{"id":2234,"date":"2019-12-05T09:21:44","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T08:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hotelinking.com\/en\/?p=2234"},"modified":"2026-03-11T09:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T08:21:09","slug":"tips-online-reputation-hotels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hotelinking.com\/en\/blog\/guestmaker\/tips-online-reputation-hotels\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips for improving your online reputation: responding to reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

In a previous post, we explained how important it is for your brand to manage its online reputation<\/a>. Nowadays, regardless of whether or not your hotel or chain manages its online presence, your guests (and even your most loyal followers) will always leave online reviews about your products or services<\/strong>, whether on social media<\/strong> or tourist sector reputation websites<\/strong> such as TripAdvisor or Booking.com. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

While\r\nsome brands choose not to respond to online comments, users appreciate it <\/strong>when\r\ncompanies go the extra mile and respond to these online reviews. When guests\r\nreceive feedback about their comments, it makes them feel that the brand takes\r\nits guests<\/strong>, and their opinions, into account, which allows them to keep\r\nimproving their service.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Of\r\ncourse, in order to give this impression, you must know how to respond to\r\nreviews<\/strong>. A response to a review, if not done correctly, can become a\r\ndouble-edged sword that ends up damaging your online reputation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Tips for correctly responding to reviews <\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In\r\norder to start giving feedback correctly without this damaging your brand\u2019s\r\nreputation, follow the steps given below to create your review response system\r\nthat will help to improve your online reputation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

1. Find out which websites are used\r\nby your guests.<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Nowadays,\r\nthe internet is home to a huge number of websites where clients can leave their\r\nopinions about certain services. Some guests prefer to be proactive and seek\r\nout the brand, leaving comments on their social media platforms<\/strong>.\r\nHowever, sometimes it\u2019s important for your brand to actively seek out the\r\nguests.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It is\r\ntherefore crucial to find out which websites are used by your guests<\/strong> and\r\nto start managing reviews when they are posted. Not only does this allow you to\r\nremain up-to-date with regards to your guests\u2019 opinions, but it also means that\r\nyou don\u2019t need to be present on the websites or social media networks that\r\nare not used by your guests<\/strong>. This will allow you to save time and\r\nresources<\/strong>, allowing you to pay better attention to reviews as and when they\r\nare posted.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

2. Don\u2019t reply exclusively to\r\npositive reviews.<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It\u2019s\r\ntrue that brands often feel delighted when they receive positive reviews, and\r\nthere\u2019s nothing wrong with writing a message to show your appreciation.\r\nHowever, this simple habit may have a negative impact on your brand\u2019s\r\nreputation<\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Guests appreciate it when a brand acknowledges that there is always room for improvement, using their reviews to help them refine and improve their services. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It is\r\ntherefore crucial to respond to both positive and negative reviews, without\r\nignoring any of them. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

3. Analyse the main aspects of the\r\nreview.<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If\r\nthere\u2019s one thing that is capable of damaging your online reputation, it is\r\nleaving the same response to every review. Of course, users like to feel\r\nappreciated and see that their opinion is being taken into account. However, if\r\nthey go out of their way to share their opinion, they expect something more\r\nthan a standard reply<\/strong> in return. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One\r\nway of ensuring that you don\u2019t fall into the trap of repeatedly leaving the\r\nsame response is by analysing the main aspects of the review<\/strong>. For\r\nexample, you could comment on something positive<\/strong> that the guest enjoyed\r\nabout your service, and also respond to any negative aspects of the review.<\/strong>\r\nThis ensures a good balance, and shows the user that you have read their entire\r\nreview. For both positive and negative aspects, you must remain neutral<\/strong>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

4. Encourage the user to keep in\r\ncontact with you.<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Sometimes\r\nyou will read very short reviews. <\/strong>Other users, meanwhile, might leave a\r\nrating without writing a comment<\/strong>. In these cases, instead of simply\r\nthanking them for their rating, we highly recommend leaving the door open\r\nfor the user to keep sharing their opinion with you further down the line<\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

You\r\ncould encourage them to continue sharing their opinion on review websites, or\r\neven invite them to contact you via your customer service email address<\/strong>\r\nso that you are always on hand.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

5. Be sure of the context before\r\nresponding.<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One\r\nof the most common problems when responding to a negative review is to respond\r\nnot only in a generalised manner, but without properly responding to the\r\nspecific problem mentioned by the guest<\/strong>. When a user leaves an online\r\nreview, he\/she hopes that the brand will remember who they are and will know\r\nhow to leave a specific response to their comment. As such, if you don\u2019t\r\nknow who the user is or aren\u2019t sure what happened during his\/her stay, contact\r\nyour team members<\/strong> to gather more information about the context of the\r\nreview.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Users can detect a possible lack of communication amongst team members just by the way in which their review is responded to, which could harm your brand\u2019s online reputation.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

6. Draft an emergency protocol.<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In\r\nsome unfortunate cases, serious problems may arise in an establishment that can\r\nbe harmful to the client. These events don\u2019t always take place due to company\r\nnegligence. Rather, there may be external circumstances that affect your\r\nservice. However, in both cases the guest will hold the brand entirely\r\nresponsible.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As\r\nsuch, we strongly recommend drafting an emergency protocol that allows you to\r\nrespond to serious reviews following a problem in your establishment. Users\r\nwill expect a real and honest response on behalf of your brand<\/strong>, as failure\r\nto acknowledge the severity of the event could cause further damage to your\r\nonline reputation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

How to avoid negative reviews?<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Besides knowing how to manage reviews that have already been posted, clients will appreciate your brand even more if you manage to solve their problems during their stay in the accomodation<\/a><\/strong>. This is sometimes made possible by clients communicating their suggestions at reception. However, not all guests will have enough time to do so. Others, meanwhile, will share their dissatisfaction directly online, even before they check out of the hotel.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In this case, how can guest satisfaction be studied during their stay? One very effective way is to conduct guest satisfaction surveys during their stay<\/a><\/strong>, as this will allow you to detect unhappy guests before they have checked out from the establishment, giving you the opportunity to solve their problem during the stay and even surprise them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This\r\nmay help to stop negative reviews being posted on TripAdvisor, or may help to\r\nturn them into positive ones.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

By creating an internal reputation system, you will be able to resolve guest dissatisfaction before they check out from your hotel. By doing this, you will also ensure that you are left with enough time to resolve their problems, which is often the cause for negative reviews.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, whether your hotel or chain manages its online presence or not, your customers, and even your most loyal followers, will talk about your products or services in some places on the network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[50,37,51],"class_list":["post-2234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guestmaker","tag-hotel-reviews","tag-online-reputation","tag-reputation-ranking"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotelinking.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotelinking.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotelinking.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotelinking.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotelinking.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2234"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotelinking.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14738,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotelinking.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2234\/revisions\/14738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotelinking.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotelinking.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotelinking.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotelinking.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}