How To Encourage Guests To Leave Reviews For Your Hotel?

Summary

Every business nowadays requires digital marketing. It is especially critical in the hospitality industry. Digital Marketing has changed with technology, interests, and preferences, with new platforms and techniques constantly emerging.

Discover an outline of common Digital Marketing Techniques that might help your hotel perform more efficiently in 2024.

 

Why Are Reviews Important For Hotels?

Running a hotel is one thing, but consistently delivering good service is another ballgame. You can showcase the hard work and effort you and your employees provide to ensure a positive guest experience.. That’s where online reviews come into play.

Why are reviews important for hotels?

Good and bad reviews are equally important. Positive reviews build trust with potential customers, while negative reviews highlight how you can improve your services.

Managing your online reputation is one of the most crucial factors in running a successful hotel business.

1. Identify Areas For Improvement

Reviews help you improve the customer experience and influence guests to book reservations. In addition, review can help you evaluate your hotel services objectively.

Identify areas of improvements

For example, when a review mentions that specific amenities of the hotel need to be fixed or how the service can be improved, take note of it and make a plan of action so that it doesn’t happen again.

2. Enhance The Guest Experience

When guests are departing, inquire about their experience. You have the chance to stay in contact with guests after they post a review, which can build customer loyalty.

Enhance guest experiences

It demonstrates your commitment to providing the best possible experience for guests. By offering a welcoming atmosphere during and after their stay, you establish a positive connection that will resonate with guests..

3. Build a Positive Reputation

Guests use review websites and OTA platforms to learn about your hotel and find the most fantastic deals. Before confirming their reservations, they consider what other people say about your hotel.

Build Positive Reputation

Potential guests' perceptions are heavily influenced by the opinions of recent guests, which is why a one-star or five-star rating frequently determines the amount of business you acquire.

Offering consistent, genuine service generates positive reviews, taking your hotel's reputation to new heights.

4. Attract New Guests

Positive online reviews, in particular, can give businesses many opportunities to influence prospective guests and gain exposure.

Attract New Guests

Online reviews are crucial for both preserving your hotel's reputation and expanding your customer base. Positive reviews contribute to the brand's increased visibility. They also aid in bringing in new guests.

Although additional traffic only sometimes results in more hotel room reservations, it increases the chances of doing so.

5. Improve Search Engine Ranking

Customer reviews serve as user-generated content for your websites. You can highlight this content and create optimized content to improve your website's organic page rankings.

In addition, reviews add more text to each page. This provides Google with more information, helping your business rank higher.

Improve search engine ranking

If your optimized content appears in a user’s search query, this text can increase the value of your page.

To give their users the greatest experience possible, Google ultimately aims to display the most reliable search results.

How Can You Encourage Guests To Leave Reviews For Your Hotel?

Reviews are often the first thing users look for when finding a new hotel. Positive reviews give potential customers reassurance and boost website traffic and reservations.

Customers use reviews to validate the credibility of businesses and highly consider other people’s opinions when booking a room.

How to encourage guests to leave reviews

There are several ways to obtain more reviews online, and you can employ the following methods to do so.

1. Use A Questionnaire

Even if it’s brief, sending a questionnaire can demonstrate that you genuinely care about a guest’s stay. It is essential to ask if they were comfortable and satisfied with the room's cleanliness and general service.

Use a questionnaire to ask guests to leave review

If you get a negative review, you can respond immediately and work to resolve the issue. You can even avoid negative online reviews altogether by using a simple questionnaire.

Guests will have the opportunity to share their good and bad comments directly with you instead of posting them online. Soliciting reviews keeps a business in check.

2. Provide Incentives

You can offer discounts, offers, vouchers, and add-ons to encourage guests to leave a review with their honest feedback. This helps to increase guest loyalty. In addition, you gain customer insights and obtain more reviews.

Provide incentives for guest reviews

This shows the guests that you find their feedback valuable enough to exchange monetary benefits.

3. Make It Easy

The guest shouldn’t have to ‘figure out’ how to leave a review. Instead, it should be a smooth process where you direct them to give their feedback without putting in too much effort.

Make it easy to leave reviews

Remember, guests don't owe you anything, let alone feedback. So, make it easy for them to help you improve your hotel business.

4. Respond To Reviews

You can remedy the damage done by a bad experience by responding to negative reviews. Most people claim that if they hear back regarding a bad review, it will affect how they feel about their whole experience.

Respond to reviews

In other words, guests expect hotels to respond in a considerate and sympathetic manner. A response that is copied and pasted won't do. How you word your answers is crucial, and if you can't convince people who have left you bad reviews to change their minds, you can't possibly persuade them to recommend you to others.

Ensure you respond regularly and don't just apologize, consider their feedback and make the necessary changes.

5. Follow Up

Following up with your guests is the most unambiguous indication that you value them. Marketing in the form of client follow-up can help expand your business. First, you must cut through the clutter in the inboxes of your potential guests.

Follow up with guests to get reviews

Instead of cold emails and calls, build a personal connection. Guests are more likely to return if you follow up with them regularly with important information or offers.

6. Use Email Marketing

Make your guests feel important and show them you value their business with thank-you emails after their stay.

The hardest thing for any business in this fiercely competitive industry is attracting guests and developing a solid, long-standing relationship.

Use email marketing

After they've stayed at your hotel, send them an email to keep the relationship going.

Guests will be more inclined to be a loyal customer if they feel valued.

7. Show Appreciation

Every guest at your hotel should feel appreciated and important. Finding new and inventive ways to constantly make your hotel guests feel special can promote recurring business and enhance your brand.

Show appreciation

Your guests will appreciate receiving a handwritten note, extra goodies, or a postcard thanking them for staying at your hotel. 

Small acts go a long way toward demonstrating how much you appreciate their business.

Conclusion

Encourage guests to leave reviews and always genuinely consider their feedback. Make necessary changes to improve your services and let positive reviews shine on the forefront of your website. Improve your online reputation with the help of INNsight and reap all of the amazing benefits.

Author
Roshan Patel
CTO & Co-Founder

Meet Roshan Patel, the dynamic force propelling INNsight to new heights. As a co-founder, his pragmatic and cost-focused leadership shapes the company's technical strategy and product architecture, ensuring a seamless hotel digital experience. With a hotel management and technology background, Roshan is a driving force in providing INNkeepers the tools they need to economically showcase their properties to cost-conscious travelers. Roshan's impact goes beyond tech, raising INNsight as a game-changer in hotel digital marketing.

Follow him on LinkedIn  - Roshan Patel - INNsight
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