TripAdvisor have improved compatibility on their review harvest widget (Review Express). Sounds great? Not when you analyse the impact this will have on your TripAdvisor ranking and score.
All the extensive research into reviewer behaviour (Harvard Business School and Cornell School of Hotel Administration are just two high profile examples) done in recent years shows that giving guests a simple mechanism to voice their dissatisfaction will result in proportionately more (many more - perhaps by a factor of up to 15x) negative reviews being posted.
It's common sense really - just ask colleagues or friends when you are next in a group "Are you more likely to post a review if you are happy or unhappy?" - you know the answer already!
We couldn't agree more with this statement by TripAdvisor, but any professionally managed establishment will want a safety mechanism between its guests and potentially damaging reviews - and we are not ashamed to say that's where Dialogue™ comes in.
Again - great advice from TripAdvisor (maybe No. 6 is a bit intrusive for some!). It is also interesting that TripAdvisor use a UK B&B owner's testimonial...
We did our homework on the Cleveland Guest House's listing. Here are the results:
- Total reviews since opening in October 2013: 166
- Total reviews collected via Review Express: 18
- Last review collected via Review Express: 24 February 2015*
- Last review collected via Review Express before that: 29 May 2014
We find it intriguing that TripAdvisor are using a single testimonial on the header page for Review Express from a client who appears to have dropped the service (just as intriguingly, the story seems to have been posted on TripAdvisor's website post-suspension of the Review Express service - either that or Review Express is remarkably ineffective; there's been only one review posted using RE in just under a year). Why? Well, we can only make an educated guess, but we reckon the story goes something like this...
- A less than happy guest checks out (on or around 1 June 2014), having made their views clear to the hotel. The hotel realises the guest is about to go through the Review Express system and are almost certain to post a negative review. Review Express is suspended.
And that's the problem with any system that invites the reviewer to post directly to any site (be that TripAdvisor, Google, Yelp or any other). No business is going to risk their hard-won reputation in this way. And nor should they - when they have Dialogue as an effective alternative.
*We cannot be sure, but we think it likely that this is a 'late reviewer' who took some time to respond to the Review Express email.
You can be number 1 in your location, but that won't stop a 'killer review' harming your business. Last month TripAdvisor launched its 'Review Express' service, and just like we warned about potential drawbacks of 'Rave Reviews' we highlight the possible downside:
For those of you who would like to see the full death-dealing content...
Oh - and to complete the suite of TripAdvisor tools: a direct feed on the hotel's own home page - and guess what's on top? Another killer review...
Update 26 June - this hotel is no longer No1 in its area.
In summary:
If you run a perfect hotel, and, much more importantly, all your guests are perfect and would never dream of writing a negative review, then Review Express will work for you.
Unfortunately we all have to live and work in the real world where guests do get out of the wrong side of the bed and want to vent their frustration; if you give them an easy-to-use mechanism they will use it (our clients know that) so you have to have a way of making sure they don't do it on TripAdvisor (like Dialogue).
If that easy-to-use mechanism is Review Express it will be used by all your unhappy guests to post direct to TripAdvisor, so it's definitely not something we would recommend.
