ONLINE!REPUTATION!

MANAGEMENT  Why your online reputation matters !

and what to do to manage it.!

Josh Rosenberg, R2L Perspective / @jzrosenberg!

U.S. Virgin Islands Small Hotels & Business Development Conference!

U.S. Virgin Islands Small Hotels & Business Development Conference!

For every 1% increase in a hotel’s online reputation score, a hotel enjoys a .54% lift in occupancy,

which can lead to 1.42% increase in revenue per available room. !

Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University!

Online Reputation Management!Some key statistics!

U.S. Virgin Islands Small Hotels & Business Development Conference!

Travelers who say online reviews have an impact on their booking

decision!(TripAdvisor  TripBarometer,  2013)  

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Travelers who have written a review of a hotel after their stay!(TripAdvisor  TripBarometer,  2013)  

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Top Websites Used to Submit Reviews!1.  OTA Websites (44%)!2.  General Search Engines (40%)!3.  Travel Review Websites (38%)!4.  Hotel Websites (32%)!5.  Travel Search Engines (25%)!(eMarketer, 2012)!

Websites with the Most Reviews!1.  TripAdvisor!2.  Trivago!3.  Booking.com!4.  HolidayCheck.com!5.  Hotels.com!(eMarketer, 2012)!

•  Generally, both men and women leave reviews, with a slight advantage to women. !

•  Women generally leave slightly more positive reviews than their male counterparts. !

•  Almost half of all reviews are left by 35-to-49-year-olds. Less than 4% of reviews are left by those aged 24 years or less. !

•  More than half of all reviews left are related to leisure travel, with only 6% left by those traveling just for business.!

Olery, 2012!

U.S. Virgin Islands Small Hotels & Business Development Conference!

Online Reputation Management!Who Is Leaving The Reviews!

•  Monitor - Make sure to register for a business account on the relevant review websites and set-up Google Alerts and keyword searches on Twitter for mentions of your business. This will help you respond quickly to a review. !

•  Stay Professional - When responding to a review, make sure to keep it professional and use facts. If you make a mistake, admit it, but fix it if possible and note that you will fix it in the future as well. And make sure to thank those who leave a positive review. !

•  Take It Offline - If it is a complicated issue that you need to discuss with the reviewer or need more information to correct the problem, encourage the reviewer to send you an email in your reply. This will keep it out of the public eye, and still show you care. !

•  Encourage Reviews - Consider printing a note on your customer receipt or in follow-up emails asking for reviews on a specific review site. More reviews will help lessen the blow of a less-than-positive one.!

U.S. Virgin Islands Small Hotels & Business Development Conference!

Online Reputation Management!How To Manage & Respond To Reviews!

U.S. Virgin Islands Small Hotels & Business Development Conference!

Don’t Be Afraid to Show Your Personality!

“What  I  started  to  learn  was  that  each  1me  we  created  a  hotel,  if  we  created  a  personality  that  defined  the  hotel,  and  it  was  a  very  soulful,  holis1c  personality,  we  found  that  people  fell  in  love  with  the  hotel.”        “Then,  they  shared  that  love  with  their  friends….  We  grew  into  a  $250  million  a  year  company  and  we  spent  less  than  $50,000  a  year  in  adver1sing.”      

Chip  Conley  Founder  of  Joie  de  Vivre  Hotels  

Head  of  Global  Hospitality    

U.S. Virgin Islands Small Hotels & Business Development Conference!