Social media is inclusive. It doesn’t work unless you engage in it on a daily basis. Hotel and site reviews are absolutely key to the reputation of a business – which is why social media marketing managers should be more concerned about them than pretty much anything else in their purview.
There has been controversy and irritation surrounding sites like Trip Advisor for years now. Having friends who have worked on a popular holiday park and campsite, I know that rival businesses will happily post fake bad reviews of your site in order to drive your customers away, I also know that businesses will post fake good reviews of themselves in order to look good to people researching them.
The point being, it doesn’t really matter what the reviews say so much as how a business is seen to respond to them. Managing travel and hotel site reviews is a core skill for social media marketing managers because the business that responds to its reviews is a business that cares – and the way in which it is seen to respond has a bigger effect on potential guests than the comments made in the original review.
There’s a form to responding to reviews of a hotel or travel site in a social media site. First, say thanks to the reviewer for taking the time to put their thoughts online. Then make apologies if there was something wrong with their experience and explain what you are doing to make sure that this is not repeated for future guests. If you cannot rectify the situation say so and explain why.
There are tools for disputing reviews if you feel that someone has placed genuinely misleading information on a site. They should only be used if you genuinely feel that your business has been subjected to a deliberately false review – and even then you should be careful. If you pick a “fight” with a poor reviewer on a popular site, a whole lot of people can end up seeing you behave in a way that, to them, can look petty or even desperate – so much so that your response behaviour in these situations can turn off more people than the original complaint.
So what should you do in the event of a scathing review? If it’s justified you have to be seen to make reparations. If it isn’t you can post a dignified response pointing out that it is unjustified, but only do it once. Never get involved in a slanging match with someone who, for whatever reason is intent on creating a false impression of your business.
The social media sphere is a very forgetful place. Older poor reviews are often outweighed – in algorithms that throw up high scoring recommendations as well as by real people – by better, newer ones. So don’t get stuck in the past. Arrange your present reputation well and you won’t go far wrong.
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