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How to respond to challenging guest reviews

August 22, 2012 | Hotel Marketing

Responding to online reviews has become routine for many hoteliers, and yet every once in a while a real zinger comes along that makes you catch your breath and clench your fists. How should you respond?

Or should you respond at all? If you don’t respond, you leave travelers to draw their own conclusions. If you do respond and say the wrong thing, you risk make things worse.

Responding to online reviews has become routine for many hoteliers, and yet every once in a while a real zinger comes along that makes you catch your breath and clench your fists. How should you respond? Or should you respond at all? If you don’t respond, you leave travelers to draw their own conclusions. If you do respond and say the wrong thing, you risk make things worse.

Like this management response on TripAdvisor: "The guest is lying … Why would I do this knowing he might give me a bad online review?"

Or this one: "What a wonderfully written review! I strongly recommend you take up writing fiction for a living."

While many hoteliers have mastered the art of handling on-property complaints, those skills don't always translate to online. And yet reviews are public and highly persuasive in purchase decisions, so the stakes are much higher.

Here are suggestions for responding to challenging reviews in a way that casts your property in a more favorable light. Every hotel or group will have a different approach, so adapt them to fit the unique personality of your brand.

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