For this first week, celebrating the launch of Managing Public Relations Online, we wished to comment upon a topical article as recently featured on hotelmarketing.com (see visual on the left).
As can be understood from the title, we will be broaching the growing influence of the world famous Hospitality reviewer, Trip Advisor not to name it, and how it may affect a brand in terms of PR Management.
The website offers guests of hotels, restaurants, and other hospitality providers the opportunity to review and share their experience online with a unique system of rating and comments. The chance for reviewers to find a personalized and genuine field of expression surely is at the origin of the website's success...and legitimacy within the hospitality world.
Recently, the website has prided itself with the appearance on its homepage http://www.tripadvisor.com/ of rewards collected in 2010, such as Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Travel Awards 2010 for Best Travel Websites.
Of course the article mentioned is not limited to this ideal introduction. Indeed as underlined above, the recent group strategy to window their awards may also be an answer to a growing suspicion. Anger rises among hoteliers who witness everyday: fake reviews, unfair criticisms, or even worst, what can be perceived as defamation. And the phenomenon is very unlikely to stop at times when outsourced companies https://acrobat.com/app.html#d=lb-x3OW4fW926LS7OhCJiw offer to boost hotels ranking and/or trash competition...
As highlighted in the article, the core of the battle is then to understand TA's ranking system. When, contesting the popularity's index, hoteliers always receive the same answer from the Content Management Team stating that its rating system is based on a unique and secret algorithm. As explined in the article, recent reviews are given more credit in the final popularity rating. What it does not reveal though, is that reviewers with many contributions are given more credit than new reviewers who are more likely to be fake or guests impulsed to leave positive reviews by hoteliers. In Canada, Intercontinental Hotel Group offers guests a complimentary upgrade if they prove to have posted a positive review on the Hospitality community website! https://acrobat.com/app.html#d=4T2zqW8auyykPCrYhYUcxA
Furthermore, guests themselves now tend to blackmail hoteliers by leaving negative comments in order to get refunds or better rates/products...underlying the ever influence and power of Trip Advisor! Part of the problematic today is that the popular online resource for Hospitality reviews does not require any form of proof that contributors did experience what they claim to have experienced, not to mention their anonymity...leaving their "victims" with very little chance to track, understand and reply to criticisms posted!
Paradoxically, this is also part of the solution, since Trip Advisor has purposedly developed an "Owners' Section" where managers can reply and have the last word over reviews in order to better control their image...time will tell how adapted and well-balanced this new option is!
