How do guest reviews impact my TripAdvisor ranking?
The TripAdvisor ranking is one of the elements that you must control in order to ensure good online visibility and therefore more bookings for your hotel. A vast number of guest reviews are posted every day, and that’s why it’s so important to optimise your presence on this platform. But what impact do these reviews have on your ranking, and how can you make sure that you consistently occupy the top spots?
Quantity, regularity and diversity
Guest reviews are right at the heart of your communication strategy and form an integral part of the guest journey; they have an impact on both your visibility and your popularity. It’s essential that you have a sufficient number of reviews on your TripAdvisor page, as they strengthen the trust of potential guests while also communicating the message that your hotel welcomes a regular flow of guests. It’s also important to receive reviews from guests of different nationalities to show the international nature of your clientele. Of course, quality and frequency must go hand in hand, so to make sure that you occupy a good position in the TripAdvisor ranking, you must receive an influx of reviews as a regular occurrence. Who’s going to book a room in a hotel which hasn’t received a review in months?
The Customer Alliance solution enables you to really have an influence on your TripAdvisor ranking by posting a maximum number of reviews on this platform. Our distribution function lets you put in place a coherent strategy for posting guest feedback on TripAdvisor, notably according to your guests’ nationality. This way, you’ll be able to sustain the regular posting of reviews in various different languages and thus increase your chance of reaching the top of the ranking.
Good-quality reviews are the key to success
Gathering lots of guest reviews isn’t the only important indicator which will enable you to occupy one of the privileged positions in the TripAdvisor ranking. Indeed, if this were true, competition between establishments would rest on the number of rooms available and therefore the potential volume of guests. Of course, your reputation is important because it reflects the quality of what you have to offer. Because of this, you need to collect good-quality reviews, and this feeds into the scores you receive.
As a result, you need to work hard to raise awareness by systematically asking those guests who you deem to have had a positive experience to post a review on TripAdvisor. We often say, and rightly so, that a dissatisfied guest will easily find a way to leave a negative review, while a satisfied guest won’t necessarily have the reflex to share their experience if they are not actively asked to do so. Unfortunately, asking guests verbally is no longer sufficient, because once the guest has left your hotel, there’s less chance of you receiving a review.
Customer Alliance enables you to put in place an effective system to gather reviews by automatically sending personalised emails (and/or SMS) inviting your guests to leave a review after their stay. This considerably increases your likelihood of receiving guest feedback on TripAdvisor.
To sum up…
Ensuring that you receive a regular volume of quality reviews on your page is the key to success when it comes to obtaining a competitive ranking of TripAdvisor. However, there are also other factors which will help you to optimise your presence on this platform and thus convert a maximum number of visits into bookings. It’s particularly advisable to reply to reviews, whether positive or negative, to show that you are attentive to the guest experience. This may not be directly taken into account by the TripAdvisor ranking, but you will nevertheless benefit from the positive image it creates of your hotel with internet users. Also, take a look at the regular updates to the TripAdvisor ranking to give yourself the best chance of success.
Want to know how to take full advantage of your presence on TripAdvisor and therefore climb the rankings? Don’t delay: ask for a free consultation with one of our consultants and find out how our platinum partnership with TripAdvisor can help you to optimise your online visibility.