Reviews, both good and bad, can have a huge impact on your travel & tourism brand. Learn more about how your online reputation can grow your business.

Why Online Reviews Matter for Travel & Tourism Brands

The Use and Impact of Online Travel Reviews – and How to Handle Negative Ones

When it comes to the use and impact of online travel reviews, <a href="https://www.travelpulse.com/news/features/new-research-shows-the-importance-of-online-reviews-within-the-travel-industry.html">83%</a> of consumers say that reviews play an essential role in their booking decision. Good reviews, bad reviews, or no reviews, what your guests say about your <a href="https://cms.union.co/industries/travel-tourism">travel &amp; tourism brand</a> in their own words can have a considerable impact on your ability to grow your business.

Absolutely. A study from <a href="https://www.siteminder.com/r/marketing/hotel-online-reviews/online-reviews-importance-managing-hotel/">SiteMinder</a> found that over half of TripAdvisor users won’t purchase from a travel &amp; tourism brand with zero reviews. <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/11/designing-better-online-review-systems">Harvard Business Review</a> confirms the consumers’ reliance on reviews to determine whether or not to do business with a company. They found that for every one-star increase that a business gets on Yelp, it sees a 5-9% increase in revenue. 
It’s not rocket science. The higher your online rating, the more reviews you have, the more likely you are to win new customers and grow your business.
That said, if a brand has only positive reviews, <a href="https://blog.reevoo.com/ebook-bad-reviews-good-business/">it seems suspicious to almost everyone</a>. Consumers may even assume the reviews are fake or bought. In fact, 66% of consumers want to see a mix of positive and negative reviews, and 40% say negative reviews build credibility. 
<a href="https://spiegel.medill.northwestern.edu/online-reviews/">Purchase likelihood tops out at 4.0-4.7 stars, not 5.0.</a> Which means you don’t need to be perfect 100% of the time to win the sale, you just need to be human.

Are online reviews really that serious?

The number one thing your travel &amp; tourism brand can do after getting a negative review is respond. 
According to a study performed by <a href="https://www.reviewtrackers.com/reports/online-reviews-survey/#:~:text=53%20percent%20of%20customers%20expect,never%20responded%20to%20their%20review.">ReviewTrackers</a>, 63% of respondents say that a business has never responded to their review. And 44.6% of consumers in that same group say they were more likely to visit a business that responds to negative reviews. 
A negative review left unresponded does more than damage your business’s reputation or hurt your star rating. It also communicates to researching consumers (fairly or not) that you don’t care about your customer’s experience or their opinion.
On the other hand, responding to a negative review not only provides your brand with an opportunity to “fix” a customer’s negative experience, it also communicates to potential customers that you care about your customer’s experience and are engaged in monitoring your online reputation.

So you got a negative review. Now what?

Negative reviews often have powerful emotions behind them. The negative reviewer is likely using strong language that may spark an emotional reaction in you and other readers. They also may be saying things about your brand or their experience that aren’t accurate. 
Since the reviews themselves are charged with emotion, it’s not uncommon for this passion to cause a knee-jerk reaction in whoever responds to the negative review. Which can impact the sincerity of the response and, in some instances, escalate the negative review into something even more damaging to your online reputation.
Travel &amp; tourism brands can systemize their negative review response protocols to avoid this scenario. Having a committed strategy or response playbook can help whoever is responding to your negative reviews remain objective in their analysis of the negative review and the ultimate response.
While every travel &amp; tourism brand’s response protocol will differ from brand to brand, they should all share a few essential response elements, including:
Acknowledge: Is this negative review warranted? Take ownership of your brand’s mistake and acknowledge it in your response. 
Empathize: Put yourselves in the shoes of the reviewer. They invested money and time into your travel &amp; tourism brand only to walk away with a negative experience. Speak to them, human-to-human, and show that your brand understands why they are upset about their negative experience. 
Apologize: You don’t have to say, “I’m sorry,” but your brand should convey an apology in your response. 
Invite them back: Keep the door open for another interaction with this customer. Invite them to try another product or service and establish that your brand’s goal is to exceed their expectations. 
Keep in mind some people might not accept your response or your apology. That’s fine. The purpose of your response isn’t to win back a single customer. It’s to ensure that you don’t lose a future customer because of a specific negative review.

A few essential elements of an ideal negative review response

It happens. Sometimes brands receive negative reviews that are, at best, inaccurate or, at worst, straight-up lies. Your brand still needs to respond. 
Evaluate the negative review to determine which parts are true and which parts are possibly inflated or false. Acknowledge the parts of the review that are true. Then provide an objective counter-response to the inaccuracies in the review.

What if the negative review isn’t true?

Appreciate the value of negative reviews. Sure, in some cases, it may just be a grumpy guest, but most often, a negative review is a clear indication that a system in your business broke down.
Pay attention to any common themes that emerge from your online reviews. Are specific departments or aspects of your offering being called out more than others? Are angry customers referencing particular employees?
Identify these trends and then use this feedback to make improvements to your business.

What to do after you respond to a negative review

According to a <a href="https://ir.tripadvisor.com/news-releases/news-release-details/online-reviews-remain-trusted-source-information-when-booking">Tripadvisor survey</a>, 78% of people say they focus on the most recent reviews by fellow travelers. It’s not enough to have glowing reviews if they’re considered outdated. Your brand needs reviews. It’s critical for your travel &amp; tourism brand to have a strategy in place for continuously collecting and responding to online reviews – the more powerful your review solicitation and response strategy, the more significant its impact on your bottom line. 
Ready to maximize your online reviews to increase revenue and brand awareness for your travel &amp; tourism brand? <a href="https://union.co/contact">Let’s chat</a>.

Take control of your online reputation and grow your business

Valtech + Union is a creative &amp; performance marketing agency that creates omni-channel campaigns, unleashing creativity on a data-driven world, helping brands produce memorable, measurable and repeatable results. Obsessed with data-driven performance, we believe every marketing dollar should be viewed as an investment. Our clients expect a meaningful return and we prove the ROI of our work with quantifiable data.