Hotels are struggling.
Data shows, hotel occupancy, averaged just 44 percent in 2020 (33 percent lower than in 2019), and Revenue per Available Room (RevPar) was just $45 (48 percent lower than in 2019).
Hotels haven’t recovered…yet. The industry added 200,000 jobs but is still 500,000 jobs short of the pre-pandemic levels of 2.3 million employees in the hotel industry. The pandemic has wiped out 10 years of hotel job growth.
Are online reviews an essential key to hotel recovery?
As the industry ramps back up, competition for travelers will be fierce. The good news is that consumers are optimistic and eager to travel again; 56 percent say they’re likely to travel for leisure or vacation in 2021. Business travel isn’t expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024.
More supply but less demand.
The data shows that online reviews play a significant role in the shopping process.
- 98 percent of survey respondents have found TripAdvisor hotel reviews to be accurate of the actual experience
- 53 percent of consumers won’t book a stay at a hotel with no reviews
- 77.9 percent of consumers believe reviews from other travelers are extremely important or very important when choosing where to stay
- A one-star increase on your aggregate review rating can increase your hotel’s income by 9%
- Revenue rose by 56 percent for hotels that consistently generated good online reviews
- 68 percent of consumers would choose a hotel with responses from management than those without
- 64 percent agreed that an aggressive or defensive management response to a negative review made them less likely to book a stay at that hotel
If you’re a hotelier, it’s probably no surprise that reviews have a large impact on bookings.
Here’s a quote from a recent study outlining the impact reviews have on sales and revenue.
“The results showed that positive online reviews can significantly increase the number of bookings in a hotel, and the variance or polarity of WOM for the reviews of a hotel had a negative impact on the amount of online sales. The results further suggested that a 10% improvement in reviewers’ rating can increase sales by 4.4% and a 10% increase in review variance can decrease sales by 2.8%.”
This means the right review site is essential.
Review sites aren’t created equal. While a few large sites attract the lion’s share of traffic, other sites also have value. If reviews are a make-or-break situation for hotels, you’ll need to be visible on sites that produce the greatest impact.
What does this mean?
- You know which sites consumers visit.
- You’re aware of the time that’s required for each site.
- You can measure the impact each site will have on your business.
- You have the tools and resources you need to measure and compare performance.
With that in mind, let’s look at the top hotel review sites in the industry.
Hotel Review Sites
Hotel Review Site #1: Google
Initially, Google was ignored as a review option for hotels.
It wasn’t necessary at first since Google focused its attention primarily on collecting reviews from third-party sources. That all changed when Google expanded its review platform and integrated it with its search results and map listings.
Google is absolutely essential today.
Reviews on Google amount to 57.5 percent of all reviews worldwide across all review platforms. Facebook comes in second at 19 percent, while TripAdvisor and Yelp trail behind with 8.4 percent and 6.6 percent, respectively. All other platforms fight for a very modest 8.6 percent.
What makes it a top review site?
Building a strong review portfolio on Google (via Google My Business) means more visibility and traffic via their local pack, knowledge panels, maps, and rich snippets. You’ll also see a consistent ranking lift as positive reviews improve your performance in search results.
Google also recently began grouping reviews so people can find the reviews relevant to their search. It also lets Google better understand what people like and don’t like about this hotel. This can be found within the “People Often Mention” section of the Review Summary.
This is important because the most important local ranking factors are Google My Business, Reviews, and on-page optimization. Reviews account for 15 to 18 percent of local ranking results, according to Moz.
Next steps: Get more Google reviews! Check out our comprehensive guide on Google My Business and Google Reviews.
Hotel Review Site #2: TripAdvisor
According to TripAdvisor’s Path to Purchase study, their platform “is the number one most-visited site before booking travel, with 60 percent of all online travel purchasers globally visiting TripAdvisor before booking a hotel.”
That’s 60 percent of all travelers worldwide.
TripAdvisor generated 884 million user reviews and opinions across millions of listings, and they receive more than 490 million unique visitors per month.
What makes it a top review site?
In their study, TripAdvisor found that 60 percent of all worldwide travelers rely on TripAdvisor; 74 percent of all travelers use their platform to plan their trip. A majority of these customers, 53 percent, refuse to commit until they’ve seen reviews.
TripAdvisor will play a prominent role as consumers resume leisure travel.
Next steps: Get more TripAdvisor reviews! Check out our comprehensive guide on TripAdvisor optimization.
Hotel Review Site #3: Yelp
Yelp is infamous.
From the beginning, their site has been at the center of controversy. Many business owners have less than positive feelings about Yelp. However, consumers love their platform. Yelp users have contributed more than 224 million reviews on various local businesses, including hotel and hospitality businesses.
Their platform receives more than 178 million unique visits per month — 77 million via mobile and 62 million via desktop. If you’re in the hotel business, your customers are using Yelp, which means you should be too.
What makes it a top review site?
Let’s look at a few compelling stats for details on Yelp.
- Each new star earned on Yelp produces a 9 percent increase in revenue
- 45.18 percent of consumers read reviews on Yelp before making a purchase (compared to 63.6 percent on Google)
- Moving from a 3 to a 5-star rating on Yelp generates 25 percent more clicks from Google’s search results
- 5-star ratings earn 39 percent more clicks from Google’s search results (vs. a 1-star rating)
- 97 percent of consumers spend money with a business they find on Yelp
- 51 percent of consumers make their purchase within one day, 90 percent within one week
- 92 percent of consumers look for a company they can return to
- 80 percent of reviewers share businesses they’ve found with others
At first glance, it seems like Yelp may not be as valuable, they’re spread too thin. But there’s a significant amount of overlap with other industries. For example, travelers will probably be looking for restaurants, hotels, rental car companies, and various other services. The stronger your review portfolio, the easier it is to attract bookings.
Next steps: Get more Yelp reviews without asking for them! Check out our comprehensive guide on Yelp optimization.
Hotel Review Site #4: Expedia + Orbitz + Hotels.com
The Expedia Group is a low-key travel behemoth.
They own more than 200 travel sites, including Expedia, Orbitz, and Hotels.com. Their brands and platforms are present in more than 70 countries around the world. If you’re going to optimize your review portfolio, you’ll want to include the following hotel review sites.
- Expedia
- Orbitz
- Hotels.com
- Travelocity
- Vrbo
- Trivago
- Hotwire
From a review management and booking perspective, each of these brands is valuable in its own right. The more visible your hotel is on each of these sites, the stronger your review portfolio, the easier it will be to increase traffic and bookings to your business.
What makes it a top review site?
The Expedia Group has tremendous reach with each of these brands. According to Alexa, each of these brands are top 10,000 sites, so there’s a huge volume of consumer traffic coming to these sites. The stronger your review portfolio is across these sites, the easier it is for you to outperform your local competitors.
Hotel Review Site #5: Booking.com + Priceline
The Booking Holdings group is Expedia’s largest competitor. Like Expedia, they own a variety of hotel and travel sites around the world. Their brands include:
- Booking.com
- Priceline
- Agoda.com
- Kayak.com
Kayak is an online travel metasearch engine that aggregates data from other Booking properties. The better your review portfolio and aggregate review rating on each of these sites, the better your performance will be on Kayak.
What makes it a top review site?
Each of these brands gives Booking tremendous reach. Like Expedia, they have a huge volume of consumer traffic coming to their sites. The stronger your review portfolio is across these sites, the easier it is for you to outperform your local competitors.
Honorable mention: Viator
Viator is a surprise addition.
Why?
Here’s a description of their service on their site.
“Viator, a TripAdvisor company, makes it easy to find and book something you’ll love to do. With access to the world’s largest selection of high-quality experiences, there’s always something new to discover, both near and far from home. “
TripAdvisor acquired Viator in 2014.
Right now, Viator is focused on activities like tours and events. But that may change in the near future with the recent acquisition by TripAdvisor. If events are used as an attractor to increase bookings, this makes sense. It won’t make sense for most brands at this point.
Reviews are the key to hotel recovery and growth
As the industry ramps back up, competition for travelers will be fierce. Consumers will be more discerning as they resume their travel activities. The right review site is essential.
The sites in our list meet the criteria we’ve laid out.
- We know consumers visit these sites
- We know which sites will require more of our attention
- With the right tools, we can measure the impact each site will have
- With tools like Grade.us, you have what you need to measure, compare, and improve performance
Review sites aren’t created equal. A small minority of sites attract the lion’s share of traffic; yes, other sites also have value; however, you’ll want to be visible on sites that produce the greatest impact and return on investment.
Try it free: Turbocharge your hotel review profiles profile with Grade.us; our tools make review management easy and automatic. Speak to a Product Expert.
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