Innkeepers Responding to Trip Advisor

We all know about Trip Advisor and what it can do to the travel industry. The ability for guests to post their honest opinions about a property can be valuable. We also have to keep in mind that it is very difficult to please 100% of the people, 100% of the time. However, it seems that Trip Advisor is all too often being manipulated by the owners of the properties to try to bury bad reviews. It is always painful to receive a bad review, but owners have to sit back and “listen” to what your guests are saying.

We went strolling amidst Trip Advisor and started reading reviews. A true telltale sign of an owner trying to bury a bad review is when you see five glowing remarks about the property followed by an unhappy guest rating their experience a “1” or a “2”. This trend continued as we read reviews, five glowing, one bad. All of this being done to push the bad comments below the fold with the hopes that the next potential guest coming to the inn wouldn’t see it. One inn in New England had a review which was written in November. It raved about the wrap around porch with flower baskets and spoke of having breakfast outside. I don’t know about you, but I live in New England and my flowering annuals are long gone and there is no eating breakfast on the porch until next Spring! This was obviously written by the owner of the property who happened to forget what month it was. Another example that I really loved was when the property was referred to by its initials. Guest don’t refer to an inn by its initials, they call it by name.

My only word of advice is to listen to your guests and try to adjust accordingly. By writing contradicting reviews to bury a bad review only reflects badly on you, the owner, as it is easily identified. The service industry is one of the hardest jobs to perform, so do it to the best of your abilities.