Blog homeWhile the hotel and travel industries rush head first towards adding user created product reviews to their websites – just think a second what you expect to get out of it.
I suggest that you expect to get the odd positive review (that may just be usable within offline marketing and testimonials)…. and you hope that if you get any negative reviews – that “wisdom of crowds” will self correct these negative comments from customers who are happy about the product and are prepared to say so. That is the theory anyway.
I do believe that some, independent, review websites are useful – however they still need to answer a couple of key questions:
- Will the review be relevant in 2 years time? After all a review of a hotel is related to a point in time – and service levels and facilities can go both up and down. (not the same as a review for a physical item such as a book - where you assume that the physical item remains constant over time!)
- Is the review rate, board basis or room type related? If your customers take the better rooms – will they be put off by reviews that are from customers that take the worse rooms (especially if this is not clear what the customer booked)? This is particularly a problem if you only contract with the better rooms and don’t sell the lower quality rooms.
However, and back to the title of this post, I believe that the cause of negative hotel reviews are really a marketing problem rather than a product one.
Take a Caribbean holiday for example. Say you sell at 500 GBP (1000 USD) when the standard rate for a nice holiday is 1000 GBP (2000 USD). Many travel websites focus on marketing around the term “cheap”….. which gives the impression to the customer that the 500 GBP holiday is a 1000 GBP holiday “in disguise” and priced low just for them…. Their expectation will be set at the 1000 GBP level – and will review your holiday as if it is a 1000 GBP holiday…… which is why they will write negative reviews…. after all their expectations were not met – even if they enjoyed their holiday.
The 500 GBP holiday they purchased is probably a 500 GBP holiday in reality – and expectations should be set at that true level. If their expectation was set realistically, customers may forgive you for a few service delivery issues.
Unrealistic expectation is set by marketing suggesting that customers are buying “cheap” or “low price guarantee” or “best value”…. this is all suggesting you are getting more than what you are paying for….
Finally, yes there are negative hotel reviews when the hotel is actually bad. However I know that product people within large travel companies try very hard not to list those hotels….. hence if you are still getting negative reviews but from products that you are know are reasonable for your customers…. blame marketing. If they say my idea is rubbish, blame me. Marketing people love to blame IT and vice versa.
Umm…. I think I will go back to travel IT and web – its safer ground for me!
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