Qype Logo

Qype is a local review website especially popular in Europe, but with reviews in cities around the world. While TripAdvisor may have more worldwide reviews at the moment, it’s important not to underestimate networks like these. While living in Europe, I found Qype more useful and informative for my own travels.

In this interview, I talk with community manager Rob Hinchcliffe on how hotels should promote themselves on the site, and use the power of guest reviews.

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Josiah: As hotel marketing professionals, we often have to improve our position on guest review sites like yours. What are some ethical ways we can do this – that you approve of? Also, are there any promotional activities you want us to avoid?

Rob: We try very hard to make it easy for any business owner to use Qype in order to promote their business. Really it should be just as intuitive for a business owner to arrive on Qype and know what the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ways to go about things are as it is for a user who’s there to review something.

The first thing to know is: you can’t get away reviewing yourself in glowing terms (and you definitely shouldn’t start submitting bad reviews on your competitor’s listings!). Social networks are self-policing in that the community is acutely aware of the balance between a genuine piece of content and something that’s spam or self-promotion. And once you submit disingenuous content to a user-generated site you are asking for your honesty to be brought into question. No business owner wants that, so we’ve made it very easy for people to ‘claim’ their business on Qype. Putting your name next to your business and submitting an objective and balanced description of what you do is the best way to start a dialogue with any online community. People respect transparency and they will respond to it in a similarly objective and thoughtful way.

It’s easy to be cautious and petition your friends and colleagues to review your business with five stars and a handful of adjectives like ‘amazing’ and ‘spectacular’, but be aware that users are looking for information, not hype. A genuinely informative and balanced four star review is much more likely to bring in a new customer than a five star review that reads “The best hotel in town. Why would you stay anywhere else? I loved it!!!” So don’t be afraid to ask your customers to review you. Put your Qype URL on your promotional material, send follow up emails asking for feedback, and encourage people to talk about their experiences.

Business owners ask: but what if people are nasty? And I tell them that people are very rarely nasty, and they’re much less likely to be negative if you proactively ask them for their opinion. And wouldn’t you rather find out what the things that are annoying people are now, rather than six months down the line when it’s annoyed hundreds of other people?

If a hotel has a poor reputation on Qype, what steps should they take to improve it?

To quote Douglas Adams: “Don’t panic!” Occasionally a business owners will see a bad review and go into damage limitation mode. That normally means an irate email to our customer support team threatening legal action and nasty comments on the user’s profile. That isn’t reputation management, it’s fanning the flames. Of course if you find defamatory content about your business online then you need to deal with that, but it’s far more likely that, if a customer has taken the time to compose a balanced review of his or her experiences, then they are not out to defame or damage that business, they are trying to express an opinion on a forum that has been provided for them. Luckily that platform also has space for you to respond, a mechanism which didn’t really exist a few years ago. In the past that customer would have gone away, moaned to their family and friends and never come back again. Now you have the ability to take that complaint, deal with it, and potentially win back the customer (and attract new customers into the bargain).

Qype provides a messaging service for business owners to reply privately to reviewers or you can leave a public comment on a review. We encourage people to respond publicly as it shows how willing you are to be up front and transparent about the issue. If the user has a genuine complaint then thank them for bringing it to your attention, apologise, and let them know what you’re doing to fix that problem. Ask them to come back so you can make it up to them, offer them an incentive. That one customer can turn from a detractor into your biggest fan and that two or three star review can turn into five stars with one or two emails.

We’ve spoken to our users, and they’ve told us over and over again that they are more likely to be attracted to a business by an open and friendly owner, than they are by any number of glossy photos or special offers. Once you know that, then it’s just a matter of common sense.

Read more…

A negative online reputation can severely limit a hotel’s ability to succeed today. With more and more people using the internet to make their travel plans, reviews by other travelers are playing an increasingly large role.

If your hotel has received negative reviews, you need a solid action plan to work around them. And that’s exactly what I intend to do in this post. Let’s get started…

Step 1: Listen to the feedback

What are people saying about you? Set up tracking tools to be aware of both praise and criticism.

• For Google: Google Alerts (email or RSS updates of the latest Google search results)
• For Blog posts: Technorati (the largest blog search engine)
• For Blog comments: Backtype (what people say about you in response to blog posts)
• For Twitter: Twitter Search (monitor real time feedback)
• For other social media: FriendFeed search, a social aggregator that combines YouTube, Delicious, Flickr and more
• If you’re willing to spend a little money, tools such as Radian6 and Trackur allow you to monitor everything from one dashboard

Knowing exactly what your guests are saying helps you take appropriate action. Many times negative reviews require action at an operational level, so it helps to have a system for sharing this information with the management team.

It’s useful to note that not all reviews are created equal. As any hotel marketing manager will attest, negative reviews typically come in two forms:

Step 2: Respond to the reviews

TripAdvisor allows management responses. So does Qype in Europe, and more recently, Yelp.

When you see a negative review of your property, it can be tempting to fire back with a nasty response. But be careful – doing that can damage your reputation even further. Instead, follow these best practices for responding to negative reviews:

1. Thank the reviewer for their feedback
2. Respond to any positive comments
3. Apologize for any legitimate negative experience
4. Explain the steps you’ll take to prevent that from happening again
5. Allow the guest to contact you offline if followup discussion is needed

Avoid:

• Angry, abusive responses…or any type of personal attack
• Questioning the reviewer’s legitimacy (yes, fake reviews do happen from time to time, but they can be very difficult to prove and it’s better to avoid this accusation)
• Only replying with a discount or coupon (which indirectly encourages abuse)
• Corporate babble with no substantial change – such as

“We are sorry to hear about your inconvenience, and appreciate your comments here. We are happy that you have spoken up so that we may better our property. We will be working diligently to make your stays much more enjoyable in the future.”

If I had a poor experience at a hotel, this type of management response would do absolutely nothing for me. I want specifics! It’s unlikely I would return in the future to see if my stay is “much more enjoyable.”

Step 3: Fix what’s broken

There’s no getting around this. Fundamental flaws that repeatedly leave guests unsatisfied cannot be glossed over with a slick marketing campaign. That’s denial at best and borders on unethical.

Train or change your staff. Bring in a consultant. Hire a designer…or maybe just a plumber for that leaky sink! Do whatever it takes with the resources you have.

Step 4: Tell people you’ve listened and fixed the problem

Now that changes have been made, you need to go back to the audience and let them know you listened and acted on their suggestions.

• Tell the guests directly – in your replies on TripAdvisor and other guest review websites
• Tell the story of how you did it – through videos posted to YouTube…or interviews published on your hotel blog
• Tell the media – with a press release or full-scale PR campaign (depending on the changes you made, of course)

Step 5: Start building your new positive reputation

Effective online reputation management is more than just playing defense – it’s all about proactively building a positive buzz. This is pretty straightforward stuff, but is an essential ingredient of this action plan.

Ask satisfied guests for reviews. Specifically, ask them to review your hotel on sites where you’re struggling the most. If you’re not sure, start with most popular: TripAdvisor.

Launch a special blogger’s campaign. As Malcolm Gladwell taught us in The Tipping Point, obtaining the help of a few influential people is essential to spreading a message. In the online travel community, bloggers often act as Gladwell’s Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen – playing a big role in shaping perceptions. Take advantage of this by finding authors of the most influential blogs, and inviting them to review your hotel.

Begin an aggressive content publishing effort. Content is the key to staying relevant in today’s web. It’s also the best way to build a loyal fanbase. Publishing a large amount of very useful content in multiple media channels is the only way to make sure your voice is heard. It takes a lot of work, but there’s no better way to build a positive web presence.

Dealing with Negative Reviews FAQs

Can I remove negative reviews?

Yes and no. TripAdvisor lets you start over with a clean slate if there was a change in management, but not if you did a renovation.

Can I get in touch with a guest to resolve a problem?

Usually you can only use a website’s management response function to publish a reply. You may try leaving a customer service phone number to encourage offline resolution.

I think a competitor is writing negative reviews.

I recommend you contact the review site directly, and explain your reason for concern.

Can I ask someone to remove their negative review?

Most sites do not allow this. You’ll need to follow the steps above to improve your reputation.

Recommended resources for further research

• Basics of Online Reputation Management by Lee Odden
• 10 Reputations All Hotels, Resorts & Inns Should Monitor Online by Andy Beal
• Which TripAdvisor Reviews Should You Respond To? by Micheal Hraba
• How Companies Should Respond to Negative Reviews by Lisa Barone
• How to Promote an Unpopular Hotel by Alicia Sheber