Did you enjoy your stay with us? Part I
“Guests who read reviews prior to booking are happier with their stay, more likely to recommend the hotel after their stay and are more likely to return in the future.”
(http://www.marketmetrix.com/en/default.aspx?s=research&p=Writingonlinereviews)
Hi, I would like to share with you my latest experience with User Generated Content.
For the memorial day long weekend I decided to visit Vilnius in Lithuania, I had heard wonders about the city. I asked my friends from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for some advice of where to stay; unfortunately no one had been there. So I thought I was going to struggle to find a place to stay. Then I did what 60% of the online travelers do; I visited some social networking websites (TripAdvisor, Igougo, WikiTravel, Holiday WatchDog, Expedia, Global Hotel Review, TravelPost, TravBuddy among other) and read the reviews posted by guests about the hotels. Based on the reviews I came up with a list of 7 hotels that interested me because of their location, the descriptions or the enthusiasm of the review. I then visited each one of the hotels’ websites to learn more about the hotel, find rates, see pictures and of course to check for online bookings. I must confess I had to leave behind a couple of hotels because of the look of their website and lack of online booking.
The reviews pointed me to a hotel that fitted perfectly to my needs; it was all I expected it to be. Of course afterward I shared my experience online, because let us be honest who are people going to believe: the marketing department of a hotel that only writes positive things or a person that has stayed at the hotel and is not afraid to speak his or her mind about it?
Did you know that in the US more than 82 million people created content online during 2008 (http://mashable.com/2009/02/19/user-generated-content-growth/) So let me ask you, what are you doing to encourage guests to write reviews about your hotel? How do you monitor your reviews? and How do you react to them?
**Next week I will tell you about techniques that could help you increase your hotel reviews and benefit. from them
