Chances are, before you go on vacation and book a room at a hotel, you most likely checked out hotel reviews before hand. Just like restaurant or movie reviews, it can be confusing because you don’t really know who to trust and what to believe. I once had an awful experience in a hotel that had all pretty positive reviews and, conversely, a great hotel experience in a place that had fairly negative reviews.
I stumbled upon a USA Today article discussing the new trend of hotels embracing these hotel reviews. I don’t mean just reviews on other websites like TripAdvisor or Yelp, but hotels are actually allowing people to post reviews on their own websites. These are major hotels too like, Hilton and Starwood (the world’s largest hotel chain). As a PR student, I think this brings up interesting points to mull over.
The Good
courtesy blogs.villagevoice.com
To be honest, I think many good things can come from this approach. First of all, I believe allowing for these posts will make the hotel look better. It shows that management is proud of their hotel and that they are confident that people will have pretty good experiences when they stay there. Transparency is key here, and I think this is great that hotel chains want to be open and honest with consumers about what it is like to stay at these hotels on vacation. Also, think about when you go to create a resume or LinkedIn profile. Talking about yourself and all of the great things you can do is awesome (if it’s not exaggerated), but doesn’t it make you seem a lot more valuable if you have other people (bosses, teachers, former co-workers, etc.) talking about how valuable you are? Having a third party endorsement makes you seem much more credible, and this is the benefit of allowing for reviews to be posted on your website. I also think this can make users lives easier when they go to book a room. Instead of having to search around multiple review sites, everything they need can be right found right on the hotel’s page!
The Bad
From a consumer standpoint, I see mostly positives coming from this new approach, but then this also opens the door for disaster. What if your hotel ends up getting so many bad reviews that it is put out of business and all of those people loose their jobs? I also feel
that this opens the door for the ever present “negative Nancy’s.” We all know people like this, they find one little thing wrong and they fixate on it. I believe these negative Nancy’s would be more likely to post reviews, even if it was something really small (the ice machine was broken on my floor for two hours and it ruined my WHOLE vacation…really? Who Cares?!). After all, isn’t there some sort of saying that people are much more likely to complain about something then say something positive. Couldn’t this just encourage negative people to respond and couldn’t these negative people turn off potential customers?
Possibility of ethical issues
Just like a company’s social media page, allowing people to post things about your hotel can raise some ethical concerns that need to be watched out for. First, there is the issue of deleting negative posts. No matter how awful a review is, it can be argued that you should never delete negative posts (unless there is profanity). This is what transparency is all about- being open and honest about your company and allowing customers to be open and honest about their experiences with your product or brand.
Second, in my humble opinion, is that it is SO important to make sure that you do not have people who work for your company posting reviews. To me, this is a deal breaker. How many times do you read reviews and think to yourself, “this sounds so insanely positive to me, it has to be someone working for the company.” Also, remember if someone won a contest and stayed at the hotel for free or something of that nature, you need to make sure (according to FTC law) that they disclose that fact. Without complete honesty, this new hotel review process is doomed to fail.
What do you guys think? Is this a good idea or not one of your favorites? Regardless of what you believe, reviews are just that- REVIEWS. Always take them with a grain of salt.
Tight Traveling
Hotels To Allow Reviews on Web Pages
7 03 2012Chances are, before you go on vacation and book a room at a hotel, you most likely checked out hotel reviews before hand. Just like restaurant or movie reviews, it can be confusing because you don’t really know who to trust and what to believe. I once had an awful experience in a hotel that had all pretty positive reviews and, conversely, a great hotel experience in a place that had fairly negative reviews.
I stumbled upon a USA Today article discussing the new trend of hotels embracing these hotel reviews. I don’t mean just reviews on other websites like TripAdvisor or Yelp, but hotels are actually allowing people to post reviews on their own websites. These are major hotels too like, Hilton and Starwood (the world’s largest hotel chain). As a PR student, I think this brings up interesting points to mull over.
The Good
courtesy blogs.villagevoice.com
To be honest, I think many good things can come from this approach. First of all, I believe allowing for these posts will make the hotel look better. It shows that management is proud of their hotel and that they are confident that people will have pretty good experiences when they stay there. Transparency is key here, and I think this is great that hotel chains want to be open and honest with consumers about what it is like to stay at these hotels on vacation. Also, think about when you go to create a resume or LinkedIn profile. Talking about yourself and all of the great things you can do is awesome (if it’s not exaggerated), but doesn’t it make you seem a lot more valuable if you have other people (bosses, teachers, former co-workers, etc.) talking about how valuable you are? Having a third party endorsement makes you seem much more credible, and this is the benefit of allowing for reviews to be posted on your website. I also think this can make users lives easier when they go to book a room. Instead of having to search around multiple review sites, everything they need can be right found right on the hotel’s page!
The Bad
From a consumer standpoint, I see mostly positives coming from this new approach, but then this also opens the door for disaster. What if your hotel ends up getting so many bad reviews that it is put out of business and all of those people loose their jobs? I also feel
A Cartoon About Complainers courtesy http://www.suzeoge.com
that this opens the door for the ever present “negative Nancy’s.” We all know people like this, they find one little thing wrong and they fixate on it. I believe these negative Nancy’s would be more likely to post reviews, even if it was something really small (the ice machine was broken on my floor for two hours and it ruined my WHOLE vacation…really? Who Cares?!). After all, isn’t there some sort of saying that people are much more likely to complain about something then say something positive. Couldn’t this just encourage negative people to respond and couldn’t these negative people turn off potential customers?
Possibility of ethical issues
Just like a company’s social media page, allowing people to post things about your hotel can raise some ethical concerns that need to be watched out for. First, there is the issue of deleting negative posts. No matter how awful a review is, it can be argued that you should never delete negative posts (unless there is profanity). This is what transparency is all about- being open and honest about your company and allowing customers to be open and honest about their experiences with your product or brand.
Second, in my humble opinion, is that it is SO important to make sure that you do not have people who work for your company posting reviews. To me, this is a deal breaker. How many times do you read reviews and think to yourself, “this sounds so insanely positive to me, it has to be someone working for the company.” Also, remember if someone won a contest and stayed at the hotel for free or something of that nature, you need to make sure (according to FTC law) that they disclose that fact. Without complete honesty, this new hotel review process is doomed to fail.
What do you guys think? Is this a good idea or not one of your favorites? Regardless of what you believe, reviews are just that- REVIEWS. Always take them with a grain of salt.
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