The Revinate Blog

Ouch. A Bad Review Stings.

This Valentine's Day morning I woke up bright and early and was looking forward to an exercise class before I started work. I had a press release queued up for 3am so I quickly scanned my email to ensure that it went out and was being picked up by the media. And that's when I  noticed an email from a work friend, alerting me to a blog post. "Brace yourself," it said, alongside a link. Never thinking that the article was going to be about me or my work, I clicked the link and started scanning the post. It took me a minute to understand what I was reading because, let's face it, it's not every day that someone criticizes your work. Among other things, the post criticized the language in the press release and other marketing copy that I use to promote our product. The author also took a jab at our Twitter and Facebook presence, claiming that we don't practice what we preach and questioned the vailidity of online reviews. Ouch, ouch, ouch and OUCH.

So what did I do? Of course the first thing I did was scream a couple of explatives. Then I sent the link to my team so they knew I was on top of it. And then I calmed down and reread the article. As I read I tried to classify the author's arguments as true, fair or baseless. There were a few of each.

I then penned a response. My goal was to be honest, human and not defensive. I didn't need to address every point but I also didn't want to roll over on the big issues since I very much believe in what we do at Revinate. Before I posted my comment, I sent it to my boss for review. He caught a typo but otherwise thought the response was spot-on. Here is what I said,

Hi Phil,

Creating the best product for the industry and being responsive to customer needs comes before any of our outbound marketing efforts. As any of our customers will attest, we are incredibly responsive and eager to help with free training and support, at any time. I urge you to look at our blog, press and our best practices documents where we focus a great deal of our marketing time and efforts helping the industry understand the digital landscape. While I wouldn’t say the cobbler’s child has no shoes, your point is well made and a visit to your Facebook Page made me chuckle. Thanks for the food for thought.

However, I have to disagree with you about our technology not mattering in months. Are reviews going away? Are hoteliers going to stop caring what guests think about their experiences? Will consumers stop sharing their recommendations and tips on social networks? I don’t think so. We collect reviews from ‘verified review sources’ as well as ‘unverified review sources’ but regardless of the source, the data is public and highly read so hoteliers need to care. And yes, they are monitoring in real time and responding as issues arise. That’s what hospitality is all about.

Thank you.
Michelle

At the same time that I posted the comment, I also reached out to the author via email. I said:

 Good morning. I hope you're doing well. I just commented on your article but wanted to reach out personally in case you want to chat or get any more information. While your article provided a rough start to my morning (and on Valentine's Day, no less ;) I appreciate the sentiment and the work you do to help marketing/pr folks and hope we have the opportunity to meet/speak soon. Thank you!

The author responded quickly to both my comment and to my email. In his email response he thanked me for reaching out and said that he would very much like to test Revinate for a future review and was interested in following Revinate news. He also made sure that I knew his intention wasn't to cause pain, which of course, I knew.

And that's all I could've hoped for. From a bad review I was able to show him that I care about my work and that I'm passionate about what we do at Revinate. I'm looking forward to walking him through a demo and getting his feedback on the product. Everyone has something to learn from criticism and these days a bad review can come when you least expect it - - even on Valentine's Day.

Of course,  what's funny about this situation is that Revinate helps clients deal with their online reputation by monitoring and analyzing online reviews and social media mentions. I now know exactly what it feels like to get a bad review. But I have also proven that it's possible to turn a tough situation into an opportunity, through thoughtful engagement and an ability to see your short comings. Rather than becoming defensive, it's always a better idea to look at issues with a desire for constant improvement and the openness to change your ways.

Kempinski Hotels Selects Revinate as Social Media Solution

San Francisco, CA – February 14, 2012—Revinate, the new standard for guest satisfaction for the hospitality industry, today announced that Kempinski Hotels S.A. has partnered with Revinate across its portfolio of 71 luxury hotels in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe.  The global rollout of Revinate is happening in-line with Kempinski’s new social media strategy to ensure that success can be tracked and measured.

Kempinski property and corporate staff will be using the software platform to both manage the properties’ online reviews and drive new business and loyalty with Revinate’s social media solution. In addition, General Managers and the Corporate Operations Department will be using Revinate’ GS2 Reports as part of their management reporting, ensuring that social media and online reviews will become operationalized, much like traditional guest satisfaction.

Kempinski selected Revinate after an in-depth, multi-vendor evaluation process. Revinate won the business based on its comprehensive, multi-language review coverage and its rich feature set. Alexander Noak, Corporate Manager Digital Strategy at Kempinksi Hotels S.A. explains, “I was looking for a way to differentiate ourselves from our competitors and we can do that through our reviews. Of all the tools we looked at, only Revinate provides a solution that allows us to use our online reviews to influence conversion. Revinate’s Social Buzz makes it quick and easy to select and post quotes from reviews on our own sites to ensure that our shoppers have trusted guest feedback to give them confidence in their booking decisions with us.”

Kempinski Hotels S.A. is an exciting new partnership for Revinate, who is already viewed as the gold standard in online reputation management for hospitality in North America. Marc Heyneker, Co-Founder and VP of Sales says, “With our recent addition of comprehensive global review coverage in all languages, Revinate is now actively expanding its services to address the needs of international customers. Having a large, well-established luxury brand like Kempinski select Revinate is a great testament to our solution’s strength and value overseas, and helps pave the way for our future growth across global markets.”

About Revinate:

With online guest-generated travel reviews increasing in both number and importance, hotel owners and operators have a simple choice: either ignore the explosion 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.

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.

Social Media Contingency Plans

In the early days of social media, many brands were fearful about customers having the ability to share their brand experiences across the Web. For the first time, brands were faced with not being able to control the public message around their products and services. As time went on, brands became more comfortable as they saw that the majority of experiences being shared online are positive and even when negative experiences arise, watchful brands have the opportunity to publicly show they’re listening and taking care of their customers. But what if the worst-case scenario becomes reality and there’s an outpouring of negative sentiment?

Just last week, McDonald’s was hit with a PR nightmare when a social media campaign they ran turned ugly. The company introduced a new hashtag and promoted tweets using it. The initial tweet read: “When you make something w/ pride, people can taste it.” McD potato supplier #McDstories All of a sudden, people began sharing their McDonald’s horror stories, ranging from foreign objects in the food to health problems that resulted from eating the food. But, the McDonald’s social media team had a contingency plan and less than two hours after the start of the campaign, they stopped promoting the tweets.

McDonald's social media director Rick Wion made a statement about the situation, saying, “Last Thursday, we planned to use two different hashtags during a promoted trend – #meetthefarmers and #mcdstories. While #meetthefarmers was used for the majority of the day and successful in raising awareness of the Supplier Stories campaign, #mcdstories did not go as planned. We quickly pulled #mcdstories and it was promoted for less than two hours.” While the tweets are still easily viewed by searching for the hashtag on Twitter, Rick did everything he could do. As everyone in social media knows, once something is out on the web, there’s vitually no way to remove it completely. All you can do is hope that new, positive messages push bad content down.

So what is the lesson here? First and foremost, you must stay on top of what is being said about your brand. When new customers first get access to the Revinate dashboard, many of them are floored by the amount of content that is out there about their hotels or restaurants. A comprehensive listening platform is key, as it is virtually impossible to manually find all the mentions of your brand without one.

Second, hoteliers do have the power to remove some negative comments if they appear on review sites and are clearly fake or violate the site’s rules. TripAdvisor, for example, allows hoteliers to petition the site to have fake or accidental reviews removed. For example, if you don’t have a pool and a review talks about an experience at the hotel pool, that review would likely be removed. But, if that fails or if the review is legitimate, but negative, many sites allow management responses. Management responses are critical because they allow the business to tell its side of the story and apologize for not meeting guest expectations. As research has shown, a management response can virtually wipe out the negative sentiment from a bad review.

Finally, hoteliers must think through all campaigns and ensure they have a plan in place for difference scenarios, especially if you’re asking for customers to share content. For example, what will you do if you ask guests to post their best trip photos to your Facebook page, and they post photos of your renovation or stained carpets? Will you remove the photos? Comment on them? Allow them to remain? Most importantly, the social media manager should have executive buy-in to ensure that he/she isn’t held liable if and when negative comments roll in. Brands should have a document that outlines the response they will take across different scenarios, along with the anticipated response time. This document should be approved by the heads of all department, as well as the GM, to ensure the whole team is on the same page.

Here is an example to help get you thinking:

Customer Action	Response Time	Responsible	Action
Negative Tweet	15 minutes	Social Media Manager	Tweet: Please DM me so I can reach out personally to help you resolve your issue
Negative Facebook Post	1 hour	Social Media Manager	Comment asking poster to email you so you can resolve issue
Negative review	1 day	DOSM	Investigate / Public response when allowed and reach out privately if you know reviewer's contact info.
YouTube video showing ugly side of hotel	30 minutes	DOSM	Email account owner requesting a call to apologize and discuss his experiences

Revinate Success Story: Holiday Inn St Louis

 

Thanks for checking out this Revinate Success Story. You may download a PDF version of this article. Please check out additional success stories, and contact us for more information about Revinate.

At the end of 2011, we did a deep dive into our data to see how our customers were performing across numerous metrics. We looked for standouts among our hotel clients, and to no one’s surprise we found many. One in particular is the Holiday Inn St Louis. This small, 119-room property was outperforming all other Revinate customers in terms of online review response rate as well as response time. I looked at the property’s usage report and found that the sales manager, Lauren Barry, was their most active user so I reached out to see if she would be interested in sharing her story.

Lauren works for Lodging Hospitality Management, a small management group located in the Midwest. Lauren credits a lot of her success to the fact that her employer is always willing to look into new technologies and provide the tools she needs to be successful.  One of her most critical tools is Revinate.

Prior to Revinate, Lauren was manually searching for her reviews and mentions across the Web using Google searches and TripAdvisor alerts. Now, she simply waits for her morning email from Revinate, which alerts her to any new reviews, comments, or photos and videos that tag the hotel.

She pays particular attention to the reviews because she knows how heavily customers rely on them prior to making their booking decisions. When reviews surface issues at the property, she brings them to the morning stand-up meeting and discusses the situation with the staff. They brainstorm what they could’ve done differently and how to avoid similar situations in the future.

Lauren will also immediately respond to all reviews where a public response is allowed. In fact, she responded to 100% of her reviews in 2011. She uses that communication to thank the guest for staying with them and ensuring that they know that their business is important to the hotel.  On a mission to be the ‘friendliest hotel in St Louis,’ Lauren knows that prospective guests will see the personalized responses and know that the staff truly cares about the guests’ experiences. She often hears from guests that they decided to stay at the hotel because of her review responses.

The Holiday Inn team is also highly focused on TripAdvisor’s Popularity Index. Lauren’s favorite part of the morning is seeing whether the hotel moved up in rank. Since signing up for Revinate service, the hotel has seen its rank go up twenty spots. The team is motivated watching their progress and during their morning meetings they report on ‘TripAdvisor Timmy’s’ progress, which becomes a rallying cry for the whole staff.

Lauren also uses data in Revinate to get information on competitive hotels. By reading their reviews and accessing their sentiment scores, she can quickly spot the strengths and weaknesses of all the hotels in her comp set, which is important in sales negotiations.

Lauren and I spoke during the first big snow storm of the year and she was busy calling her local accounts to see if they needed ‘snow rooms’ for any stranded employees. I imagine these guests are now sitting down to write their reviews about how this little friendly hotel saved them from a treacherous drive and made them feel at home in their own town.

Using Social Media to Drive Group Sales

The ultimate objective of all marketing is to drive revenue.  While selling on social channels is often less about direct sales and more about influence and driving loyalty, hotel owners, GMs, and directors of sales want to see social media marketing pay off with corporate accounts and group contracts. How can hotels navigate the complex world of tweets, posts, blogs, and more to position their properties for large group bookings?  Here are some actionable ways that sales people can engage with strategic social media to learn more about potential customers and expand their social networks to drive sales.

The cocktail party concept

A recent story on NPR’s Marketplace made the analogy that social media marketing was like working the room at a cocktail party.  “You don’t walk in with your megaphone blasting your marketing message and say buy my stuff,” says Jason Falls, CEO of Social Media Explorer.  Doing so would mean alienating your fellow party guests, your customers.  Instead, “you listen to conversations and find the ones that make sense to you and introduce yourself, network and grow relationships over time,” says Falls.  The story goes on to say, “the value of social media is about getting people to trust you or think you're cool and -- when those people need something -- to think of buying from you because they trust you or think you're cool.” 

Understanding this concept can dishearten sales managers who are often focused on monthly or even daily sales activity, but social media still has a place in the tool kits of high performing sales teams.  The trick is not to get stuck doing social media activities because they feel safer than pounding the proverbial pavement. This is a trap that even the best can fall into.  So, how can owners, GMs, and directors of sales encourage engagement through social media so that big groups know and trust your hotel?  Learning the answer will mean that when a big group needs to choose a venue, your sales person and your property are top of mind.

Joining the right cocktail party

The importance of networking has been a central focus of sales training since before the internet existed.  However, it is important to encourage your sales people to work smarter rather than longer when networking online.  Focusing their online activities on sites with the highest probability of gaining new qualified contacts can prevent them from falling down the social media rabbit hole to the detriment of traditional sales approaches.  Here are a couple of great places to have your salespeople spend time online:

Local Tourist Board pages- Landing a big event like a regional conference or trade show often means knowing when a customer is looking for new venues in a specific region.  Contacts within local tourist boards can be a great source of this information.  Liking or following a tourist board such as Hawaii’s Convention and Visitors Bureau allows a salesperson to engage in a very subtle way with potential customers and the staff at the tourist board.  A quick look at their Facebook or Twitter page daily can keep your salespeople informed about upcoming conferences, festivals/concerts, networking events, news stories, and more. 

Vendor Pages- Planning events, such as weddings or conferences, often include choosing multiple vendors in addition to the venue.  Liking or following top local photographers, event planners, wedding cake companies, florists etc., can lead to great word-of-mouth marketing.  Posting sincere comments about a vendor’s work at your hotel or something they posted on their page if you haven’t worked with them before can further cement those relationships.  This takes very little time, but can really help get your sales person’s name and your hotel’s name out there.   This is especially effective in smaller markets.

Your hotel’s social media pages- Hotel pages that advance social media goals can be a great place to showcase your group sales team.  For example, say that a past group customer posted a positive review on a 3^rd party travel site, such as TripAdvisor or Yelp, or your Facebook page.  Allowing a salesperson who managed that customer relationship to comment back shows continuity of customer care.  This can also drive future customers to contact that sales manager because they are visible and approachable.  Obviously, this should be used in moderation and your marketing staff may need to oversee the posts to maintain brand compliance, but it can be very effective. 

Also, announcing group sales wins can be a great way to drive future group sales.  Large companies want to know that your hotel is meeting the needs of other large companies and that your rates were/are competitive.  However, make sure that you clear the post with your customer first and don’t include specific dates.  Announcing dates might cause other groups or individuals to avoid your property during a large conference or event. 

Prospecting via Social Media

Social media can give a salesperson many opportunities to find new prospects or research prospects quickly.  Here are some ways that monitoring social media can help a sales person spot opportunities for large group sales:

Social media sites of prospective customers- You can learn a wealth of information about perspective customers such as their brand preferences, values, and future events from following them on social media platforms.  Monitoring a Facebook page or Twitter account of a prospective corporate customer can help you learn where and when that company holds conferences, the locations of their major customers, and what types of prizes and giveaways they feature to engage their online community.  For example, a look at Intel’s Facebook page shows that they have regional Facebook pages.  Monitoring these regional pages can help salespeople locate information about a large company’s activities in your region.  By learning about contests that they sponsor, you could try to partner with them by offering a few free nights which might grease the wheels for a future relationship, event, or booking agreement.  Learning about mergers, new customer wins, etc., could help a sales person see a possible area of need for that customer.  This can make a cold call not so cold, because your sales team is informed and potentially known to that company through their online relationship. 

Competitors’ sites- Don’t call the ethics board, but valuable information about your competitors’ customers is freely available through their own social media sites.  And believe me, the same information is probably available about your hotel, but that is a topic for another day.  Watching a competing property’s large wins, customer reviews, renovations schedules, etc., can trigger an opportunity for your hotel. Clearly, you don’t want to have your top competitors show up on your like list, but you can learn a lot about competing hotels this way.  Just keep this in mind with your social media touch points as well.

Blogging- A group sales blog can be an effective way to communicate with potential customers about what your hotel and sales team have to offer.  Keeping your blog fresh with posts about local events, hot restaurant openings, and new customer wins can lead to buzz about your hotel.  Noticing who is following your blog can be a valuable source of qualified customers or powerful influencers.  Posting information about unique configurations of meeting spaces, or themed parties at your hotel can also be a great way to trigger the creative juices of potential customers.  A blog is also a good place to engage with travel agents or meeting planners who could send a lot of business your way.

Brand Exposure and Social Media

When considering social media’s impact on group sales the importance of your hotel’s online reputation is amplified.  A string of negative reviews can win or lose a large group deal just as easily as it can win or lose a single room booking.  With stakes this high, management of social media and online reviews becomes even more central to success.  However the good news is management responses to reviews are more likely to be considered.  An event planner wants to know that the venue being evaluated is well run, and that impression can come directly from how management reacts to poor reviews.  When a professional deals with hotels all the time, they realize that poor reviews happen, but they are more interested in how the management handled the input.  However, obvious trends in reviews such as rude employees, high parking costs, slow service, etc., can become part of the negotiations in a group deal.  Monitoring review trends can ensure that your sales force isn’t blindsided by these issues.  Knowing about past complaints can mean your sales people are ready to overcome objections in a way that can limit the damage of negative reviews on group sales. 

Evaluating your use of Social Media

As with all new sales or lead generation efforts, an honest and thorough look at the effectiveness of your activities should take place periodically.  Some questions you should ask yourself include:

• Am I seeing more engagement on social channels today than a year ago?
• Do current customers check in periodically with my social media interactions? Do they mention our social media efforts in offline conversations?
• Is there a payoff for customers that engage with us in the form of insider information, valuable news or loyalty rewards?
• How can I use social media to make it easy for my customers to build a relationship with my company?
• How many new leads am I generating per month related to social media?

Answering these questions can turn your sales efforts into a sophisticated mechanism that uses social media to establish the key relationships that drive sales.  However, don’t be tempted to slam the door on social media too quickly if it takes awhile to start working.  This is a long term approach that with careful management can complement your traditional sales efforts and ensure that you are invited to all the best cocktail parties! 

Observations about Hotels and Social Media in 2011

As we welcome 2012, I wanted to share some observations based on a year spent marketing to and working with hoteliers. The industry has made incredible progress this year when it comes to monitoring and managing online reviews and social media. Here are my top ten observations:

1)   As the year progressed we found it less and less and less necessary to educate hoteliers on WHY online reputation is so important. Instead, the conversation focused on the resources needed to succeed in an ever-changing online world. Many hotels we work with have hired dedicated social media managers this year to respond to reviews and manage engagement on social media channels.

2)   More and more hotels recognize the importance of responding to reviews. By the end of 2011, 73% of our customers were publicly responding to online reviews.  (44% of all hotels we track (customers and competitors) are publicly responding to reviews.)

3)   Hotels are finally starting to realize that social media response time is critical. As hotels begin to get on board with Twitter and Facebook they realize that clients expect an almost immediate response to tweets and posts. At the same time, guests begin treating social media administrators as online concierges, asking pre-travel questions about where to eat and what to do when they visit. The hotels that are nailing social media are providing value and acting as trusted friends without delays in response time.

4)   2011 was the year that brands and management groups began including social media metrics in incentive plans. As a result, Revinate introduced GS2 Reports, which allow hoteliers to set goals and monitor their hotels’ performance on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis.

5)   Recognizing the operational value of knowing what guests like and dislike about their hotels, clients began requesting the same service for their restaurants. Hence, Revinates for Restaurants is launched in December, 2011. The service is focused on the review sites most important to restaurants, such as OpenTable, Urban Spoon, Google and more.

6)   Recognizing the value of being on page one of TripAdvisor, hotels continue to focus their efforts on improving their ranking on TripAdvisor’s Popularity Index. Some have great success by encouraging reviews and improving their ratings. Others are able to exceed their comp set’s performance in terms of review rating and frequency, but find themselves unable to climb up, leading some to question TripAdvisor's black-box algorithm.

7)   Hotels begin using great online reviews to motivate and reward employees. Many management team meetings now include reading reviews and recognizing employees that are mentioned by name or function. Revinate clients use Sentiment Analysis reports to quickly isolate these reviews.

8)   Hotels are using social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and foursquare as vehicles for offering loyalty rewards. Consumers are becoming trained to check-in via foursquare or check Twitter and Facebook before booking to see if there are any upgrades to be had by knowing the word of the month or promo code to mention at check-in.

9)   Review volumes continue to climb both on online review sites and OTAs. This year Google began encouraging reviews, both on Google Places and Hotel Finder and removing 3^rd party reviews from search results. As a result, Revinate begins not only tracking Google reviews, but also investing in capacity and performance as we scale to many millions of reviews and tens of thousands of hotels.

10) Finally, 2011 marked the year that hoteliers, and businesses in general, began thinking of reviews as a currency that can directly impact business. We saw hotel brands, such as Starwood and Marriott, collect their own reviews and publish them on their own brand sites, doing away with the middle man.

Please let me know if you have other observations about 2011 in the comments section. Happy New Year!

2011 - How Did We Do?

As we come to the end of 2011, I wanted to share some stats related to our clients' performance. The Revinate database contains paying customers as well as their comp set hotels so we can easily track the performance of both customers and non-customers. Across every metric we examined, our customers are out-performing non-customers. See what happens when you take the time to manage your online reputation? Here are some reasons to be proud to call yourself a Revinator:

* Revinate customers are far more likely to publicly respond to a TripAdvisor review than non-customers. Close to 73% of Revinate customers responded to a review in the second half of 2011. Only 44% of non-customers publicly responded to a review in the same time period.

* The average TripAdvisor rating of a Revinate customer for the second half of the year was 4.16 (out of 5). The average rating of non-customers was 4.018. A narrow victory!

* Revinate clients are quicker to respond to reviews than non-clients, shaving more than day off the average response time.

Want something to aspire to? Holiday Inn St Louis Forrest Hill responded to 100% of their reviews. And their response was published 2.938 days after the initial review was posted. With time for TripAdvisor to moderate, that's speedy! Oh, and their average rating happens to be 4.562!

And finally, since our clients often ask whether they should be responding to positive reviews as well as negative ones, I wanted to share what your colleagues do. Your colleagues responded to 28% of 4 and 5 star reviews. 32% of 3 star reviews and 46.52% of 1 and 2 star reviews.

 

 

 

Revinate Success Story: Mexico Grand Hotels

 

Thanks for checking out this Revinate Success Story. You may download a PDF version of this article. Please check out additional success stories, and contact us for more information about Revinate.

Mexico Grand Hotels represents two resorts, Hacienda Encantada Resort & Spa and Marina Fiesta Resort & Spa. As the name implies, Hacienda Encantada Resort & Spa is a contemporary, Hacienda-style, all-inclusive luxury resort located on the tourist corridor in Cabo San Lucas. Marina Fiesta Resort & Spa provides the best location at a great value. It is well known for its all-inclusive dine out concept, offering a la carte, all-inclusive dining at restaurants and bars outside the Resort.

Recognizing the influence that online reputation has on a guest’s booking decision, Mexico Grand Hotels has always devoted time and resources to monitoring online reviews. When Revinate reached out to Mexico Grand Hotels in August, 2011, the hotels were eager to learn more. They were struggling to  manually search the Web for mentions of their properties, and while they weren’t yet familiar with Revinate, they knew there must be a better way to find out what guests were saying about them online.

Gabriel Ibarra, Marketing Director, recalls, “We were having a really hard time finding all of our reviews across all the diferent booking channels and review sites. The process was incredibly time consuming and inefficient. When I saw Revinate for the first time, I was thrilled. Finally, I had found a simple platform that would aggregate all our online reviews into an easy-to-use dashboard.”

In addition to the comprehensive aggregation of online guest sreviews, Revinate also provides hotel staff with reports on their competition and detailed analysis of reviews that have proven to be incredibly important. Ibarra says, “Cabo San Lucas is a very competitive market and it’s important for us to know how we’re performing against our goals and our competitors, based on key metrics such as review frequency, review ratings and on TripAdvisor’s Popularity Index. I was blown away by the reporting functionality in Revinate.” 

Mexico Grand Hotels also understands the intrinsic value of using reviews to improve operations and guest satisfaction. Ibarra notes, “Now, with Revinate, we can focus our time on value-add tasks such as tweaking services and ammenities to improve guest satisfaction. Because we no longer spend so much time tracking down reviews, we can refocus our time on training and engaging with guests, which will mean a better hotel experience for our guests and more bookings in the future.”

Ibarra has been pleased with the success of his hotels since they began using Revinate. He notes, “The last six months with Revinate have been great. In addition to seeing our average ratings improve, the entire staff has been more conscious of the importance of treating our guests well and comunicating well with them because we can see the benefits of great service when we log into Revinate each day.”

About Revinate
Revinate helps hotels compete with a user-friendly software solution for managing and tracking reviews and media mentions on OTAs and social networks. Developed exclusively for the hospitality industry, Revinate allows hotels to turn online guest feedback into actionable plans to quickly respond to competition and market demands, increase customer satisfaction and drive revenue. Revinate is based in San Francisco and has clients worldwide. To learn more, visit www.revinate.com.

How Hotels are Using Foursquare

In April 2011, foursquare, the addictive location-based service for smart phone users, announced that there had been more than a billion check-ins on the platform. In addition, 500,000 businesses are using foursquare’s Merchant Platform to create “specials,” which are location-based mobile coupons. Many of those businesses are hotels and restaurants looking to drive awareness and increase loyalty with regular customers.

The Distrikt Hotel in New York’s garment district has always been at the forefront of social media. They actively engage with prospects and clients on Facebook, Twitter and now foursquare. Grant Schilling, Sales and Marketing Manager, believes that social media is the best vehicle for providing the little touches that create strong bonds between businesses and customers. He sees foursquare as a great platform to spread the word about the hotel and to drive demand.

The Distrikt Hotel has set up both their hotel and restaurant, Collage Bistro, as “venues” on foursquare. When users check in on foursquare using their smart phones, they have the opportunity to earn 1000 loyalty points at the hotel or receive a free drink (with a minimum spend) at the restaurant.

Even more importantly, whenever guests check in on foursquare, the hotel acknowledges them in a special way. Depending on availability, they will either receive a room upgrade, a special amenity or dessert, or a note thanking them for their loyalty.

Andaz San Diego is another socially active hotel that believes foursquare is a good place to connect with guests and prospects. Andaz’s Marketing Manager, Rachael Giannecchini has created venues for all their public spaces and has created specials geared towards their foodie fans. For example, a recent special at the hotel’s restaurant encouraged customers to check in to sample seasonal Chef’s Choice appetizers. While Rachael cautions that Facebook, given its size and content-rich platform, presents higher-volume opportunities to engage and share information, she thinks that having a presence on all social channels used by guests is important to a hotel’s success on social media.

La Concha Renaissance San Juan Resort is another hotel actively using foursquare. The hotel began participating on the platform when the social media manager, Simon Benus, noticed that no businesses in Puerto Rico were offering foursquare specials even though he and his friends were active users of the application. He says, “I saw getting the hotel officially on foursquare as an opportunity to be ahead of the competition and to generate some free word-of-mouth publicity.”

In the beginning, Simon’s goals were modest. He just wanted his properties to stand out, which was easily accomplished since businesses that offered specials on foursquare were listed with a prominent orange label. He also wanted to generate positive awareness, which was easily accomplished because foursquare notifies friends of guests when they check-in to the hotel.  And guests quickly began to notice that the hotel was active on foursquare. Guests routinely tweet when they unlock specials such as free Mojitos at the lobby bar.  

Whether you are looking to increase your visibility on social networks or surprise and delight your socially active guests, foursquare is a great platform on which to participate. The cost of entry is free and all you need is a resource to monitor and manage check-ins and engage with guests. And, best of all, Revinate customers can set up specials and monitor tips and check-ins from their Revinate dashboard, making the process seamless.