Intelligent Insights: UK hotels and TripAdvisor reviews [Whitepaper]

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Consumer opinion and online reviews are the second most trusted form of advertising, and influence 95% of travellers looking for accommodation on TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel website. With 390 million unique monthly users – some of which are so active they revisit the site up to four times each month – leveraging the voluntary and honest reviews to improve customer service is key to building customer loyalty.

Hoteliers are battling with an increasingly global customer base who have constant access to social media, blogs, and videos on portable devices. Before travellers check in to a hotel they have expectations based on reviews they have read from previous guests about the room, facilities, WiFi, location, the photos they have liked on Instagram, and the rave review their colleagues have given on a gloomy Monday back at work. However, despite being so connected to our devices and experiences of fellow travellers, reminding guests to leave a review remains a challenge in the hotel industry.

Online reviews have the potential to increase conversion rates and produce an average 18% uplift in sales. Four out of every five TripAdvisor users will read between 6 to 12 reviews before they book, with one in every two travellers refusing to confirm a booking until they read at least one review.

Since integrating our Purple WiFi solution with TripAdvisor we have been a part of some incredible success stories in the hotel industry. In February, The Eldan Hotel Jerusalem collected 218% more TripAdvisor reviews, while SunSol Hotels across several locations saw a 500% increase in reviews collected in July – just one month after installing the connector.

This incredible surge of reviews, which also results in growth in the customer database, demonstrates the power an email prompt can have to a hotel’s universally accessible TripAdvisor profile. The increase in number and recency of reviews will also have a significant impact on the hotels’ search engine optimisation (SEO) based on TripAdvisor’s search algorithms. This means hotels will not only rank higher on the travel website, they will improve online visibility in their region and have a greater influence on future guests.

To better understand the relationship between increased reviews and improved customer satisfaction Purple’s Intelligent Insights looks at a sample of almost 2,000 hotels across the UK listed on TripAdvisor.

These insights are aimed to identify opportunities for hoteliers and marketing departments to improve their customers’ experience, including key insights into how personalisation has the potential to increase customer satisfaction.

Download our free white paper to gain access to these insights here.

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