Comments on: Hotels connect the dots between guests and online reviews

By: Garnet

Garnet — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 14:39:31 +0000

I must have left 30 good and bad reviews for hotels and resturants, and have never been contacted by the businesses I reviewed. This must only happen if it’s 5 star.

By: Cliff

Cliff — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:16:13 +0000

I was once warned by the sales manager of a very large, privately owned hotel in a thai resort city to be “very careful” as the owner had joined the dots.

In most countries it would be laughable. In Thailand, as a relatively corrupt and internacine society, if it means a local losing “face” (ie caught out for not doing what they charge for!) – all sorts of very serious problems might arise.

Fwiw he agreed with my online comments and soon moved to a position in another hotel company!

By: Hotel / Restaurant Marketers, Network Science nuts, and social media people – best links of the week! » Hraba Hospitality Consulting

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 16:41:03 +0000

[...] starting to understand the nature of reviews, and how to leverage both good and bad. For example, hotels connect the dots with online reviews. Great article about Tripadvisor and [...]

By: Unir opiniones y clientes: los hoteles y las reviews en Internet « Sobre Viajes

Fri, 21 May 2010 05:39:40 +0000

[...] su blog, Chris Elliott cuenta como cada vez más los hoteles se esfuerzan en conectar a aquellos que escriben opiniones en sitios [...]

By: Stalking guests, or doing our job? RE: “Connecting the Dots between guests and online reviews” » Hraba Hospitality Consulting

Wed, 19 May 2010 18:05:50 +0000

[...] the dots between user generated hotel reviews and the actual guest transaction, folio, etc. In this article about hotels deducing who wrote Tripadvisor reviews, the author muses on the tension between a hotel wanting to know who wrote the review, and the [...]

By: Unir opiniones y clientes: los hoteles y las reviews en Internet - Agencias de Azafatas

Tue, 18 May 2010 18:46:51 +0000

[...] su blog, Chris Elliott cuenta como cada vez más los hoteles se esfuerzan en conectar a aquellos que escriben opiniones en sitios [...]

By: Unir opiniones y clientes: los hoteles y las reviews en Internet | Blog de Viajes

Tue, 18 May 2010 15:25:48 +0000

[...] su blog, Chris Elliott cuenta como cada vez más los hoteles se esfuerzan en conectar a aquellos que escriben opiniones en sitios [...]

By: Mehr zum Mitmach-Web « Serendipity Suite

Mehr zum Mitmach-Web « Serendipity Suite — Tue, 18 May 2010 02:17:47 +0000

[...] If you write a positive review, you might expect a reward from the hotel — a gift basket or a discount on your next stay. Pan a property, and you could get a concerned e-mail from the general manager asking you to reconsider your review. Or even a black mark against you in the chain’s guest database.« (Elliotts Artikel als Ganzes können Sie hier nachlesen.) [...]

By: Joe Farrell

Joe Farrell — Wed, 12 May 2010 00:22:10 +0000

wanna hear a good story from me!? Here you go –

Stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacations for 3 nights on the strip in Vegas. GREAT room – the ONLY problem was a) there was no hair dryer on the wall – the space was there for the dryer but there was none present; and b) someone had moved the 150lb 32″ TV and ripped the cable attachment right out from the TV – they did not break the cable but ripped the connector right out the TV – which was probably because they had a 3 foot cable for a 4 foot run!

anyway, I called down, and maintenance sent someone up. They looked at it. Ah, yep, no dryer and the TV is broken. “When are going out, Sir?”

About an hour.

“Ok, it’ll all be fixed by the time you get back.”

We get back around 5pm to change for a show and dinner and voila, a brand new hair dryer. They had also replaced the 1990′s relic TV with a 42″ LCD TV, and had hooked up my son’s PS3 unit to it.

They saw a problem and they fixed a problem. Within hours. On a weekend.

Dear other hotels- it IS possible.

By: Carlo

Carlo — Tue, 11 May 2010 00:07:48 +0000

Yeah, well I’ve had some hotels and their staff seem to think they’re bending over backwards to help when frankly they’ve barely moved a muscle to fix a problem they’ve created. Like when I booked a king size bed on a high floor and they put me in a room with two double beds. I brought my reservation with me – there’s no arguing with that. Knocking $10 off the bill was supposed to fix that? How about putting us in a similar room on a lower floor with a bunch of things that don’t work, like the phone and the desk lamp? There’s a reason we need a king size bed. There’s a reason we ask for a high floor. And I fully expect a working phone and lights in my room. And for some reason, the hotel staff couldn’t see that what they were offering us was wholly inadequate. I would absolutely post a bad review after that. And if I’m posting a bad review anonymously, I would be really unhappy with someone for deliberately trying to connect me with my anonymous review, negative or otherwise. If I wanted the hotel to attach my name to it, I would do it myself.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:23:17 +0000

Kyle, I have to agree that it would be very frustrating to see that review. Was there a way to add a comment to the review and explain that the guy requested a courtyard view? On Tripadvisor, the owner or representative of the property can add a comment that will appear below the user’s review. That would be a way to address it. I’m always impressed when I see the property representative responding to reviews. I booked a hotel near Disneyland in part due to the general manager’s comments.

By: Carver

Carver — Sun, 09 May 2010 18:23:05 +0000

@Kyle

“No good deed goes unpunished” Some hotel guests really are a pain in the *ss. He’s probably over at Flyertalk complaining about the hotel as well.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Sun, 09 May 2010 17:51:53 +0000

I work for a large hotel chain and it can be very frustrating when I go above and beyond to make a stay memorable only receive a bad review in return.

One gentleman at check in requested an ocean view. I told him that he had booked a courtyard view on the internet ( I also showed him on the reservation that he brought that it said courtyard view) and that I wasn’t able to upgrade him because all of our ocean view rooms had been booked. I could tell he was a little disappointed and I noticed that he had golf clubs with him so I gave him some free greens fees to a couple local golf courses, saving him nearly $100. After his stay was over he wrote a review giving us a 3/5 stating that everything was fine with his stay except that he had requested an ocean view and we weren’t able to accommodate him. No mention of free golf and no mention that it was his fault that he didn’t book an ocean view room.

By: Carver

Carver — Sun, 09 May 2010 13:33:50 +0000

I’m having trouble with this article, mostly because of its lack of primary sources. Specifically, I am extremely skeptical that a chain would allow a property to flag a guest as a problem guest. Chains generally want to know about underperforming properties. This is particularly true at image conscious higher priced properties.

I’d also be curious to know, what does it mean to notate that a guest is a problem guest. How exactly does that affect my travel experience?