Accommodation industry is an established industry, but it can be well said that it is currently being redefined under the influence of the Internet. The criteria set by guests when deciding where to stay at are changing and replaced by the new ones.
Online hotel reviews are among the best examples to these changing criteria. To which degree do the online reviews have an impact on the guests when they are about to decide where to stay at? Do online reviews have a bigger role in guest preferences or do they care more about the prices?
You can find anything you wonder about this particular subject in this article of HotelRunner Blog, which we prepare and update as a versatile source of information.
Reviews or prices?
Reviews and online prices actually have similar impact on what guests prefer. While in some cases reviews have a bigger impact depending on the hotel’s concept, in other cases price has a bigger role in picking the economically advantageous properties. However, both criteria can be argued to have the same degree of impact considering the average.
Negative reviews have a bigger impact
However, the case is different when reviews on a property are mostly negative and if the property has lower scores on online review systems. In this case, negative reviews lead guests to ignore positive reviews or price criteria.
Applying discounts to fight negative reviews
In such cases, the first thing that emerges in one’s mind is trying to attract more customers by providing discounts. However, research shows that this is sadly proven to be an ineffective method. Guests can access numerous alternatives on the Internet, so they are inclined to pay a little higher to prefer hotels with a less number of negative reviews.
Cases where lower price is effective
Most guests do not scrutinize, taking the average of comments and reviews into account only. When reviews and comments on two different properties are quite similar to each other, price becomes the most effective criterion on their decision.
The impact of strong brand perception
On the other hand, properties enjoying a strong brand perception are less affected by reviews or prices. Therefore, guests might book hotels without caring about negative reviews or higher prices when they are choosing a reliable brand.
In conclusion, the first thing you should focus on is to keep negative reviews on your property at an acceptable level if there are some. You can check the article on how to turn complaints on review sites into opportunity on HotelRunner blog. HotelRunner can provide you anything you need for managing multiple sales channels in the most practical way and increasing the number of positive reviews and sales by integrating with social networks. Create your account for free and start to earn more immediately.
