The Revinate Blog

TNooz Covers Client Wins

On the heels of the announcement of the winners of the 2012 Revinate Awards, tnooz picked up the story of how leading hotels are proactively managing their online reputations and experiencing great gains as a result. Read the story here.

2012 Revinate Hotel of the Year Award Winners

Today Revinate announced the winners of the 2012 Revinate Awards for online reputation management. Hotels across the globe were invited to submit nominations for “Hotel of the Year” by detailing their accomplishments, innovations and successes in online reputation and social media during 2012. Winners for other categories were determined by Revinate through an analysis of large sets of online review and social media data.

Michelle Wohl, VP of Marketing for Revinate, says, “With more than 15,000 client hotels across 120 countries, the competition was stiff. The strides that our client hotels made in 2012 are incredible. In addition to gains on TripAdvisor’s Popularity Index and improvements in average rating and review frequency, every day we witness clients exceeding goals around guest sentiment, competition, and even RevPAR growth.”

While Revinate works with properties and brands of all sizes, and in every segment of the hospitality industry, many of this year's winners are boutique, budget and mid-scale hotels. Kyle Duffy, VP of Strategic Accounts, says, “The fact that so many of the award winners represent independent, boutique and limited-service hotels is testament to how the industry and hotel priorities changed this year. Online reputation management is no longer important to just luxury or high-end properties. It is imperative to any hotel, anywhere in the world.”

The 2012 Revinate Award winners:

Revinate Hotel of the Year - The London NYC, New York, United States

Since signing up for Revinate in January of 2011, The London NYC, an independent luxury hotel, has improved its overall rating versus the competitive set, improved its reviews pace versus the competitive set, improved its rank on TripAdvisor’s Popularity Index from #51 to #37 and ended 2012 ranked #1 in RevPAR versus its competitive set. The London NYC is advised by Digital Marketing Works, who specialize in providing insights and solutions on how to maximize profits through digital channels. Read the complete story of  The London NYC's collaboration with DMW and their success in this post.

Revinate Hotel of the Year, Runners Up - Hotel Erwin, Venice, CA and Galleria Park Hotel, San Francisco, CA

Hotel Erwin has improved in all key online review and social media metrics from 2011 to 2012. The hotel has gone from #23 in January '12 on TripAdvisor's Popularity to #17 at the end of December. The hotel has also fully operationalized Revinate throughout the hotel. Deborah Pinkstaff, Revenue Manager, says, "Our entire staff has embraced Revinate and really made it part of our daily culture. All our employees, from line staff to managers, are aware of and take pride in our Revinate scores."

Galleria Park Hotel has also experienced gains on TripAdvisor's Popularity Index in 2012, going from#17 to #14 to end the year ahead of its compset. With 600 online reviews this year, the hotel exceeded its goals around review volume by 241%. The hotel's RevPAR increased 23% to date while the competition only increased by 11%. James Lim, Managing Director, says, "With all these positive metrics, employees feel that they had a positive impact on our online reputation and financial performance this year. Perhaps a coincidence - - our Work Climate in the hotel scored 90% overall. A great accomplishment."

Best Use of Revinate by a Management Company - Denihan Hospitality Group, New York, NY

Denihan Hospitality Group uses Revinate across its portfolio of 15 hotels in New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Miami. In her entry, Beverly Ramsook, VP, Revenue Management & Distribution, outlined how every department in the organization uses Revinate to guide decisions, from capital improvement plans to pricing.  The sales department also use Revinate reports in client meetings to show how the hotels fare against the competition in guest sentiment and quality scores. The marketing team regularly engages with guests and prospects using Revinate's social media engagement tools, which were extremely handy during Hurricane Sandy for monitoring the hotels with limited services.

Biggest Improvement on TripAdvisor Popularity Index - Surfcomber Miami-South Beach, A Kimpton Hotel, FL

Surfcomber Miami - South Beach went from 149 in Q4 of 2011 on TripAdvisor Popularity Index to 5, where they currently reside. That's 144 points in one year! Quite a feat for the competitive Miami market.

Biggest Increase in Review Frequency from 2011 to 2012 - The Milford, New York, NY

In Q4, 2011, The Milford received 561 reviews. They received 1315 reviews in Q4, 2012. With 754 more reviews, this was the largest gain of any client hotel for the year.

Best Overall Rating Against the Competitive Set - Super 8 Clearfield, PA

Super 8, Clearfield, PA dramatically beat its competitive set in 2012 by more than 2 points.

Biggest Increase in Review Frequency Against Competitive Set from 2011 to 2012 - Aria Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, NV

While Las Vegas hotels traditionally get more reviews than hotels in other markets due to the number of rooms and amenities, Aria Resort & Casino dramatically outpaced its comp set in 2012 when it came to review volume. The hotel received an average of almost 600 reviews a month. Its compset average received 40% as many or about 360 a month.

Congratulations to all the winners and best of luck in 2013!

Revinate Hotel of the Year - The London NYC

Congratulations to The London NYC, Revinate's Hotel of the Year for 2012. Hotels across the globe were invited to submit nominations for “Hotel of the Year” by detailing their accomplishments, innovations and successes in online reputation and social media during 2012.

Download this success story or continue reading to see why The London NYC was selected as this year's winner.

While it is one thing to tell management “we need to focus on reviews,” it’s quite another to show them actual numbers so they understand just how the hotel stacks up against the competition. Since signing up for Revinate’s software service in January 2011, the Revenue Management team at The London NYC, Manhattan's tallest and perhaps 'best-situated' city hotel, has included reports and screen caps of key metrics from Revinate alongside traditional metrics like RevPAR Penetration, Occupancy Index, and ADR Index.

From the moment that the hotel had access to Revinate, staff recognized the value the software added and credited Revinate with providing data that crystallized the need for, and the parameters of, a strategic online reputation initiative.  Ron Gardner, Senior Director of Profit Optimization, says, “Once our strategies were in place, Revinate was the perfect solution for us to use to measure our success versus our competitors. With Revinate in its arsenal, The London NYC has hit major milestones. Plus, all of our key metrics are based on Revinate’s ‘Competitive Benchmark’ scores, which tell us how we are doing in the context of the hotels down the block.“

When asked to quantify the success that the hotel has had in 2012, Ron was quick to share four key achievements.

Achievement #1: Better Overall Review Rating vs. Compset

The London NYC was able to improve its reputation scores so that its Index against its compset Average was 105 in 2012.

Achievement #2: Improved Review Pace and Total Reviews vs. Compset

Although The London NYC always received great review ratings, Revinate helped the hotel understand that its Review Pace and Total Reviews were far behind the competition. Ron says, “Using Revinate, we learned that our guests loved us, but that we were not doing a great job of sharing that news with new potential guests. In response, we developed strategies that improved our metrics around review frequency.” By the end of 2012, the hotel had jumped up to 99 with +100 scores in Q4, meaning that many more guests were “sharing the love” by writing reviews and getting the word out about their great experiences.” Ron adds, “This achievement would not have been possible without Revinate’s easy-to-read reports and Competitive Benchmark scores.”

Achievement #3: Dramatically Improved Ranking on TripAdvisor’s Popularity Index

As The London NYC improved its Overall Rating, Reviews Pace, and Total Reviews scores, the rest seemed to fall into place. The hotel moved up in TripAdvisor’s Popularity Index, key for attracting new guests as consumers flock to the site to understand the hotel landscape in different markets. Ron says, “In the extremely competitive NYC market, which has 435 hotels, we moved from #51 to #37. And along the way, we were selected as “America’s Best Hotel in 2012” on Institutional Investor's annual ranking of elite hotels.” 

Achievement #4: #1 in RevPAR for 2012!

Per Smith Travel Reports, The London NYC has been ranked #1 in RevPAR vs. its compset YTD and will almost certainly take that title for all of 2012. The London NYC maintained occupancy and increased prices by 6% since 2010, while its compset has remained flat. Their RevPAR grew 1% year over year while the competition has seen a decline.

Ron says, “A number one RevPAR ranking is a capstone achievement in the management of any hotel, and it would not have been possible without using Revinate to improve our online reputation. How did we do this? Our improved online reputation generated increased demand, and we were able to drive our rates up into that demand curve -- without sacrificing occupancy or reputation scores.”

In the process of achieving what is often the greatest goal for a hotel, a Cornell Study was published that proves the effect online reputation has on RevPAR. Ron explains, “Our success is the exact effect that is described by Chris Anderson in his recent landmark study from Cornell’s Center for Hospitality Research. The study correlates online reputation with hotel performance: ‘…if a hotel increases its review scores by 1 point on a 5-point scale (e.g., from 3.3 to 4.3), the hotel can increase its price by 11.2 percent and still maintain the same occupancy or market share…’ This achievement, when combined with our very substantial improvements in online reputation, shows that hotels do not have to sacrifice price points in order to win the respect and accolades of their guests. It shows, too, how using Revinate can help to set strategic initiatives for online reputation that are as important as traditional hotel key performance metrics.”

While not easy, The London NYC has accomplished all of these weighty goals on their own merit. Ron says, “We have no brand affiliation to drive awareness, set expectations, or to support a loyalty program. We have to be our own teacher, cop and cheerleader. By using Revinate to set strategy and measure success, we have improved our reputation scores and our hotel performance numbers.”

The London NYC works with Digital Marketing Works to define and execute its strategies for online reputation and to maximize its profits through digital channels.

The Sixteen Companies Creating the Future of Travel

Momentum Index has listed the 'travel companies to watch' and Revinate is ranked number six, with this comment, "Given how much travelers like to complain via social media, Revinate is a must have."

Pop the bubbly and check out the complete list here.

Revinate Selected by AlwaysOn as an OnMedia Top 100 Winner

Revinate, the leading provider of social media and online reputation management solutions for the hospitality industry, today announced that it has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the OnMedia Top 100 winners.  Inclusion in the OnMedia 100 signifies leadership amongst its peers and game-changing approaches and technologies that are likely to disrupt existing markets and entrenched players. Revinate was specially selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team and industry experts spanning the globe based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz.

Revinate and the OnMedia Top 100 Companies will be honored at AlwaysOn’s OnMedia NYC event on February 22^st, 2012, at the Time Warner Center.

This two-day executive event features CEO presentations and high-level debates on which forces are disrupting user behavior and creating new opportunities in the marketing, branding, advertising, and public relations industries.

 “The make-up of OnMedia 100 represents forward-thinking media companies in a year charged with disruptive change.  The emergence of Web-fueled TV and the explosive growth of smartphones and tablets are challenging the media world to transform itself into a global, consumer-focused industry. Coupled with the socialization of everything, this year’s digital media and entertainment startups are boldly charging into future, ready to reinvent the establishment with new, invigoration products and services,” says Tony Perkins, founder and editor of AlwaysOn. “Web analytics are now embracing a social world, providing marketing and advertising companies with the targeted data that delivers on the promise of reaching consumers with meaningful, actionable messages.”

The OnMedia 100 winners were selected from among hundreds of other technology companies nominated by investors, bankers, journalists, and industry insiders.  The AlwaysOn editorial team conducted a rigorous three-month selection process to finalize the 2012 list.

Designed to meet the unique needs of the hospitality industry, Revinate is a software platform that tames and demystifies the all-important realm of social media by monitoring all online reviews and mentions of an individual property, restaurant or brand. Revinate gives owners and employees the chance to turn user-generated feedback into opportunities to delight guests, as well as the data they need to implement operational improvements. Unlike basic monitoring tools, which focus only on the individual-property level, Revinate provides the business intelligence and solutions that can be used by management companies and entire brands to drive measurable results.

A full list of all the OnMedia Top 100 winners can be found on the AlwaysOn website.

“I am incredibly proud that AlwaysOn has selected Revinate as an OnMedia Top 100 Winner,” says Jay Ashton, Co-Founder and CEO of Revinate.  “In the two years that we have been selling our software service into the hospitality vertical, we have seen incredible progress in the way that hotels and restaurants are adapting to social media and innovative new technology. As a result, they are able to reach customers and provide better service than was ever possible before. We look forward to helping our customers continue to drive sales and raise the bar when it comes to service and loyalty,” Ashton added.

About Revinate

With user generated content and reviews increasing in both number and importance, hotel and restaurant owners and operators have a simple choice: either ignore the cacophony of social media and hope for the best or proactively track and manage what is being said online in a way that deepens customer relationships, strengthens brands and boosts revenue. If you opt for the latter, then Revinate’s user-friendly software platform, custom-designed for the unique needs of the hospitality industry, is an irreplaceable tool. Revinate’s powerful technology monitors all of the important social media venues – including Twitter, Facebook and TripAdvisor – and provides instant alerts whenever your property or brand is mentioned. With information comes power: in this case, the power to please a disgruntled customer, monitor the competition and set yourself apart when it comes to guest satisfaction and loyalty. Based in San Francisco, Revinate counts the world’s leading hospitality brands as clients. To learn more, please visit www.revinate.com

About AlwaysOn

AlwaysOn is the leading business media brand networking the Global Silicon Valley. AlwaysOn helped ignite the social media revolution in early 2003 when it launched the AlwaysOn network. In 2004, it became the first media brand to socially network its online readers and event attendees. AlwaysOn’s preeminent executive event series includes the Silicon Valley Innovation Summit, OnMedia, OnHollywood, IMPACT Venture Summit Mid-Atlantic, Venture Summit East, OnDemand, Venture Summit Silicon Valley, OnMobile, and GoingGreen Silicon Valley. The AlwaysOn network and live event series continue to lead the industry by empowering its readers, event participants, sponsors, and advertisers like no other media brand.