http://www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/how_to_use_negative_reviews_to_effect_positive_change_in_your_hotel
It is difficult to fully understand guest satisfaction without taking culture and demographics into consideration. When interpreting results, hospitality professionals must look at dissimilarities between different regions of the world, between different countries in the same region, and even states within the same country. The differences in expectations and perceptions of service, quality and value are often caused by the individual needs and social motives of guests, which relate to the cultural practices of guest’s daily lives. There are also behavioral and expectation related differences between an older and young guest demographic. In addition to cultural and demographical considerations that need to be made when measuring satisfaction, the interpersonal relationships that are established between employees and guests need to be understood. Lastly but not least, the emotions guest’s experience in relation to the service, product and value must be captured to complete a true picture of guest’s opinions.
Armed with a log-in account and numerous travel websites willing to give them a forum, customers are increasingly vocalizing their experiences online for other travelers to read. That's prompting more managers such as Bethel to respond quickly or fear losing business. Less than 4% of negative reviews on Trip Advisor get a response, according to Trip Advisor, which has more than 30 million reviews. But the review site says it saw a 203% explosion in responses from hotels last year.
Hotel managers may ignore customers' reviews at their peril, some analysts say. Others say they're just another way for hotels to find ways of improving operations. And those who are paying attention and responding to customers can earn some goodwill points at a time every room night counts.
Large hotel companies have always solicited customer surveys from guests. But they've relied mostly on numerical rankings and have rarely contained descriptive explanations.
Managers still regularly receive customer survey scores tabulated by the headquarters, but online reviews are being used to improve training, adjust restaurant and staffing hours and add or remove amenities
In September, Hilton began testing a software tool at "hundreds of hotels" that will aggregate reviews and comments on websites, blogs and other social-media sites, including Twitter,
Starwood Hotels and nearly 300 full-service Marriott and Marriott-brand hotels also use Review Analyst to manage online content; It monitors more than a dozen websites, including Trip Advisor, Priceline, Flicker and YouTube. Hotel managers can also set certain phrases — bedbugs, discrimination, eviction, police, security — that require immediate attention.
•Joie de Vivre Hotels, Rosewood Hotels, InterContinental Hotels and Kimpton Hotels also use a similar product, developed by San Francisco-based Revinate.
Clarendon Hotels' Bethel isn't using any outside help but has set his Google Reader to receive automatic alerts from popular travel websites.
A big majority of customer feedback, 70%, is "positive," , another firm that compiles online reviews for hotels. "But," "if 30% is unhappy that’s still a large percentage. They call it a tidal wave of whispers."
Hotels have adopted different ways of responding to the tidal wave.
Negative reviews are compiled daily and forwarded to appropriate departmental leaders who are "required to respond within 24 hours."
Some hotels hired a communications director t, whose duties will include handling reviews. "
Marriott has a set of "best practices» and has been sending trainers to hotels to help employees understand social media,
This is a tricky issue for review sites. To prevent hotel owners from being overly aggressive in soliciting positive reviews, Trip Advisor has a policy prohibiting hotels from offering incentives or discounts in exchange for reviews. Trip Advisor also says it has other ways to ensure reviews are legitimate, and not written by employees or competitors.
Some websites, such as Expedia and Hotels.com, allow managers to respond publicly but won't provide guests' direct contact information,
Others, such as VRBO.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner), let vacation rental home owners remove customer reviews they don't like. But VRBO says it's changing its customer review policy starting today, letting guests leave reviews on the site without having them first read by owners. VRBO says it will remove only reviews found to be fraudulent, libelous and containing profanity.
Reviews with specific data should spur hotels into action, to fix things and develop services and human behaviors
