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    Claude Bénard

    'How was your stay?' : Does the Hotel Ritz has something to learn about Travel 2.0 ?

    how_was_your_stay_in_our_hotel.jpg
    We know in the hotel & travel industry that "User Generated
    Reviews", customer service and quality of the customer's experience are the main keys if you want to run a succesfull business.

    But does everybody know about Travel 2.0 and how to manage "User Generated Reviews"?

    I think not, let me explain a exemple with Ritz Hotel in Paris.

    First, some fact:

    - Remember, Travel 2.0 vision, it is all about the community, and where your "friends", readers and customers are! and Internet is all about multiple touch points with the potential customer!

    - "User Generated Reviews" technology is based on "Long Trail user reviews". To be simple, the game for TripAdvisor for exemple, it's to be in the Google index with the name of your hotel, and before you of course !!!

    - Hotels' online identity is in many cases "stolen" by big players...

    - Social media is the next generation of the Internet

    - This trends are here to stay and you have to play with it !

    Second, let's analyse "User Generated Reviews" for Hotel Ritz in Paris (most famous hotel-Palace in Paris)

    Check out the Ritz reviews on TripAdvisor (58 reviews)

    Some title reviews, seems it's not "the perfection" and I don't see any hotel management answers !

    "Ritz is the Pitz"
    "Comme Ci, Comme Ca"
    "not the best"
    "putting it up... !"
    "NOT Putting On The Ritz!"
    "Shame on Ritz Paris"
    "Grand but worn around the edges lends to the feel of a palatial old mansion"
    "Keep your Money and Stay away from the Ritz in Paris."
    "Worst Hotel I've Been To in My Life."
    "Service lacking"

    Third, some simple solution(s) to manage "User Generated Reviews"

    >> Begining by the bottom line:

    The hotel should work on their core business (customer service to make happy customers) and try to avoid negative postings.
    The hotel may use "public and free" tools, for exemple Google Alerts and Technorati or Sphere to monitor what is the online chatter about the hotel out there.
    The hotel has to monitor "User Generated Reviews" (web sites like TripAdvisor) and react if a negative review comes up.

    >> Concentrated on some key players in the UGC market

    I suggest to scan reviews inside this web sites:
    TripAdvisor (leader with more than 22 millionsusers / month)
    VibeAgent (futur leader)
    Vinivi (good player for french and european market)
    HotelChatter
    FlyerTalk

    >> Then, using Web Reputation Monitoring Tools
    I make a post about this tools here (sorry in french)

    I see 4 products and services on the market:
    Hotel Protect

    Reviews Analyst

    Chatter Guard

    TravelClick Search View

    >> And engage a dynamic strategy about UGC

    Remember a Internet principle, web site needs good content and good data for their end users.
    So, give them good data and good content.
    Ask your customers to post reviews on your selected "User Generated Reviews" web sites.
    Help your customers in this process (give a User Review Card, tell them in your flyers and documentation, make a brief with your reception desk...)

    Conclusion
    Involve your users and customers in the discussion, get them to participate actively and they will market for you.

    What do you think, any other ideas to manage "User Generated Reviews" in the hotel & tourism industry?

    P.S: disclaimer, I have nothing involve with Ritz Paris ;-)

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    Claude Bénard Comentario por Claude Bénard el noviembre 5, 2007 a las 1:42pm
    Albert,

    Thanks for your comment.

    I agree with you: "Knowing the customers expectations may also allow hoteliers to design custom products or services, with advantage resulting of knowing in advance how much a customer is also willing to pay for such services."

    it's the best marketing way to use travel 2.0 trends and UGC

    Ignasi,

    If you make a ratio (10 bad reviews / 58 reviews), you have 17% customers who are very hungry with Ritz Paris.

    Seems, they are not aware like many other big chain or hotels
    Ignasi Casellas Comentario por Ignasi Casellas el noviembre 4, 2007 a las 11:30pm
    Impressive Claude, very good UGR management summary.

    I totally agree your post. Only I would add using an easy google tool (local business center) can beat the UGC webs in the searches index for your own brand's or name's searchs.

    Abosulutely unacceptable the hotel managament's position. They do not care about the hotel online guests and obviously the hotel online reputation (looks like this hotle is still hosting offline guests mostly). From the hotelier point of view, they do not know what distribution trends are available nowadays and most important they do not know they are losing revenue and a better gross operation benefit. Abosultely incredible in a such important hotel with (I imagine) a huge Marketing budget!

    I am convinced this hotel gets good finnacial results but easily beatable seeing the online reputation and I do not understand why do not take any actions.
    May be the online sales in Paris for De Luxe hotels is not relevant at all but the hotel management can not "afford" this negative reputation. Might be they are still thinking online users are only a very small part of the cake. Saludos,


    in the second point, I did leave clear my position starting the post.
    Albert Barra Comentario por Albert Barra el noviembre 4, 2007 a las 11:06pm
    Hi Claude. I know you have no relationship with the Ritz. UGC Monitoring is becoming a must in the industry. However, I agree with you, and it is not just the case of this particular hotel, hotel managers trend to believe that managing their online reputation is basically having their 'satisfied' guests to post their positive reviews, at third party sites.

    I also agree with you in the esential conversation that is also a must. I believe that the perfect place for the conversation to happen is a branded blog, or social network, even a forum.

    I just posted today an article about the conversation based on the Cluetrain Manifest (sorry, it's in Spanish, but you can read spanish). Hotel managers basically design their strategies based on information about guests that actually were at their hotel.

    Should they maintain their conversations in a Blog could grap data from potential customers and design better focused and targeted strategies.

    Knowing the customers expectations may also allow hoteliers to design custom products or services, with advantage resulting of knowing in advance how much a customer is also willing to pay for such services.

    Interesting Claude.

    Best Regards,
    Albert