Ask your guests for reviews on TripAdvisor, Facebook, Google Maps, etc.

One of your hotel’s main marketing goals should be to reassure future and potential guests that your hotel is the best value for money in town!

This is where hotel reviews for TripAdvisor, Facebook, Google Maps, Booking.com, Airbnb, etc. play a crucial role.

Recommendations help customers learn more about your hotel, compare it with other properties, and will make you easier to find in an online search. There are many platforms where hotel reviews can be left and read.

If you are asking yourself questions such as:

• How to improve my reviews on TripAdvisor?
• Does Google hotel reviews help improve my website SEO?
• Should I reply to positive and negative guests reviews?
• Is it OK to use a template to reply to online reviews?

Then this article is for you. Let’s see where and how you can be proactive!

Hotel reviews: Where Should your Guests Write Reviews?

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor is undoubtedly the #1 hotel review comparison platform.

Once you have set up your hotel’s TripAdvisor listing, get the direct link that enables a review of your property, which you can send to your past guests via email.
To find this direct URL, you can do a quick search here, and select your property. For example, this would be the direct link to write a review for Solar Hotel in Paris.

 

Facebook

Given more than 2 billion people now use Facebook, your hotel’s facebook page should be your best public relations representative, if it's not already.

Smartly managing your Hotel Facebook Page is assuredly the number one priority of your social media and digital marketing strategy. You can find a lot of useful help on the following post: Top tips to better manage your Facebook page.

If you haven’t already done so, activate the “Recommendations” tab on your hotel’s official business page, or if you need help doing so, consult the Facebook help center.

 

Google Maps

Google Maps is undoubtedly the most popular mapping tool used when planning a trip.

When searching for a hotel on Google Maps, you’ll find that some of them already have guest reviews published. You would first need to set up your Google My Business page to enable this for your establishment too (it’s free!).

If you are not 100% on top of your hotel or apartments group presence on Google, then check out our guide: Google Maps for your hotel: All you need to know!

 

OTAs: Booking, Airbnb, etc.

Although anyone can leave reviews of your hotel on Tripadvisor, Facebook and Google Maps, not everyone can do so on OTAs (Online Travel Agencies).

Only past guests who have booked through an OTA can write reviews or recommendations, within in a limited period after their stay (2 weeks on Airbnb, for example).

Asking your Guests for Reviews: Set up a Process

1. Contact past hotel guests

Start first by sending emails to your past hotel guests, inviting them to leave you a review. You can add direct links to your TripAdvisor, Facebook and Google Maps pages in the email, which makes it quick and easy for them to do.

It is not recommended to send this email to all your past guests at the same time. Distributing the emails over a period of time will ensure your responses are spread out, and it won't seem odd when many reviews appear at the same time. Tripadvisor, especially, may find this behaviour suspicious and block your account.

A good start would be to set up an emailing routine, scheduling one email campaign per week and beginning with the oldest guests first.

2. Set up an emailing routine

Some PMS have an option that allows you to automatize and personalise emails, which will be the most efficient way to handle the emailing process, especially for larger hotels.
If you're not sure which hotel PMS to choose, this is our core expertise, and we would be happy to give you a short consultation to point you in the right direction.

Otherwise, MailChimp might be a great tool to use. Its free version is limited to sending 12,000 emails per month, and its premium packages are affordable. Compile a list of your past guests' email addresses in an Excel sheet (by downloading them from your PMS/Channel Manager) and import it to MailChimp to create an email list.
It is recommended to add “name” and “date of stay” columns in your Excel sheet, which will allow you to personalise your emails using the merge tags.

Make sure you have been given explicit consent before storing and using guests personal data (more about the GDPR regulation here).

You can then create a template email! Below the “leave a review on TripAdvisor” button, you could also add “leave a review on Facebook” and or “leave a review on Google Maps” buttons. That way, past guests can choose their preferred social media platforms.

For future stays, put a process in place that sends an email after each guest stay, inviting them to leave a review. This could be mailed approximately 3 days after a stay, and can include something along the lines of:

Dear "guest name", Thank you for choosing "your hotel name" for your stay in "name of city/destination". We sincerely hope you had a pleasant stay with us! Do you think our hotel is worth mentioning to others? Reviews and suggestions from our guests are incredibly valuable to us, and we would love to hear yours! ...

3. Offer a creative incentive

Be creative! Personalise the way you ask guests for a review to make it more fun and appealing while staying true to your brand communication style and tone.
You could also offer incentives to those guests who do leave reviews; "To thank you for taking the time to leave us a review, we're happy to send you a little surprise. Stay tuned!"

The reward/incentive you choose to send guests is entirely up to you. Whether it’s a drink voucher to use during their next stay (or one they can offer to a friend), a postcard, or a link to the music of a local artist they can download.

Don't miss this last opportunity to surprise them with a positive experience and a little souvenir which will create a final and lasting positive emotion.

Add Efficiency by Asking Guests in Person!

To have a transparent, proactive online process when asking for reviews is a great thing, but you can add efficiency by asking guests in person during their stay, in a kind, creative way. Your hotel staff can easily be trained to do so, especially the receptionists.