“The influence of user-generated content (UGC) and its impact on the hotel industry is the most important trend to impact the sector in recent years and represents an amazing opportunity for hotels to increase revenue and gain a competitive advantage…”

A keynote speaker said this at a recent conference, and it fits with what I have observed first as a senior executive in one of Spain’s largest media companies, and now as CEO of ReviewPro.

While attending The LeWeb Conference in 2005, I became convinced that user generated content would revolutionize the web. But it was not until the last few years that the implications in the hotel industry started to become evident. With feedback from the social web now affecting a multitude of departments throughout a hotel, the case for focusing on reputation management is stronger than ever.

In my conversations with managers of small independent hotels to executives at some of the largest hospitality groups in the world, I have noticed some common themes that define what we consider best practices in reputation management.

Over the last couple of years, the number of people sharing opinions about their travel experiences has increased dramatically. At the same time, reactions from the hotel sector have been mixed. However, most hotels are also seeing opportunities in online reviews. Positive reviews are powerful testimonials and can be used to market your hotel’s strengths. Negative reviews allow hotels to learn from their mistakes, identify areas for improvement and make changes that show they are listening and care about their guests.

A study on the influence of online reviews in the summer of 2010 revealed that 92% of US internet users read product reviews, and 89% of these users said their purchasing decision was influenced by these reviews. More specifically for hotels, World Travel Market’s 2010 Industry Report reported that 35% of travelers changed their choice of hotel after browsing social media, with review sites like TripAdvisor having a greater impact than the more generic social site Facebook. As one of our clients once put it very simply, “Hotel guests read reviews on sites like TripAdvisor and Booking, whether we like it or not”.

Whether hotels see this trend as positive or negative, the fact is that user-generated content is here to stay. Online reputation management should be a fundamental part of any hotel business today. The first step to building a successful online reputation is being able to know what people are saying about you online, but to succeed, you will eventually need to go beyond just listening.

1) Start by listening

There are three possible responses you make to this information. The first would be to ignore online reputation and social media trends. But as we’ve seen above, this could cause your brand to lose an enormous amount in missed opportunity costs.

The second would be to try to manage your online reputation manually. But with hundreds of OTAs and travel sites now allowing users to post online reviews and an immense number of blogs, photo and video sites, social networks and online travel guides out there, it is virtually impossible to manually check the internet for mentions of your brand.

The third way is to use technology to manage the listening processes. Today, ReviewPro gathers more than 90 million reviews in 10 languages from more than 70 OTAs and review sites. Our solution will enable you to monitor, analyze and react to online reviews and mentions of both your individual hotels, groups of properties, and your brand. We offer three versions of the product depending on your needs as well as your budget.

Using these tools, your brand should monitor all relevant review sites and OTAs where your hotels are listed. Online reviews posted on OTA sites are particularly important, as they will be seen by potential customers at the point of purchase and can influence which hotel they book.

2) Get the right people involved

Establish an internal team to participate on the online reputation management process. In building this team, consider which team members or departments will benefit (sales, revenue, marketing, operations, guest loyalty, etc) from review and social media analytics.

What I have observed is that online reputation management goes way beyond just marketing and brand management. The analytics and guest satisfaction indexes can help you make improvements in operations, overall quality, and guest satisfaction. And, a recent trend is to leverage online reputation data and indexes (like our Global Review Index ™) to drive increased conversion rates both on your own website and to maximize online distribution revenue.

3) Create a remarkable guest experience to encourage word of mouth

Earning positive reviews requires you to create an experience worth talking about. “Remarkable” literally means “worth remarking about.” Does your guest experience live up to that standard? If not, what amenities or features could you offer that would get people talking?

Adele Gutman of HKHotels – which runs some of the most popular guest-reviewed websites in New York, shares this advice:

“You need to WOW them. You need to give them something to talk about. You need to shower your guest with so many magical moments that they leave the hotel excited and inspired to take the time to want to share their experience with the world. People like to do nice things for nice people.”

Being remarkable is not just for luxury hotels. Some hoteliers have the impression that only luxury establishments can create an experience worth talking about. This is not true. Little things can often make a big difference. For example, a basic three star hotel in Berlin puts a free bottle of a typical local beer in every guest room at arrival. This is an unexpected touch that gets guests talking and will be remembered. Well trained front desk staff that will go beyond their usual tasks to help out a guest can also make a very positive impression. You need to find little details that can set you apart from the average hotel experience in your market.

You should also show guests you are approachable if they are not satisfied with something. Make an effort to ask people during their stay if they are happy with everything or if  there is anything you could do to make their stay with you better. Monitor guest satisfaction during a guest’s stay, rather than after they leave the hotel, using real-time social media networks. Most hotels ask for feedback after a guest has already left (via e-mailed surveys) or with a feedback card at the end of their stay. By that time, if something wasn’t right for the guest, you may already have lost a customer.  And even worse, they are likely to share that experience online which may discourage potential guests to reserve a stay with you in the future.

Listening to your guests while there is still time to fix mistakes is a great, proactive way of monitoring guest satisfaction – as long as you are able to follow up and provide solutions. Social media portals like Facebook and Twitter play an important role here, as they are typically used during a guest’s stay, while reviews are often written after the stay. Monitoring Facebook and Twitter give you the chance to react to comments while guests are still at your hotel.

4) Make it easy for people to write reviews

Explain the process. Sometimes it’s just a case of the guest not being familiar with guest review sites, why they are important to you and what they have to gain by writing a review. Explain the steps the person will have to go through to leave a review online.

Make it easy. Remove any obstacles to people reviewing your hotel online. Offering things like free WiFi has shown to increase the volume of reviews, and the most popular guest-reviewed hotels offer free internet access. You might also look into adding a “review our hotel” link on your hotels’ internet landing page that they see after accepting the network terms & conditions.

Provide options. Encouraging guests to leave reviews on just one website could restrict the overall number of reviews you receive online as well as limit your exposure across the web. Remember, according to Google the average consumer makes 55+ search queries before making a travel purchase. It is essential you have a presence in all the key review sites consumers are visiting when they are going through the discovery phase of selecting a hotel.

5) Proactively encourage online reviews

Once you have set up monitoring systems and are confident you are aware of everything that is being said about your hotel online, you should get into the mindset of managing feedback proactively, rather than just responding reactively.

If you have acted on previous complaints by guest and used their feedback to make improvements in the hotel, you can mention these to guests at checkout. You may ask, “Did you have the chance to use our spa while you were here?”

If the guest did use the spa and liked it, let them know you appreciate their feedback and are happy to hear they enjoyed it, as you just renovated the spa and added more comfortable lounge chairs in response to guest feedback.

People tend to remember the first thing and the last thing you say – so mentioning a particular aspect of your hotel or service at check-out increases the chance that they will remember this when they write their review.

After the guest checks out of the hotel, you can followup via email. Many hotels send an invoice or a message such as “Welcome home, we hope you enjoyed your stay and hope you come back soon.” Consider placing a link to review sites within this message.

Finally, you may consider responding to positive satisfaction survey responses to earn more positive reviews. Avoid letting the feedback stay on paper internally. Reach out to the guest and ask them to consider sharing their thoughts with others online.

Tying it all together...

Creating a successful online reputation starts with a well thought out plan. Create a roadmap that takes into consideration the people, technology, and resources required to successfully monitor guest reviews.

Once your roadmap is in place, integrate technology such as ReviewPro to assist you. We offer the analysis, customer intelligence, competitive benchmarking and automated reporting to help you increase guest satisfaction and drive revenue growth. Remember, it is critical to spend your time responding to the needs of guests and customers - not collecting data.

RJ Friedlander is the CEO and founder of ReviewPro, which provides online reputation analytics to more than 1,500 hotels worldwide, helping them use feedback from the social web to improve operations: http://www.reviewpro.com

Sabre Hospitality Solutions has entered into an agreement with ReviewPro to offer online reputation and social media monitoring solutions to its hotels worldwide. [Read the full press release]