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I have successfully run my own holiday cottage business for 15 years, and have recently rather reluctantly embraced the current trend of asking guests to write a review. This is not because I don't want their feedback, I do, but honest feedback seems better ascertained through a direct email.
I would welcome any advice on how to approach customers for reviews, and in particular any experiences of using Trip Advisor to publish customer reviews. I am very wary of trip advisor, but since Holiday Lettings decided it is the only reviews it will publish, I thought I should give it a go - am I right to do this? Any experiences or advice would be most welcome. Thanks.
I do ask guests, just once in the pack I leave in the lets. The section on leaving just sets out how most people like to read reviews before booking nowadays and if they have enjoyed their stay (!) would they please find time to do a review. I have found that most of them do. I have even had a couple who have texted me just after leaving to tell me so. I think it helps that we live on site so therefore do build a relationship wit hour renters.
As for whether it is effective I have to say a big YES in my case. I get a large number of bookings now through Flipkey, the Holiday rental arm of TA as we have a good number of reviews and the most for this area, plus we have 5* so we come out top when people search for self catering for our part of the world.
I do think this will change though if Flipkey don't get their act together re having a presence on TA site for tablet users. I contacted them to ask if they wwere working on tnis and if so what timescale and they replied they were but could not say how long it would take. This is worrying as apparently tablets were selling at the rate of 5 a second before Xmas so most people will very soon be using these rather than their PC to browse for a place.
We currently have 10 x 5* TA reviews and I agree it does seem to tip the balance when guests are looking for a holiday let in the area.
Having said that it really is a double edged sword and I have heard enough horror stories about reviews to make me anxious. Most of these are regarding retention of the security deposit for damage, but as we often say - you can'y please everyone - no matter how hard you try or how wonderful your place is, there will always be someone come along to find a problem. We are still waiting for that 'someone' but meanwhile enjoying getting lots of bookings
I approached my guests from last summer with a personal mail, the tool on HL is very limited in what you can say. Most of them replied saying they had a great time and would leave a review but only one did. I think a lot of people are put off joining TA.
The one review I got at that time really frustrated me. It was a booking that I took from a recommendation before we actually bought the property. They said the place was great but said it was not suitable for young children (they were there for an adult birthday celebration with no kids). The main issue they had was that we don't have a private garden. But I think that comes down to interpretation, we have a private fenced courtyard about 6m x 6m with a patio, table, chairs and a BBQ. HL will only let me select private or shared garden, in that limited scope I clearly have a private garden. They complained it did not have a private lawn area that was not overlooked! Our listing on HL is very clear and includes several pictures of the garden and outside the property (unlike a lot of properties).
Rant over.
What I could not decide was if I should post a reply or just leave the post as is. I am concerned that it may impact bookings with young families.
I think I would post a reply to clarify the garden situation - you want to let families decide for themselves what is appropriate or not rather than take the review as gospel. It would be shame if one review cost you bookings.
ianh100 wrote: I think a lot of people are put off joining TA..
I am sure that this reduces the number of reviews by an order of magnitude.
I hate registering at websites when I am not personally benefiting from anything (e.g. shopping); I know that it only serves to increase my intake of Spam, and worse than that increases the amount of Spam on the Internet, which is creaking enough anyway.
All my reviews are on HR (I just started there many years ago), but they seem to have slowed down, dried up. If memory serves me right, HR did not require a guest to sign-up initially, but they do now. Does anyone else agree with this, or is it a pigment of my imagination ?
My approach on this is to send an email to the guest who's just left informing them I'm returning their security deposit and enquiring if the house was satisfactory and they enjoyed their stay. If someone comes back to me telling me what a fantastic time they've had (which they usually do if they respond) I then ask them if they wouldn't mind if I send them an invitation to review direct from Trip Advisor but telling them that I understand completely if they don't have the time or inclination to do this. This seems to work in terms of getting a review posted about 50% - 60% of the time which I'm quite happy with. I definitely have had a boost in enquiries direct from Trip Advisor in response to this and I now post a link to those reviews when I respond to enquirers. I've only had great 5 star reviews so far but am well aware that sooner or later something negative is almost bound to go on there so I definitely feel the need to bank lots of great reviews to counter-balance anything not so positive!
We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars
Thanks for all the good advice. I will take the plunge and adopt a personal approach in asking my guests to review. The general concensus seems to be that if you handle it carefully then you can really benefit and gain some positive reviews that will up your bookings. I live on site too, and try and form good relationships with our guests, so here's hoping I can manage the trip advisor shark!
I think I will begin by trying to review something on trip advisor myself, then at least I will know what I am asking my guests to do.
e-richard wrote:
All my reviews are on HR (I just started there many years ago), but they seem to have slowed down, dried up. If memory serves me right, HR did not require a guest to sign-up initially, but they do now. Does anyone else agree with this, or is it a pigment of my imagination ?
My HR reviews have definitely been impacted by having to sign-up. They also now throw Facebook in potential reviewers faces and I know this has put put off guests as they have emailed me and told me - saying they have no wish to join Facebook just to leave a review. It's hard enough getting people to remember to write reviews without them having to jump through hoops - but all the big sites rarely put themselves in guest or owner's shoes....
I'm not surprised that people don't want to sign up to TA or other sites. The amount of emails then received are very annoying. But I'm sure that for H-R as soon as the guest makes an enquiry they open themselves up to being bombarded with offers of holidays (I know it was the case with me and HL, even though I'd never specifically signed up to them).
TA are one of the worst.
Thanks.
