Hotel Review Sites: What’s the ‘Truth’ About Fairness?
Survey research firms recognize that traditional satisfaction survey response rates are declining significantly. Just a few years ago, people were much more receptive to spending five to ten minutes responding to a series of rating questions about recent experiences than they are today. Yet, there is an explosion of social media sites through which people freely, and extensively, describe their recent customer experiences. The hospitality sector, in particular, is rife with these review sites. Furthermore, with regard to hotels, guest reviews are specific to individual locations, rather than providing just brand level feedback, as do most consumer reviews. Because social media feedback is property specific, there have been a large number of technology providers springing up that have powerful tools to monitor and compile social media data, sometimes with the capability to do text mining for comment sentiment (e.g., positive, negative, neutral). Some argue this type of social media monitoring is a reasonable replacement for traditional guest satisfaction surveys since social media seems to be the guest feedback channel of choice.
The impact of hotel reviews cannot be denied. A recent Maritz Poll showed that 55% of hotel travelers consult online hotel reviews to gain information about hotels before making their selection. Nearly two-thirds of these individuals (63%) report that an online review has, at some time, caused them to completely change their mind about whether to stay at a property, typically in a negative direction. Indeed, the presumed "negativity" of reviews is a concern for hoteliers. The poll data indicates that individuals who post hotel reviews online are somewhat more likely to share negative reviews. In the Maritz Poll, approximately one-in-ten travelers (12%) rated their most recent hotel stay as either "fair" or "poor." The same poll indicated that twice as many online posters (24%) report their online reviews are "usually negative". While this represents a small number of total guests at any property, the salience of a negative review is apparent.
Who is most likely to consult an online review?
Of the 55% that consult online reviews, the travelers who are most likely to consult online hotel reviews are females (67%), individuals 25 to 44 years of age (63%) and those who have posted online hotel reviews themselves (87%).
While the use of social networking sites is growing in popularity for many types of information, travel review websites are still the primary source for online hotel reviews (94%). Only 15% of travelers who consult hotel reviews online are finding these reviews on social networking sites.
Travel Review Websites:
Travelocity leads the pack for traveler access to online hotel reviews (28%). This is followed closely by the use of three other travel review websites – Expedia (21%), Hotels.com (20%) and TripAdvisor® (19%).
The Influence of Review Sites
Nine-in-ten travelers who consult travel review websites (90%), say they are at least "moderately influenced" by these online reviews in making their final hotel choice. Two-out-of-three guests that consult review sites (63%) report that an online hotel review has, at some time, caused them to completely change their mind about whether to stay at a property. That means that online reviews have influenced about one-in-three hotel guests overall into changing their mind about their hotel choice. Nearly one-in-four travelers have been steered away from a hotel due to negative reviews.
Who is Likely to Post Reviews?
Compared to the approximately one-half of travelers who consult online hotel reviews, only a small portion of guests surveyed (14%) have ever posted an online hotel review themselves – typically via a travel review website (91%) rather than a social networking site (16%). This shows the disproportionate influence of a relatively small group of customers. The incidence of posting an online hotel review does not differ significantly by age, income or gender.
Comparisons to guest experience evaluations
Nearly half of the small group of "posters" in this study indicate their reviews are either mixed (23%) or generally negative (24%). Proportionately, this is quadruple the number of guests overall (12%) who characterize their most recent stay as either "fair" or "poor." This indicates the negative slant provided by hotel review sites. The number of posters is small, but their influence is large.
Reviews vs. Guest Satisfaction Surveys
The belief that people would rather post an online review than fill out a guest satisfaction survey is challenged in this data. Of the hotel guests in this study, 19% said they filled out a guest satisfaction survey some time within the past three months, compared to the 14% who said they have posted at least one online review at some point in their lives. However, it can"t be denied that a small number of reviews has a much greater influence on the hotel business than hundreds, if not thousands, of guest satisfaction surveys that aren"t seen by anyone other than managers or corporate users.
Summary and Conclusions
The data clearly show hotel review sites are critically important as an influence of hotel choice. At the same time, the data also show they are neither representative nor unbiased. Monitoring review sites is very important, but cannot substitute for the information provided by more traditional guest satisfaction surveys, particularly if managers receive incentives based on guest satisfaction. Also, hotel reviews cannot be justifiably used to "deflag" poor performing properties because they could easily be challenged for their lack of representativeness.
It is no wonder, however, that hotels are as, or more, concerned about monitoring the social feedback from a small portion of reviewers than the feedback from thousands of their guests. This underscores the important issue of transparency. Internal consumers of guest satisfaction data may be hesitant to post their scores in a public arena, but certainly an argument can be made for doing so. Feedback will find its way into the public domain regardless of who controls the feedback process. Wouldn"t it be wiser to post much more timely and representative feedback as opposed to feedback that is slanted negatively, and perhaps not even timely? As it stands now, a review posted six months ago may still negatively influence hotel choice, while the recent improved results on guest satisfaction surveys are likely invisible to the average guest.
Posting proprietary guest satisfaction scores may be a scary idea, but there is another potential upside. With greater visibility, there may be greater accountability. Sometimes hotels take a tepid interest in guest feedback. Posting results may induce greater participation in guest surveys on both sides. Guests may believe their feedback will have increased impact and therefore, participation may become meaningful to them as consumers. On the hotel side, managers may be more inspired to take guest feedback seriously and actively work to act on their guests" feedback.
The world of customer feedback has changed significantly. The only question that remains is, "who controls the process and how can hoteliers fight to insure information prospective guests receive is timely and fair?" The choice to post guest satisfaction scores publicly as a way to insure fairness seems obvious.
by Rick Garlick, Ph.D., Senior Director of Consulting and Strategic Implementation, Maritz Research Hospitality Group
About Maritz Research
As one of the world's largest marketing research firms, Maritz Research, a unit of Maritz, helps many of today's most successful companies improve performance through an actionable understanding of their customers, employees, and channel partners. Founded in 1973, Maritz Research offers a range of strategic and tactical solutions concentrating primarily in the automotive, financial services, hospitality, telecommunications and technology and retail industries. The company has achieved ISO:2 0252 registration, the international symbol of quality. Maritz Research is a member of CASRO and official sponsor of the American Marketing Association.
