Seven Secrets To Getting The Most Out of TripAdvisor
Feb 23rd, 2010 by Madigan Pratt
TripAdvisor is one of the most powerful hospitality marketing tools available today. Unfortunately more time seems to be spent complaining about it than developing ways to use it to a hotels advantage.
Perhaps that’s why last month’s article – TripAdvisor makes an “offer you can’t refuse” – generated the highest number of emails we have seen for some time. Most of the emails included questions about how to get the most out of TripAdvisor. Some even asked for “our secret!” Okay, I’ll tell you.
The truth is, there really are no secrets to getting the most out of TripAdvisor.
There are however ways to use TripAdvisor to your advantage. And they are all based on approaching TripAdvisor with the same objective marketing thinking one would expect from a smart hospitality marketing professional.
Here are seven tips on how to get the most out of TripAdvisor to improve your product, customer satisfaction, revenue, number of reviews and ultimately your ranking relative to your competitive set.
- Take the Customer’s Perspective – A novel idea in some corners of hospitality – customer focused marketing! It doesn’t matter what you think about TripAdvisor – your customers and prospects love it and now have access to over 30 million reviews. If you have a problem with TripAdvisor – get over it. The sooner you do the better off you will be.
Read the reviews as if you were a traveler and not a hotelier.
- Listen To Your Customers & Take Action - Reviews are nothing more than online comment cards. You should read them and listen to what your guests have to say about the quality of your product, value for money and the delivery of your services.
If you are one of those hoteliers who don’t like TripAdvisor, perhaps you don’t like listening to what guests have to say. Or perhaps your “issues” with TripAdvisor prevent you from hearing the many valid comments that could help you improve your product and thus your ranking versus competitive hotels.
- Develop a Plan & Measure – I have yet to see a smart marketer inside or out of hospitality who, when faced with a potential threat hasn’t developed a plan to either minimize the threat or turn it into a competitive advantage.Your plan needs clearly defined and measurable goals. Here is a sample:
- Be listed in the top five hotels for your destination before the end of 2010
- Double the number of five-star reviews in 2010
- Cut the number of 3-star (and below) ratings to less than five in 2010
- Sensitize staff to how their actions are portrayed on the web by the end of the first quarter
- Generate 50% more positive reviews than your nearest competitor every month for the next year
In addition to the desired result you must set specific deadlines. Tasks with specific deadlines or timelines get done while those without do not.
You need to measure progress to know how well you are doing. Are you tracking ahead or behind your goals? Do you need to adjust your strategy? Do you need more resources?
I love this quote because it rings so true. You need to measure and report for the best results.
What gets measured gets done, what gets measured and fed back gets done well, what gets rewarded gets repeated. – John E. Jones
- Identify Strategies for Implementation - Goals will never be achieved without an effective implementation plan.The first step is to make someone ultimately responsible and accountable for achieving the goals. It will be up to that individual to marshal the human and financial resources necessary to succeed.
Normally it shouldn’t take much, but if a part-time or full-time person is needed then hire someone. Obama will love you! Better TripAdvisor reviews and the resulting revenue it should generate will more than pay for a dedicated individual. Putting the onus of generating and managing TripAdvisor reviews to an already overworked or frazzled salesperson is doomed to failure.
- Be Proactive & Be Creative – If you want more (and more favorable) reviews of your hotel then actively ask each guest to write one. (It’s okay if you forget to ask the fellow in 314 who you know had “issues.”)
This is where you can get really creative. Many hoteliers ask guests to post reviews when talking to them on property. Guess what? Everyone says they will and very few ever do.
Ever thought about calling them, thanking then for staying with you, asking how their vacation was (actually engaging them) and then asking if they would post a review? How about making it easy for them and sending an email with a link to your page?
Sure it takes time and time is money. But what are positive TripAdvisor reviews really worth to your bottom line? Smart hospitality marketing pros know the answer. And those who complain vehemently about TripAdvisor seem to understand how negative reviews impact occupancy and revenue.
- Understand TripAdvisor – You really do need to know the ins and outs of TripAdvisor and make sure you don’t violate any of their policies when implementing your plan. Violate these policies and your hotel could be penalized with significant downward movement in popularity. You also risk having a red badge added to your listing warning travelers to be suspicious of your reviews.
With Management Responses you should know when to respond and when to just butt out. TripAdvisor is a social media tool – a way for guests and potential guests to exchange ideas. Hotels shouldn’t be seen as interfering with (or taking over) the conversation.
The Track Performance tab in the owners’ center makes it easy to track both your performance and your competitions – the number of reviews is compared along with the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) – measuring the 7 top criteria that track to guest satisfaction.
- Take Advantage of TripAdvisor Whenever Possible – A great example is the new Business Listings that allow you to include a link to your hotel’s web site, your reservations 800# and email. This is new and I think it’s a great marketing opportunity for hotels. Drive consumers directly to your hotel when they are in the buying mode. Why let the biggest travel web site out there send visitors to third party booking engines without giving up a fight?
Sign-up before February 28th and get 50% OFF their published rates. Time is short – only 3 days left to save. (Editor’s Note: The Introductory 50% OFF Special is over, but TripAdvisor does run other Specials from time to time.)
Just click Business Listings to take advantage of TripAdvisor.
There are many different ways to implement a TripAdvisor strategy. And there are no “secrets to success.” If you approach TripAdvisor from a marketing perspective your chances of increasing your rating and ranking vis-à-vis your competitive set will definitely improve.
Set specific goals, marshal your resources, measure and report performance and adjust where necessary to succeed. It’s basic hospitality marketing.
What do you think?
Safe Travels – Madigan Pratt
Love your article.
Just don’t know how to proceed with “marketing with Trip Advisor”.
I have solid reviews (all 5′s) yet I am ranked #12 below B&B’s that have 4 1/2 stars and below B&B’s that have less number of reviews. There are just two of us running the 9 room B&B. You will notice that our guests mention us by name. We spend time with each guest.
I have just printed up cards to hand out to guests that say “If you enjoyed your stay please write a review on Trip Advisor” to get more reviews, but the current ranking does not indicate that that is a factor in moving me up to the #1 or #2 spot.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Ken
Thanks Ken,
And thanks for sending me a personal email with more information. Here’s what I believe is going on, and I will try to confirm it.
TripAdvisor uses an proprietary algorithm to determine a hotels ranking. While no one outside of TA (much to the chagrin of hospitality marketing pros) knows what it is we do know the number of reviews and the recently of reviews play an important role in a hotel’s or B&Bs ranking.
In looking at your B&B and your destination I see that 10 of the 11 B&Bs ranked higher than you have more reviews than you do. In looking at the Last 10 reviews for all the properties – yours go back the farthest. Your 10th oldest review was posted last August. The B&B with the next oldest review was posted in September. Most of the top B&Bs had their last 10 reviews posted from December on (much more recent).
Clearly you need a strategy to get more reviews and to have them posted more regularly. That’s what my article was all about. Set a target of getting 4 to 5 great reviews every month. You will soon have more reviews and more recent reviews which should help you move up in the rankings. Good luck.
Madigan
hi i have a bnb in eccles manchester (ivy mount guest house)and i was at the number 2 spot for bnbs in manchester,and worked really hard to get there,but all of a sudden,i seem to be on my own for bnb in eccles? i dont know how this happened,but i just cant seem to get back. can you help please…cheers paul….
Paul,
Have you tried contacting customer support to explain that your B&B should be listed in Manchester and provide a good rationale as to why?
Hi,
Just read through the tips and I’m a bit concerned as, just like Ken Pope, there is no way we can do so much with just my self catering reviews – even if everyone wrote back to say it was great, that would only make for three reviews a week. If I am competing with larger B&B’s/ self-caterers, who have perhaps nine rooms or more, then I would never get to the top ‘slot’ no matter how many fantastic reviews my lovely guests leave.
Any suggestions as to how I can get round this problem.
Thanks
Pam
Pam,
Have you followed the advice in the article? Have you developed a plan on how you’re going to get more reviews, implemented it and measured the results? How many reviews do you have over the past 3 months? How many guests? What percentage of guests write reviews? Can you do better? How many reviews are competitive hotels getting?
Smaller properties can certainly out rank larger hotels in TripAdvisor and oftentimes do. They’re small, have fewer resources and therefore have more at stake in getting good TripAdvisor reviews.
Ken Pope had good reviews – but in looking at his last 10 reviews they were older than his competitors with #10 being seven months old. TripAdvisor weighs a hotel’s most recent reviews more heavily when developing rankings.
Not knowing your property, or your competitors, but understanding all are pretty small, I would think one good five-star review per week (1 out of 3 guests) would make you very competitive.
We are already “on” TripAdvisor. We do have one problem with it. Our B & B is geographically at Palaja, France. However, we are only 5km from Carcassonne. Almost every one of our guests comes because of our countryside location being so close to Carcassonne. This is the third most visited place in France. We want our
B & B to “come up” when a traveller searches “Carcassonne” for accommodation. A few years ago, before being closed for a while, we were listed as Carcassonne and were top of the list of Carcassonne B & B’s. I have already made this request without a satisfactory answer.
Chris – Here’s what TripAdvisor has to say about the following question:
Q – I am listed in an small town. Can I be moved to the listings of a nearby, more well known city?
A – All of our accommodations, restaurants and attractions are listed in the actual physical footprint, so we cannot move any listings to a different town than where they are physically located.
I have noticed TripAdvisor has been making some adjustments to various destination sites lately. I looked up Carassonne and something is a little funny. It says there are 39 hotels in Carassonne, but actually only show 17. 22 hotels are missing!
Try mapping out were all the other hotels are to see if your B&B is closer than any of the others and if it is make another attempt to get your hotel moved. You can also try and find out where the missing hotels are.
You should also optimize your web site to make sure it comes up on the first page of any search for “Carassonne hotels” or B&Bs, etc. (You might want a web specialist familiar with hospitality marketing.) Then put a prominent link to your TripAdvisor review page throughout your web site. If you have great reviews you can drive more people to them.
Dear Sirs or Madam,
We have a very small B & B – just two rooms. My husband and I run it alone. In the past year, we spent well over $200,000 to completely remodel/renovate and it looks beautiful.
I have a couple of concerns:
1. How can we get our placement higher on your list if your algorithm is geared towards numbers of reviews? This gives an unfair advantage to places that are larger but may not have the same quality.
2. Some of the reviews we have received were written prior to our total remodel. Since this is a totally new B & B, can all the previous reviews be removed. These reviews do not rate the current situation. We have totally gutted the rooms and had them remodeled from the plumbing up. We tore out the old pool and patio and completely redid them. This is not reflected in the old reviews – we actually have a brand new B & B! What can we do?
Regards,
Linda York
Linda,
A1 – The TripAdvisor algorithm considers both the recency and quality of reviews when determining a hotel’s overall placement. You need to get as many high quality reviews as you possibly can to move up in the rankings.
Larger hotels do have a potential advantage, but I find they are generally not quite as focused on TripAdvisor as smaller hotels. I have seen many smaller hotels get far more reviews than larger hotels in their area. Why? Because they have developed a plan and work it more effectively.
Also, many times larger hotels have a more difficult time pleasing everyone. This can lead to less favorable reviews. Smaller hotels can provide a much richer personal experience which can lead to far more glowing reviews.
A2 – Put a Management Response on a few of the older reviews where people may have complained about the facilities. Doesn’t have to be long, but highlight what has changed so people know the property has been updated.
Then forget about the old reviews and focus on getting as many new reviews which reflect the current situation.
TripAdvisor refuses to take down old reviews (I have tried to no avail). But I doubt too many people read beyond the first page of reviews. So concentrate on getting 10 great reviews and forget about the old ones.
Some good advice there, but what would you suggest for B&Bs in light of TripAdvisor’s recent decision to re-format their ‘landing’ pages and remove the listing for top-rated B&Bs for each country or area?
We are a Traveller’s Choice 2010 B&B winner and have been a top-rated B&B in Belize consistently since 2006 but, in line with all other top-rated B&Bs, the only way to find us now is by a specific name search or clicking on ‘popular destinations’ within a country – the ranking methodology of which, certainly for Belize, is extremely questionable.
Take a situation – American Airlines announces an airfare sale for flights to Belize. Average Joe thinks, oh, I’ve always wanted to go to Belize. He clicks on the Belize page for TripAdvisor, and basically gets directed to either the top-rated hotels for Belize, or perhaps B&Bs sorted by destination popularity. Is he likely to make it down to #8, Punta Gorda Belize, which is where the top-rated B&B in Belize is located?
So, with the deletion of top B&Bs on landing pages, and being located in an ‘unpopular’ area, just what would be the point in our paying TA for a listing? Do you have any suggestions for an alternative site?
I was also curious about your suggestion to put a link from one’s website to the TripAdvisor review page – many experts have advised against this, as it allows people to (a) leave your own site and (b) exposes them to a plethora of adverts and the immediate competition.
Hi Kate,
I too share your frustration with some of the recent changes by TripAdvisor. Many destinations have seen the number of “Top Hotels” listed cut from 7-8 to only 5 as well as B&B’s eliminated altogether.
TripAdvisor has raised the bar for all hoteliers and hospitality marketing professionals. The number of hotels with 5.0 ratings has risen significantly along with the popularity of TA making it harder to be noticed.
One of our hotels – Nisbet Plantation was the #1 luxury hotel in all the Caribbean and Latin America in 2008. They were #5 in the Caribbean and Mexico in 2010. They used to be on the TripAdvisor home page for the Caribbean. A 4-star hotel that consistently delivers a 5.0 rating it is no longer listed. It is on the small and generally undiscovered island of Nevis – so it suffers from the same problem you have – not many people know of and search the destination. Frustrsating!
I would suggest complaining to TA. Have a look at other top hotels and B&Bs that have suffered the same problem as you and Nisbet. Start a petition, write to those hotels and B&Bs that have been snubbed and encourage them to write to TA. The more complaints TA receives the more notice you will all receive.
Concerning your issue with having a link to TA on your site there are two schools of thought:
1 – Hide from reality and don’t provide a link (the paranoia view of the world)
2 – Recognize the vast majority of your guests will check you out on TA so why not make it easier for them and provide a link. You can make it so TA opens an new window so your site visitors don’t actually leave your site.
I subscribe to the second school. It also shows you are confident enough about the quality of your product to let them see your reviews which speaks volumes about your property and experience.
And now that you can have a Business Listing it’s easier for them to book with you directly.
With a real specialty vacation (a B&B in Belize) I’m sure your guests are more comfortable calling the hotel and asking questions of an experienced reservationist than they are booking with Online Travel Agencies. Use the system to your advantage. But make sure the people answering the phone are trained in selling (closing the deal) as opposed to simply answering questions which so many hotel 800# people are.
Good luck with your campaign to get Belize B&Bs re-listed on TA. I’ll let you know how I do with the Nisbet situation.
Certainly fodder for a future Blog Post. I’ll call TA and interview a top executive and report back.
Thanks so much for the helpful advice! We’ve tried complaining via the owners’ forum and have contacted some of the B&Bs in Belize, but you’re right that we need a strong collective voice. Thanks again, Kate
Marinakis,
You should go to this pages (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Owners) to register your hotel. Let me know if it works for you.
Madigan
Hi Madigan, I disagree with “If you are one of those hoteliers who don’t like TripAdvisor, perhaps you don’t like listening to what guests have to say. Or perhaps your “issues” with TripAdvisor prevent you from hearing the many valid comments that could help you improve your product and thus your ranking versus competitive hotels.”
Most lodging realizes the value of TA, but many of them have issues with bad reviews that competitors have posted and even more with TA not posting legit good reviews, even when the people posting have confirmed they are real people and its not the inn itself posting it. take the case in point of Brewster Inn in Maine, who happen to be good friends of ours, they have gotten more then 5 valid good reviews removed from TA and TA has done nothing about even with multiple complaints/emails etc and they were legitimate reviews.
If this is something that happened infrequently it wouldn’t be a big deal, but if you do a bit of digging and you don’t have to dig far, there are lots of lodging properties out there that have had problems interacting with TA and although they know the value of it, they don’t have to like something that isn’t “really” helping them.
You put a broad statement on that
Some great suggestions here. Great article.
Kate, I hear your frustration. I know many hotel marketing professionals sometimes think “Support at TripAdvisor” is nothing but a cruel joke being played on them.
I have had many dealings with Support and can attest to the fact that it can be frustrating at times. While we don’t always get what we want, I can say we have had a fair share of success in getting listings changed or negative reviews which were obvious fakes removed.
It doesn’t come easy, but it does take perseverance. I do hope this encourages you to keep trying as well as to look at possibly changing tactics to achieve better results.
Hi Madigan,
Curious to know what you think about the price of TripAdvisor Business Listings. I’ve stopped recommending clients to purchase them because I think they’re overpriced (current discounted rate is $4800 per year for a property of 101 – 250 rooms) and haven’t been generating significant direct traffic or conversions. TA would have to generate a lot of direct bookings to justify these rates. Better to channel toward cost-per-click & other internet marketing activiites. Your thoughts?
Some great tips, thank you. How are you enjoying your new role as the TripAdvisor mediator? Takes some of the heat off me
Cheers,
Daniel Edward Craig