The Revinate Blog

3rd Party Reviews Removed from Google Maps and Google Places

Interesting article and comments this morning on Tnooz about Google removing third party hotel reviews from its prominent place on Maps and Places products. Before, when you went to Google Maps or Places, you would be able to see TripAdvisor, Yelp and other 3rd party reviews. Now they're gone. In their place, just reviews written on Google's own platform by people with a Google ID.

Of the changes, the Google Lat Long Blog says, "Rating and review counts reflect only those that’ve been written by fellow Google users, and as part of our continued commitment to helping you find what you want on the web, we’re continuing to provide links to other review sites so you can get a comprehensive view of locations across the globe." The 3rd party reviews can be accessed by scrolling down the page, where plain text links allow you to see reviews from around the world on TripAdvisor, TravelPod and Booking.com, in Hotel Rex's case.

I am seeing a little bit of an outcry from hoteliers because, like TripAdvisor, reviews on Google's platform aren't verified at all. All you have to do is click "write a review," share your thoughts, and your review is published immediately.

Otherwise, most people see it as a sign that Google is looking to create a robust platform, driven by user generated content, and helpful because it knows who you are and who your friends are, thanks to the recently released Google+. Looking forward to seeing how this all plays out.

 

A Rundown of Alert Possibilities

Unlike traditional office employees such as myself, hoteliers are rarely at their desks. The good news for me is that my desk looks out at the Golden Gate Bridge and I never tire of the view. The better news is that I rarely miss a tweet or post because I always have a monitor with Revinate showing my mentions. For hoteliers, it's a bit more difficult to stay on top of mentions so I thought I would provide a rundown of applications that provide alerts that can help hoteliers.

1. Revinate. Revinate clients can opt-in to email alerts for notification of new reviews and social media mentions. The alerts also include recommended actions, such as respond to a negative review or read a competitor's new review. Clients can also be sent a weekly scorecard alert which provides data and analysis on social media progress and gains against the competition. Revinate is continuing to work on its alerts so stay tuned for new developments.

2. TripAdvisor. If you're not a Revinate client, make sure you sign up to be alerted when a new review is posted to TripAdvisor. You can do this in the Owners Center. You will want to respond to reviews within a day or two to ensure that prospects know you're listening closely to guest feedback.

3. Google Alerts. Revinate clients will likely be managing their properties and competition using the Social Media Searches feature in Revinate, but Google Alerts can also come in handy. Google Alerts are a free and easy way to monitor topics on the Web. For example, to stay on top of social media best practices in the industry, you might want to create an alert for 'Hotel Social Media'. I prefer to get my alerts once a day, but you can decide your frequency when you sign up.

4. Foursquare and Gowalla. Sorry - No dice. While it would make sense for location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla to alert you whenever someone checks-in to your hotel, that's not possible today using these services. However, if you are monitoring Twitter and public Facebook pages for your hotel name, many people that check-in have linked their Twitter and Facebook accounts so a tweet/status update is sent out at the same time. Revinate clients will see the check-in in the Social Media Searches section with a foursqaure url such as http://4sq.com/mnRtjJ

5. Local Response. A new service in Beta, Local Response will monitor Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, MyTown, Loopt, Whrrl, Brightkite and other services and alert you when your hotel is mentioned. The great news is that Local Response will fill the gap that exists today because location based services aren't sending alerts when folks check-in.

6. Twitter. Folks that use Twitter can opt-in for alerts when someone starts following you or when you receive a new direct message. For more sophisticated alerts, you need to use a Twitter client such as Local Response, ifttt, tweetbeep, or a host of other services.

If you know of other valuable alert solutions, please let everyone know in the comments below.

Make Room for Google Offers

Groupon. LivingSocial. Mamapedia. The list goes on and on. But let's add Google Offers to the mix. Launched in Portland to start, Google Offers works just like the others. You subscribe to your city's offer using your email, and every day you are alerted of a new deal at a 50% discount.

Since Google has a close relationship with so many businesses thanks to its other products, I imagine it will have an easy time wrangling up great offers. And who knows what's next... perhaps it will integrate with Google Maps to remind you where your offers are when you're within a few-block radius. Considering the many unused Groupons and Living Social deals I have, that would be a great value-add service to launch. Let's see what happens.