Highly engaged hotels get more booking enquiries on TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor partnered with Atmosphere Research Group, an independent travel industry research firm, to analyse data from over 12,000 properties located in the top 25 traffic markets on TripAdvisor, and interview senior hotel executives, to determine the impact of hotelier engagement on property performance on the site. 

The resulting white paper, entitled ‘Using Guest Reviews to Pave the Path to Greater Engagement’ reveals compelling findings, including:

1. Highly engaged hotels* perform better on TripAdvisor:

   1. More page views: Hotels with higher engagement receive nearly four times more page views
   2. Better market visibility: The average Popularity Ranking (on TripAdvisor) for highly engaged hotels is 63% higher (compared to non-engaged hotels)
   3. More booking enquiries: Revenue-driving products like Business Listings see between 30 to 40% more traveler interaction for highly engaged hotels

2. Successful hotels employ a ‘virtuous circle’ of guest engagement

   1. Hotel commits to systematically encouraging reviews from guests post-stay
   2. Review feedback is consistently monitored and analysed
   3. Hotel makes improvements based on insights from review feedback
   4. Improvements lead to more satisfied guests, better reviews and, ultimately, more visibility on TripAdvisor
   5. Enhanced visibility results in more traveler bookings, causing the cycle to repeat itself

3. Systematically encouraging fresh reviews drives results

   1. Properties that launch review collection solutions on TripAdvisor see an increase in reviews of between 30 to 80% (compared to pre-launch numbers)
   2. Highly engaged properties who have an active review collection solution in place see 40% more page views (compared to engaged hotels with no review collection)
   3. These hotels also see a 25% increase in clicks to Business Listings and a 32% increase in Hotel Price Comparison clicks (meta search)

4. Incorporating reviews in the booking process improves competitive effectiveness

   1. Publishing review content in the hotel’s direct booking channel provides helpful information for travellers to help them determine if the hotel is right for them or not

As part of the study, Atmosphere Research Group interviewed senior hotel executives to get their perspective on the impact that collecting guest reviews can have on a hotel’s performance as well as using feedback from reviews to improve a hotel’s quality of service:

“If you put a focus on getting reviews, you will see the positive results. You need to make it easy for guests to post their reviews.”
- Javier Carazo, Senior Vice President, Operations and Quality, NH Hotel Group

“Customers are brutally honest. We have made some operational changes, such as changing both our breakfast offerings and breakfast operations as a result of the reviews we’ve received using TripAdvisor.” – Dan Olsen, Senior Director, Customer Experience, Wyndham Hotel Group

“We used to charge
for Wi-Fi, but by reading guest reviews we learned it was a basic demand to not pay for it. As a result, we changed to offering free Wi-Fi.” – Javier Carazo, Senior Vice President, Operations and Quality, NH Hotel Group

*In conducting this study, Atmosphere Research Group looked at ‘highly engaged hotels’ compared to non-highly engaged hotels. Highly engaged properties share the following criteria:

• They have at least one registered owner for their property on TripAdvisor (via the TripAdvisor Management Centre)
• They have a minimum of 10 management-supplied photos of their own property on TripAdvisor
• They respond to at least 25% of guest reviews on TripAdvisor
• They publish their direct contact details through a Business Listing subscription

For more information and to download the complete white paper, Using Guest Reviews to Pave the Path to Greater Engagement, visit www.tripadvisor.com/tripadvisorinsights.