Abhijit Arya explains how hotel owners can use TripAdvisor and reputation management to boost revenue. He covers practical strategies for managing reviews, engaging guests, and improving reputation over 90 days.
Foreign hello, good evening and welcome to one more episode of the Askavi Anand Show. This episode is made in a bit of a rush because we already announced the new series for TripAdvisor, reputation management and TripAdvisor. And it's a 90 day program that we are conducting for many of our clients in different parts of the world. I have been conducting a TripAdvisor reputation management master class for our hotel hospitality clients, hotel and restaurant clients in many parts of the world for many years. But the medium is such that it's so fast evolving that we need to keep updating ourselves and then in turn updating our clients and all of you viewers so that you can leverage TripAdvisor and all other reputation management forums to the advantage of your hotel, your restaurant and make extra revenues. That's what we're here for, right? To help you make extra revenues. And the reason I'm so passionate about all these videos and getting them on to you every week, week on week, is because things are moving fast. I know you might not have time to keep a tab on this. All of us try our best and I bring it to you. So let's get straight to the can I actually make money, extra money, extra revenues for my hotel by focusing on reputation management channels? The answer is yes. Yes. Yes. Can you do it fast? The answer is yes again. Can it be done without hiring a professional agency? Yes, it can be. So it's very simple. Go ahead and do it yourself. A lot of people ask me, why am I giving away all my information? After all, we run a very successful digital marketing agency for hotels, right? And a lot of people ask me why do I give out all? In fact, just last week, a restaurant, successful restauranter from Andhra came in and said, I watched your videos and I want to come and meet you. Why do you give out all this information for free? And you know, I said, because it is something. I'm a son of a hotelier. I'm a hotelier myself. The reason that I started digital marketing for hotel, the reason I do all these videos is because I learn, I see information, really crucial information. Some real knickknacks, some real secrets, some real gems that are isolated in different pockets. Some people know it, they're doing very well. And just in the same region, in the same country, in the same locality, there are other hotels who are struggling to know this. So I thought, let me just share all of this information. And it gives me great joy when I see you people making money by doing something which is very simple. So Getting back to online reputation management channels. Today there are many, many, many, many, many channels. TripAdvisor being the most famous one. But there's IGO, YouGo, there's Zobago, there's Booking.com, there's Expedia, there's Paymotrip, there's Rahi.com There are many plethora of revenue reputation management channels. That means where people can actually write about you whatever they want, good, bad, I mean they can write about you. The first thing is to be to reply first. First thing is you need to reply so you reply on time, you reply courteously and you reply with a semi explanation. And you know what, sometimes I think it's a good idea to also reply with a piece of advice to not only the people who you're replying to, but the others who are watching your reply or looking at your reply to make a decision whether or not to stay with you. Number two, you can also reply with some subtle marketing language. All these channels don't allow you to say hi, thank you for staying at my hotel. Look forward to seeing you again. Please call me at 999999999 my email address is abhijitary. That is not allowed. I've seen that happening in some management responses. In most cases I've seen people removing it as well. So the best is to have some kind of subtle marketing. Subtle marketing could be. Thank you very much for staying at the Tamrin Hotel in Goa. We love the fact that you enjoyed the poolside bar which is newly constructed next week as the Grand Prix comes to town with we're having a Grand Prix party and we'd love to have you come back and stay with us. So this is some kind of subtle marketing. The guy who's reading it will also know that you have next week you have a special at the bar and a new event, a new festival happening at the hotel. And the people who are who have never come to your hotel are looking at that management response are also learning some art through you through such big forums. So management responses are great, great, great marketing tools. So that's point number two. The other thing is what can we do in 90 days to actually rank higher? So it's very simple. You know, personally I do not believe in fake reviews. You should never do fake reviews. You know what, you don't need to do a fake review. I know there are companies in China, London, US and all of these places. There are companies in India which charge you money and say this is what I'm going to do for you. You know, sort of play with the system and you know, there's no point, there's no point. You know, at the end of the day, if you're not good, your, your next customer is going to find out. How long can you fight with this review management battle? It is repetition management, it's not review management. So here is what you should do. Say you have a 50 room hotel or 100 room hotel, you have 70% occupancy, so you have 70 guests checking out every day, right? You have 2,100 guests checking out every month. What do you need? And say you have say 300 reviews on TripAdvisor, or you have 2, 300 reviews on other channels. So whatever channel you want to pick up, all you need to do is make an Excel sheet. Your checkout guest, what source did they come from? They came from this source, they came direct, they came through an ota, they came to a travel agent. Where did they come from? Which site did they come from? That's number one. Number two, email them. There are many tools, great tools. TripAdvisor has Review Express. There are many other tools. Email those people, ask them how they are or different. You can email them and then you can request those guests to write reviews for you. On TripAdvisor, on booking.com, on HP and all these other channels. Once you start reviewing, asking your guests who are checking out from your hotel to give reviews. Even if you say, say even if it's a 90 day plan. Three, a quarter, even in a quarter, you get five extra on every channel. Five. See, go back. 2100 guests are checking out from your hotel. Average hotel, 70 rooms, 2100 checkouts, 6300 checkouts happening in 90 days. I'm saying you have five from the top three, four channels. Every month we have 20 reviews. So by the end of the quarter you have sales of anywhere from 60 to 80 positive, great reviews from your customers who are checking out, from your guests who are checking out. I am 100% certain just by doing this exercise on a regular basis, you will see that more positive reviews are coming up. And when there are more positive reviews, there are enough studies to show. I don't have to tell you that you know by now that reviews are related to revenues. So a lot of stuff that you're doing in your hotel, a great hotel, a great website, all this direct marketing is the reputation part is missing in some cases. I will also advise you pick up the phone, you're the Owner of the hotel, pick up the phone. You're the owner of the hotel. You have a reputation revenue manager. You, the gm, pick up the phone and talk to your guy. Ask them, can we actually, are you happy with my stake? People will be more than happy if you can pick up the phone four, five times, six times a month, you will get those six, seven great reviews and you will also earn some customers who will be coming back to you for life. Why not do that? It's very simple. So in 90 days, make that Excel sheet, assign a dedicated call center person, start emailing those people, pick up the phone, start talking to these people and you see reviews coming up in some cases. I've also seen some very smart hoteliers. What they do is they keep a track of people who are walking out with their cameras and their phones. So if you're a tourist and you're carrying a camera, you love my hotel, I'll ask. You know what? I think you've taken some great pictures of my hotel. Can I request you to post some of them online? So more pictures on reputation management channels may get you a higher ranking on those channels as well. Because hey, you're looking at a hotel with no pictures or bad pictures. And here's the with high definition pictures and even better with some videos. So identify those people who love to take pictures and ask them, request them to take pictures and upload them when they're leaving. So those small, small knick knacks will take your reputation from your reviews from one level to the other and eventually your reputation and everything leads to revenues. So, ethically, correctly, you can do a lot of things on revenue and reputation management. This was part one of this more short series on reputation and review management for TripAdvisor. When we say we're doing a series in 90 days, every day I'm going to come up with a new point on what TripAdvisor and other reputation management channels are doing and how you can leverage them best to market your hotel or restaurant or travel company. Thank you very much for watching and stay tuned because there's lots more coming. Sam.
