Monthly Archives: December 2013

You may not immediately see AirBnB as a direct competitor (if you don’t we suggest you read this piece in the Guardian, it also details AirBnB’s phenomenal growth), but they are filling hundred’s of thousand of rooms a month, and we don’t believe those travelers would have simply stayed at home without AirBnB.

No matter: you should be aware of the aspects of AirBnB’s offer that attract; the video we have linked to above does have relevance (remember we visit hundreds of hotels a year ourselves), and we would be very surprised if there was absolutely nothing to be gained from viewing it.

And there are lessons for us in there as well: in 2014 we will be introducing a forum for our members. There you will be able to interact and discuss topical issues – including ways to get the very best from your membership of Dialogue.

While we’re on – note that AirBnB has proritised ‘reviews’ over ‘description’ “because we think they’re way more important”: second only to images (see 55.15 in the video).


Meanwhile, please do comment on the posts in this blog!

A very Merry Christmas to all our clients…

Click to enlarge or go here to see the original

We call it ‘Google Denial’. It’s where we Google a business and find they have no (or very little) presence on, and control over, their Google Business page.


Now, we know that Google for Businesses can be a trial if you aren’t used to its idiosyncrasies, but this blog post is intended to show you just why it’s so important to actively engage with it.


When did you last Google your own business?


First and foremost: Your Google business page is being shown to everyone who searches for your business. Like this…

To the right is the Google carousel (first introduced in the summer); you will notice that (apart from the business details and directions) the only other thing Google is showing there are (a) any reviews – on Google or anywhere else Google can find and (b) a button inviting anyone to write a review.

Here’s a very interesting ‘heat map’ that shows just how dramatically user behaviour has changed since Google introduced their carousel:

The red hot spot shows how much Google users are already focusing on the carousel (for those of you who would like to see just how radical this behavioural change has been just search ‘Google heat map’ to see historic search patterns). This is a massive change – away from natural listings and ads.

Once you have 5 reviews Google introduces star ratings:

Which, if you haven’t enagaged with Google is more likely to look like this:

 

Ruth Watson’s new series ‘Ruth Watson Means Business‘ is currently showing on Channel 4. Although the series is not solely focused on hospitality over half the twelve programmes feature hotels.


So why are we blogging about it?


Because – unlike recent series like the Hotel Inspector on Channel 5 (who sometimes seem to go out of their way to find 21st century equivalents of Fawlty Towers), these hotels only have one problem: negative reviews. The hotels are all well-run (given their respective markets), but they aren’t perfect (is any business?) and of course they get some adverse feedback. Here’s the hotel from episode 5, Fawsley Hall in Northamptonshire:

After going through their complaints with the hotels, Ruth takes the reviewers back to see how the hotel have taken them on board.


The core comments that were repeated by every hotelier was how seriously they took negative reviews; how personally they took them, and how much they affected their businesses.


While some of Ruth’s suggestions (that breakfast for wedding parties was separated from that for other guests, for instance) were valid, we think that there is a deeper issue at stake here, which is having control over communications with your guests. All of the hotels would have gained more direct feedback and been subject to far less negative reviews if they were using a system like Dialogue. As Ruth says on her blog: “You’ll always have the cowards and bullies [who will hide behind anonymity].” But reasonable guests will use Dialogue rather than posting to TripAdvisor.


Interestingly, one of the guests was challenged by the hotel’s marketing director: ‘Why did you post a review online, rather than ask to speak to management?’ her answer was ‘That’s what we do these days’. We’re sure she would have been more than happy to post her review, and a have the hotel’s response, through Dialogue.

It’s one thing to read damaging negative reviews about your business on an independent website – quite another to show them, or link to them, on your own website.

Our headline is a quote from the feed on a hotel’s own website (as are the other two shown here). Now we all know that consumers want reviews, but we cannot think of a single positive benefit to be gained from showing reviews fed by external sites. 

Even if your business looks great today, are you sure the review posted tomorrow is not going to be a ‘killer‘?

We can see the initial attraction, but given that a single adverse review can put off customers in significant numbers, we always advise our clients against this strategy.


Is there any way of quantifying the effect?


The straight answer is ‘No’, potential customers are not going to contact you to tell you they have been put off using your business, but you might like to try replacing the feed with Dialogue for three months and measure the change!