Changes and Opportunities in Online Travel

What are Travel Peer

Reviews ? Reviews, ratings and rankings for airlines,

hotels, tours, restaurants and other travel

services that are written by non-professionals

Common features include:

Reviews segmented by categories (e.g. trip type

and budget)

Reviews ranked by popularity and price

Reviewer’s profile, date of stay, type of trip, the

number of reviews he/she has written

Trip planning and online booking

Where To Find Travel Peer

Reviews

• TripAdvisor

• SkytraxPeer Review Web

Sites

• EpinionsGeneral merchandise sites

• Travelocity

• ExpediaOnline travel

agencies

• Frommers

• Lonely PlanetTravel guidebook

sites

Social Media Trends

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Other

Research

Sales Prospecting

Competitive Monitoring

Project Documentation

Customer Service

Networking

Brand-building

Reasons that U.S. Executives Use Social Media (July 2009)

Source: www.emarketer.com

Comparison of Peer Reviews and

Professional Reviews

Peer Reviews Professional Reviews

Written by unpaid amateurs Written by paid professional writers

Time-specific and condition-specific

focus

General focus

Online only Online and print

Based on individual users’ criteria Based on a standard set of criteria

May cover a wider range of hotels

and service providers

May cover only well-known hotels

and service providers

Loose controls Strict controls

Quality Control Methods for Peer

Reviews

Keep only the most recent reviews online

Employ human editors to read and approve

user-submitted reviews

Depend on the user community to flag

inappropriate comments

Allow hoteliers and other service providers to

respond to reviews

Impact of Peer Reviews

On Travelers On Service Providers

Influences purchasing

decisions

Affects consumer

perception and trust

Empowers consumers

Offers collaboration tools

such as trip itineraries

Provides a direct channel

to consumers

Need to monitor what

consumers are saying

about them online

Need to respond quickly

specially when negative

comments are posted

Conclusions

• Better online experience for travel planners

• Broader range of sales and marketing opportunities for travel suppliers

• More empowered consumers, better informed businesses

References

The pros and cons of peer reviews

Let Your Fellow Travelers Be Your Guide

Travel 2.0: Social networking takes a

useful turn

9 Social Networking Sites You Can’t

Afford to Miss