Hotels live and die by the number and kinds of reviews they get. Especially on TripAdvisor, because the quantity, quality and frequency of reviews a hotel receives there, determine a hotels all-important ranking.
Very little is said about the authenticity of a review, but regardless, even a small change in TripAdvisor's rankings can send shock waves, and deeply impact a hotel's website and revenue.
Hotelmarketing.com points out that TripAdvisor's rankings are based on a propriety algorithm called "The Popularity Index," and obviously the higher the hotel's ranking, the greater the number of visitors to the hotel's web site.
But while it's logical to say that more visitors to a website translates into more bookings, that's not necessarily so.
Or is it?
Does heightened traffic equal more bookings? The point that Hotelmarketing makes, then, is the difference between traffic and "qualified traffic," the latter more readily convertable to bookings.
To test the idea, a random sample of clients from Micros ecommerce, was analyzed.
The conclusion was probably predictable: "The closer a property is to a Number 1 ranking on TripAdvisor, (in its given market), the greater its online bookings."
The research, prepared by Jonathan Brinksman, senior Web marketing analyst at Micros, breaks it down further, such as: Properties ranked #1 in their market see 11% more directly booked room nights per night than those ranked number 2.
A huge increase in revenue.
Brinksman reports that older reviews carry less weight than recent ones, making the rankings game very fluid and immediate.
The report offers way to increase hotel rankings, and makes it quite clear that doing so is imperative to a healthy bottom line. Great service and exceeding customer demands are still the best ways to get to #1.
image.courtesy cnn.com
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