriott hotel in Paris?

What about if I don't use Facebook? (believe me, some of my friends don't have an account yet)

What about if my network on Facebook is so limited (because I want to restrict it) that I don't really get enough reviews content from my friends? (the example below if revealing)

To get more content, does that mean Hotelicopter would also have to develop a mash up with other social networking sites like LinkedIN, Bebo, FriendReunited...?

Comments

[Adam Healey]

Guillaume,

Thanks for your post on hotelicopter!

I wanted to directly address some of the concerns you have with our new platform.

Q: What about if my friends don't have any hotels reviewed in a destination I am planning to go, or what if my network on Facebook is so limited (because I want to restrict it) that I don't really get enough reviews content from my friends?

A: We have a tiered approach to displaying ratings and reviews. We believe that reviews from your Facebook friends are the most valuable to users. But hotel reviews are still valuable, even if they are not written by your friends. So we have partnered to provide full TripAdvisor reviews on hotelicopter, so users can read TripAdvisor reviews on most of our hotels without ever leaving our site. We also have aggregate ratings from all our partners, so you can get a quick snapshot of popular opinion about a hotel without ever leaving the search results, even if none of your Facebook friends have reviewed that hotel. Of course, if one of your Facebook friends has rated a hotel in the destination you're searching, that content comes bubbling up to the surface.

Q: Where is the search box if I want to find reviews at the Marriott hotel in Paris?

A: To read hotel reviews from a specific hotel, simply click on "Reviews" for the specific hotel you're looking at in search results. There you'll find relevant Facebook and TripAdvisor reviews for that hotel. We do not offer one search box for all review content like TripAdvisor, because we have a different market positioning and a different approach to the booking process than other sites.

Q: What about if I don't use Facebook? (believe me, some of my friends don't have an account yet)

A: Anyone can use hotelicopter to find the best rates on over 150,000 hotels (many more than all the leading online travel agencies). However, you must have a Facebook account if you want to use the personalized features of our site, including being able to rate hotels. Think about it - when the number 1 challenge that companies like TripAdvisor face is the trustworthiness of their reviews, we're able to avoid that problem because we leverage Facebook's privacy policies and authentication system.

Facebook currently has 250 million users, and is growing at an accelerated rate. We made the decision to base our user system on the Facebook platform, and support users of Facebook. While Facebook has a lower penetration the the UK and France than in the US, the number is growing rapidly.

Q: To get more content, does that mean Hotelicopter would also have to develop a mash up with other social networking sites like LinkedIN, Bebo, FriendReunited...?

A: Stay tuned for more news on how hotelicopter is focused on improving the user experience to become the market leader in hotel search!

Thanks again Guillaume, you always have great content on your blog and I look forward to seeing you soon at an upcoming conference.

Cheers,

Adam
CEO, hotelicopter

[Rajul]

I guess I'm one of those UK-based users mentioned who doesn't see the point of Facebook. The extent that Hotelicopter ties itself closely to Facebook for me at least dilutes its appeal.

If on the other hand they broaden their network as implied, I'd consider using them, though for the moment I find HotelsCombined more appealing.

I also think it's a cheap shot to have a dig at TripAdvisor's trustworthiness.

I'd rather skim 20 TripAdvisor reviews from strangers - with all the usual caveats - than a small handful from social networking "friends" (many of whom I haven't met either).

I think we're all grown-up enough now to read TA reviews with a proper dose of salt and know that usefulness lies in the sample size.

[Darren Cronian]

Hat off to Adam for coming on a blog and replying to a post about his company. Reviews seems to be a very touchy subject within the travel trade.

[Daniele Beccari]

I totally support the vision of integrating Facebook reviews. I agree with some of the concerns but for Facebook users (who are in fact a growing nation) it's very valuable and it can only grow.

It's early days. On isango.com we've decided to license TripAdvisor reviews simply because of the sheer number and ability to find reviews for virtually any hotel. But we believe word of mouth recommendations are still much more relevant in real life and sooner or later they will translate into social network reviews.

[Guillaume Thevenot]

@ Adam: Thanks very much for your detailed feedback.

1.I think taking TripAdvisor reviews is another way to get mass content in one go. But I don't see how users will use Hotelicopter system to submit reviews if they see TripAdvisor sitting on the background of the search results. Also very few of my Facebook friends do submit reviews. So I still rely very much on TA regarless if they are strangers out there and if some reviews might be fake.
2. Got it for the search box. So for now Hotelicopter is more about search for rates rather than reviews. Understood.
3.Don't get me wrong, Facebook sees a big growth in the UK and France. I just don't see why users will connect their account on Hotelicopter. That's all. (unless you start to develop a great game that people want to play at ==> like Playfish for instance)

@Rajul: I agree with you. It's easy to skim through reviews on TA and you can detect the professional or fake ones after a while.

@Darren: Yes. Adam do value bloggers like us and it's very much appreciated.

@Daniele: You miss the point. Facebook users won't submit reviews via Facebook. This is not a commercial platform where you can easily sell something. I also believe in word of mouth. But seriously, when was the last time you choose a hotel upon a friend recommendation you have verbally talked to. Personally, I can't even remember...

[Jean-Francois Noel]

Reviews in the travel industry seem to be really important, but I don't think anybody has nailed how to do them effectively. Currently there is 2 models, the review by strangers and the one by friends.

The review by stranger is great because they are available for every destinations and activities you can imagine. The problem is that different actors have an interest in doing the reviews. The consumer that want to share his experience is interested, although I think the desire to review is greater after a negative experience. the owner/operator/competitor of the reviewed subject have a disproportionate interest in controlling the reviews. That is why you have to be careful in reading content on Trip Advisor.

The reviews done by your friends are normally truthful and this is great, but they can't offer that many destinations, unless you have a very large network. I think a vary large network translate also to many people have a hidden stake in the reviews. The other problem with friends reviews, is that even though those people are your friends they really don't all travel the way I do, and I also have to take what they say/write with discernment. The last problem of the friends review, is the story perspective, we don't all go to the same place and do the same thing, it would get boring to us. I guess the last point could be different for others.

[Happy Hotelier]

Hi Guillaume,
I had exactly the same comments in my sleeve for my blog but was tied up in other matters.

I won't post it anymore, also because I don't want to become an eternally Ranting Hotelier.

But am not entirely satisfied with Adam's answer. He is throwing away his originally nice connect gadget without giving something back. Try to see who comments on Tripadvisor to appreciate his or her liking and disliking

Moreover despite his glorifying story about the introduction I have a feeling that by the sheer numbers of their FB fanship they have not earned many new followers .....

[Gavin Day]

I agree with some of the other comments here in that I don't have a Facebook account so would find Hotelicopter not particularly useful although I do very much like the idea of having all the reviews accessible in one place. And there's no better review than those written by paying guests.

I have recently had a bad experience with a hotelier but decided to create my own website in an attempt to pull together reviews for that particular hotel.

Gavin