Adventurous travel, more time with family, losing a few pounds... These are just a few of the personal resolutions likely made by many of the 7.53 billion people ringing in 2020 around the world.
While personal resolutions are a big part of starting a fresh year, what about business New Year resolutions for your hotel or restaurant? Increases in revenues and RevPAR are likely among your professional 2020 goals and elevating your online reputation on websites like TripAdvisor or Google is one strategy that can help achieve them.
Questions That Can Help You Form Your Hotel Business New Year Resolutions
As you and your team meet in the coming weeks to strategize how your hotel business New Year resolutions and goals for 2020 will be realized, you will likely be discussing how your property can reach new heights on review platforms.
As you evaluate your current online management strategy and look for areas of opportunity, we invite you to discuss the following questions based around these 4 R’s of reputation – ratings, regularity, reach, responses.
Ratings:
Online ratings have major business implications. They influence consumer shopping behavior - 88% of travelers filter out hotels with a star rating below three, and more than one in three will not eat in a restaurant rated lower than four stars –impacting a business's ability to drive revenue. Studies show that when a hotel raises its ratings by just one percent, it can increase RevPAR by up to 1.4%, and for restaurants, a one-star increase in Yelp ratings can lead to a 9% increase in revenue.
Discussion Questions:
Do our online ratings accurately reflect our business' position in the market?
How did our score on review platforms perform month over month last year?
How were those results achieved?
What months were most challenging for us in regard to review scores and why?
What can we do to overcome that this year?
Regularity:
While we often consider how review scores affect our rating, the regularity in which we receive reviews also plays a role. Sites such as TripAdvisor and Google factor in review frequency as one of the key components of their ranking algorithms. Additionally, when hotels and restaurants implement strategies and tactics designed to increase their review volume, they find that the percentage of positive reviews increases, boosting their overall score, and lessening the impact of any negative reviews.
Discussion Questions:
How many reviews do we receive each month?
How does our review frequency compare to that of our competitors?
How many reviews are we generating per available room in comparison to our competitive set?
Is our number of organic reviews increasing or decreasing on a monthly basis?
Are we proactive in asking for reviews? If so, are our tactics effective in driving the review volume that we need to be a market leader?
Reach
How many people are your reviews reaching? If you look at your TripAdvisor Business Analytics, you likely have thousands of unique visitors on just this one page each month. However, there are many paths that your guests can take on their journey from awareness to conversion, and shoppers are often learning about your hotel or restaurant on Facebook, Google, Yelp or OTAs, and frequently visiting multiple sites. Having a consistent positive presence on all sites allows you to drive new business from a variety of channels, maximizing your marketing ROI and increasing sales.
Discussion Questions:
Which websites do our guests visit during the purchasing process?
How many visitors are there on each of these sites each month?
Do you see any review trends unique to a specific site?
Do your reviews accurately reflect your business and help drive sales?
How can you improve your presence on these sites to increase bookings?
Responses:
By responding to reviews, hotels and restaurants can play a role in shaping their online reputation. Responses that address concerns build trust with the reviewer and readers, and by sharing thoughtful, relevant information in responses, businesses can provide extra incentives for shoppers to become customers. Additionally, studies have shown that personalized, timely responses can boost review volume and ratings, leading to an increase in RevPAR.
Discussion Questions:
Are we responding to reviews on all the top sites that our guests visit?
Do our management responses occur in a timely manner?
Is each response personalized with unique, on-brand and engaging messaging, allowing us to build loyal relationships and increase repeat business?
In addition to building loyalty, are our responses providing relevant and informative content to help drive sales?
Sending Us an Email Could Revolutionize Your Performance This Year
Just as setting a weight loss goal requires healthy eating and physical activity action plans, elevating online reputation as one of your hotel business New Year resolutions will also require a thoughtful and consistent strategy and deliverables to achieve the desired results.
Our team can assist you in achieving this resolution by working with you to create, implement, and manage a reputation management strategy for your hotel or restaurant aimed at increasing online visibility, engaging your customers, and converting more shoppers to future guests and revenue producers. From on-site training to daily review responses to detailed reporting, our proven strategies and tools can help you make 2020 your best business year yet.
If you are interested in learning how a reputation management strategy can benefit your business, we invite you to email us via our secure contact form to set up a no-pressure consultation or call us at 855-979-6800.