How to manage and respond to hotel guest reviews

When travelers are looking for somewhere to stay, they shop around. Most will research across a range of different websites before they book, and hotel guest reviews play a big part in this planning phase. In fact, they can often be the deciding factor in a traveler’s final decision.

Positive guest reviews can help convince travelers to choose your property, while a negative guest review can send them to another option — all in less than 30 seconds.

Consider these stats:

• 73% of travelers read an average of nine reviews per property.
• When reading reviews, 78% are looking for confirmation about the rooms’ cleanliness, 68% want to know about the property’s overall condition, and 49% are scanning to see if there are any mentions about customer service concerns.
• 40% said reviews are even more important now than they were before the pandemic.

Not only do guest reviews collected through Expedia Group get displayed on our travel booking websites, like Expedia.com or trivago.com, they also can show up on other channels, like in Google search results.

And it’s not just the content of the reviews that matter.

Whether reviews are positive, negative, or somewhere in between, travelers are looking to see how you respond. Almost all travelers, 91%, said property owners and managers should reply to negative reviews.

Finally, guest reviews are a measure of the guest experience. In our marketplace, partners who show they provide great guest experiences through positive reviews may see higher placement in the sort order.

Reviews are valuable to your guests and critical to your business. Read on to learn how to get more guest reviews for your property and respond to all feedback, good and bad.

Many guests will happily leave reviews about their stay. All you have to do is ask — and make it easy for them to give their feedback.

Here are a few tips for requesting reviews before, during, and after a guest’s stay:

• Place a sign in the room with a message like “Let us know how your stay is going” or “Tell us what you think — leave a review!” Add your property’s website and social media profiles, as well as links to hotel review sites.
• Ask for reviews on any printed materials you share with guests, whether it’s your Wi-Fi information or a list of local attractions.
• Speaking of Wi-Fi, you can also ask for reviews on your sign-in confirmation page.
• Encourage your front-desk staff to ask for reviews. It’s a natural follow-up to the “how was your stay?” conversation at checkout.
• Give guests branded goodies like postcards, magnets, or pens with a polite note asking for a review.
• If a guest booked with your property through one of our websites, they will automatically be sent an email to submit a review after their stay. Guests can also submit a review through their itinerary page.
• Request reviews through our Messages tool. Turn on the automatic post-stay review request feature in the Message Center. This sends a custom template requesting a review and includes a link to the post-stay review form.

Reviews don’t just help travelers make a decision about where to stay. They can also help you improve every aspect of your guest experience.

Make time to go over reviews on a regular basis. This can help you uncover potential issues before they become a larger problem.

For example, according to our data, guests are most likely to be frustrated with the following aspects during their stay*:

• Property, room, and bathroom cleanliness
• Bed cleanliness, size, and comfort
• Difficulty checking in
• Closed or unavailable amenities

Look for common themes in your guest feedback that might indicate what your guests love — and what they wish you would improve.

Don’t let a fear of negative reviews dissuade you from seeking out guest feedback. Travelers understand that negative reviews happen — it’s how you handle them that matters.

In our research, when travelers are looking to book accommodation and see a negative review for a property, only 9% said there was nothing you could do to make them feel more comfortable about booking the property, showing that, for most travelers, there’s always an opportunity to regain their trust.

Responding to guest reviews shows that your team truly cares about your guests, their experience, and their feedback.

It also helps reduce the impact of a negative review, especially if your reply is personal and genuine.

Here are a few tips to help you respond to less-than-stellar reviews with confidence.

• Address the guest by name, thank them for their feedback, and let them know you’re listening. Don’t give a stock or standardized answer. It will turn people away even more.
• Acknowledge the issue and show a sincere desire to get things right. Be empathetic and apologize. But don’t get defensive. Remember, you’re not just speaking to a single guest — you’re speaking to everyone who reads the review and your response.
• Try to respond within 24 hours. Any longer and it may seem like you don’t care about the guest’s experience.

Of course, not all reviews are bad. When you receive positive feedback, be gracious and humble. Thank the person for sharing about their experience. Let them know how much the review means to you and your team.

You can quickly reply to reviews using our Post-stay reviews tool. Sort your list to view the reviews that are awaiting a reply, enter your comments, hit submit, and you’re good to go!

For step-by-step instructions on how to respond to reviews using Partner Central, read this Help article.

Let’s put the above tips into practice.

Here are two templates you can use to respond to positive and negative reviews.

Use these as inspiration and personalize accordingly. Travelers can see your responses and may be turned off if they see the same canned response over and over.

Positive review template:

“Thanks so much for the kind words, [guest name]. We’re so happy you enjoyed [features or amenities they mentioned]. We strive to offer every guest the best experience. Your praise mean a lot!”

Negative review template:

“Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention, [guest name]. My name is [name] and I am the [job title] at [hotel name]. Please accept my sincere apology for [repeat the main issue from the review]. I can understand your frustration. We pride ourselves on giving the best possible guest experience, and I’m sorry we fell short in this instance. We will be [taking a specific action] to address your feedback.”

If needed, you can contact guests directly through our Messages tool to learn more about the situation and communicate about any next steps.

As mentioned, guest reviews display on our travel booking websites, as well as other web channels. You can also use our Guest Review Widget to display reviews collected through Expedia Group on your own website.

In addition, reviews can be used throughout your marketing campaigns to build trust and strengthen your value proposition.

Showcase positive guest reviews in your other marketing channels, such as social media and email campaigns. Highlight your overall star rating, share anonymized quotes from positive reviews, or share longer-form stories from your guests.

Our tools help you streamline and automate the guest feedback process.

• The Post-stay reviews tool helps you collect, analyze, and respond to reviews. It even allows you to see how your reviews compare with those of your competitors.

• To communicate one-on-one with guests, try our In-house feedback tool to chat with guests during their stay and potentially resolve issues before they surface in reviews. Use our Messages tool to solicit reviews from guests after they depart or to respond to and resolve negative feedback.

• Lastly, see what elements of the guest experience you can improve to better serve your guests and improve your visibility in search results by reviewing your search and sort factors in Partner Central.

With so much information out there, today’s guests are more discerning than ever. Make them feel more confident about their bookings by sharing guest reviews, responding accordingly, and showing potential travelers you care about their experience.