online reviews
What Your Hotel Needs to Know About FTC’s Stand Against Fake AI Generated Reviews
Lodging Interactive | August 3, 2023
The FTC acknowledges the emergence of generative AI and its potential impact on creating fake hotel guest reviews. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking a stand against deceptive practices in online reviews and social media metrics. With a proposed formal ban, the FTC intends to crack down on fake reviews, testimonials, and the use of phony followers and views to artificially inflate social media metrics. This means we’ll see a lot more hotels and travel businesses get authentic reviews and followers in the future! This latest move by the FTC builds upon previous actions targeting fake reviews. In 2019, the agency fined a third-p...
Travelers Push Tripadvisor Past 1 Billion Reviews & Opinions!
Tripadvisor | February 1, 2022
NEEDHAM, MA - February 1, 2022 - Tripadvisor, the world's largest travel guidance platform, today announced that its community of travelers has enabled the company to reach a major and historic Internet milestone: 1 BILLION reviews and opinions. Tripadvisor was founded 22 years ago by current President and CEO Stephen Kaufer, Langley Steinert, Nick Shanny and Tom Palka. Reaching this incredible landmark comes just several years after announcing it had reached half a billion reviews and opinions, in 2017. New research shows that today the Internet platform remains the most important review destination online for millions of consumers ...
Research Shows That You Should Let Consumers’ Photos Speak For Your Business
Linchi Kwok | June 16, 2021
By Linchi Kwok The advance of technology and the widespread adoption of smartphones and handheld devices in recent years have enabled us to publish our experience about a product or service through online photo or video sharing and provide a review. Online review websites have also updated their features, making it easier for consumers to attach pictures or videos to their reviews. As both consumers and businesses adapt to the new photo-sharing trend, it becomes crucial to expand our knowledge regarding user-generated photos’ (UGPs’) effect on online reviews. An empirical study about user-generated photos I work...
Reputation Management for the Post-Covid Hotel
Larry Mogelonsky | September 9, 2020
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) How has reputation management for hotel brands evolved in the wake of the pandemic? Do travelers rely more or less on third-party reviews? Have their top criteria for judging a property changed? Can we attribute a specific dollar amount for how much a good or bad review will cost an organization? These are some of the questions I ask myself when confronting this relatively new field. So that we’re all on the same page, when we refer to reputation management we are discussing the capacity of user-generated content (UGC) stemming from a guest’s experience to alter another customer...
3 Ways Your Hotel May Be Losing Money From Online Reviews (And What to Do About It) / Brad Plothow
Brad Plothow | October 24, 2019
By Brad Plothow October 24, 2019 -- It’s no secret that the internet has completely changed how people find and book hotels. These days, half of all lodging is booked online, online travel agencies’ market share now exceeds that of direct bookings, and 96% of TripAdvisor travelers report that online reviews are a critical factor in where they decide to stay. Hotels and motels are inherently local companies, but in today’s digital economy, even physical businesses need a healthy online presence to get found and chosen by customers. So, that got us thinking, how do online reviews impact revenue at American lodging businesses? Not ju...
4 Steps to Take When You Get Negative Feedback
Pipeline Social Media | September 23, 2019
By: Maiya Wall / Pipeline Social Media Though we all strive for positive feedback, receiving a negative review on your hotel’s social media is inevitable. In our hyper-connected world, opportunities to offer an opinion are prevalent and growing. Not to mention, the open line of communication empowers guests to serve up their opinion whenever and from wherever. We’re here to give you some practical advice on how to deal with negative feedback. First, begin to think of your hotel’s negative reviews as a path to improve guest experience and your online image rather than something to avoid. Keep reading to learn how you can respond to...
How to Respond Properly to Online Hotel Reviews
Kacey Bradley | September 16, 2019
By Kacey Bradley In today’s digitally-inclined world, online reviews are a significant part of the hotel booking process. According to one study, more than 50% of travelers don’t want to book until they read reviews — typically between six and 12. They want first-hand accounts of a stay on your property, whether good or bad. The newer the feedback, the more helpful. You can’t prevent bad reviews — no matter how stellar your guest experience. What you can control is how you respond. The majority of travelers — 87% — say an appropriate response to a bad review improves their impression of the hotel. On the flip-side, a...
Why Google Ratings Might Just Be Your Hotel’s Most Important Quality Metric
Daniel E. Craig | June 27, 2019
By Daniel E. Craig, Founder, Reknown Move over, TripAdvisor — there’s a new sheriff in town. Over the past couple of years, Google has revamped its review product, increased review volume exponentially, and made Google ratings more prominent in search, maps and hotel listings. As a result, Google ratings may have emerged as the most important measure of quality for hotels. Here’s why. In Search, Google Reigns Supreme Google’s role as chief gatekeeper to online travel planning difficult to dispute, but does it hold a monopoly on search? While company officials bristle at the suggestion, others aren’t so convinced. “Goo...
