Many customers are taking their hotel experiences and sharing them for all to know. Hotel review sites like TripAdvisor allow customers to leave reviews—both positive and negative—on hotels that they visit.
Some customers don’t see the appeal in spending the time to write a review for a hotel. In fact, most people only take the time to review a hotel if they had a bad experience.
What customers fail to realize is that reviewing hotels on popular review sites actually comes with plenty of benefits.
1. You’re helping other consumers.
Many people make their decision to stay at a hotel based on reviews, and many customers will turn to hotel review sites before deciding which hotel will earn their business. If you have stayed at a hotel, you should leave a review so that you can help other consumers make a decision. If you had a great time, let them know. If you had a bad time, let them know. And even if it was nothing special, let them know. Your review can be the determining factor on whether or not someone else stays at that hotel.
2. You’ll cancel out the fake reviews.
Unfortunately many people turn to online review sites to leave fake reviews. Some companies pay employees or customers to leave positive reviews on their hotels or leave negative reviews on their competition. When you leave honest reviews, you will add legitimacy to a hotel’s page that may be filled with fake reviews. Not only is this important for consumers who are using these reviews to make their staying decision, but it’s also helping the hotel.
3. You’ll be helping the hotel.
Any review you leave will help the hotel. Your positive reviews will let them know what they’re doing right, and your negative reviews will let them know what they need to improve on. These hotels can take these reviews and use them to make their amenities better in the future.
Your review also helps the online presence of these hotels. Online review sites help a hotel’s search engine optimization strategy because it contains keywords, so the more reviews that are left on a review site, the higher the hotel will rank in the search engines.
4. You’re allowing yourself to be heard.
How often have you had a complaint or a compliment but never said anything because you thought it wouldn’t have an effect? When you use online reviews, you’re putting your voice out there for all to hear. An online review will be seen by thousands of people and it will definitely garner the interest of the hotel, so speak up.
5. You may get some perks.
Some hotels are so thankful for your feedback, both positive and negative, that they will thank you with a perk. You may be offered a free night’s stay, a discount off, or an upgraded room on your next visit. If your review was negative, you may also get an apology, and that alone can go a long way.
If you have ever stayed at a hotel, jump online to a hotel review site and let the world know what you thought. You’ll be doing yourself, the hotel and other customers a favor.
Kathryn Thompson is a hotel manager. She enjoys blogging about business advice and hotel online review tracking in her spare time.
