Everything your hotel needs to know about Facebook Recommendations

In 2018, Facebook took innovative initiatives to stamp its influence on the tourism industry a little more. One notable example of this was Trip Consideration. Facebook guest reviews also performed well, increasing in volume by one percentage point between 2016 and 2017. In fact, this is beginning to seriously rival well-established players such as HolidayCheck. More recently, Facebook reevaluated the use of its guest reviews, and now refers to recommendations instead. So, what does this change for you and your guests?

From reviews to recommendations

Facebook is, without doubt, an important tool for hotel owners. Thanks to the fact that you can post information about your hotel but also photos, videos and even events, you can considerably improve your online visibility and strengthen your brand image. On top of this content that you share, guests can write reviews, like on TripAdvisor, for instance. Until recently, when writing a text to describe their experience, guests were only able to rate your establishment via a star system.

Now, though, guests will first have to respond to the simple question “Do you recommend this establishment? Yes or no?” Then, the guest will be able to provide details about their experience by adding content such as photos or tags (hotel room, reception, restaurant…) to illustrate it.
The rating is therefore based on the number of guests who recommend your establishment or not. Most of your existing reviews remain visible on your page. Finally, guests have the option to share their recommendation publicly or just with their friends or other groups, or even in a precise location via geolocation. The selection of the audience remains relatively broad so information can be shared in as relevant a way as possible.

Through this change, Facebook seeks to improve establishments’ visibility and meet the expectations and needs of users looking for somewhere to stay as best it can.

How to manage Facebook recommendations and what benefits they offer

We can understand the benefits in two ways. First, it’s clear that Facebook recommendations will significantly improve hotels’ reputation and visibility. Indeed, their recommendations are more relevant because they provide more details about the guest’s stay, particularly through the tags. If a user is looking for a romantic ambiance, for instance, your establishment will be featured if this tag appears frequently in your recommendations. This gives a degree of credit to your strong points and will allow you to attract more prospective guests looking for the kind of experience you’re offering.

It’s still in Facebook’s interest to make the user experience easier, so this change should also make the guest journey more fluid, from the inspiration phase right up to when the guest writes a review, or rather a recommendation. The social and community side is also strengthened, because recommendations made by contacts in your circle of friends are more easily visible. Users are also far more likely to trust a recommendation from someone in their circle of friends/contacts than strangers who have only left a rating, which can sometimes be difficult to judge. This makes complete sense when we think back to the fact that users can choose to share their recommendation with their friends only, as mentioned earlier.

For you, as a hotel owner, this should bring about a decisive change concerning your operations. Indeed, these recommendations also aim to strengthen the constructive aspect of guest feedback. For example, if a guest decided that they would not recommend your establishment and selected “No” in response to the question on your hotel’s page, tags can again be used, allowing the guest to explain the specifics of their review.

To optimise the management and visibility of your recommendations, Customer Alliance has carried out an update which allows you to view and analyse guest feedback with ease, and also respond to it from your backend.

It’s crucial for your hotel to use Facebook to its full potential. Reviews and recommendations, different types of content posted, the possibility of making a direct booking or a link to your website are all examples of elements which could ultimately help to attract a large proportion of your guests.