1. The Next Phase of
Online Reputation
Management for
Travel Brands
With travelers increasingly influenced by
online reviews, hotels & destinations are
expanding their attention to ever more
sophisticated strategies surrounding
management, response, and analysis of
the feedback consumers create. Meanwhile
technology firms are additionally providing
fresh approaches to online reputation man-
agement that foreground data, curation,
and the mobile review experience.
SKIFT REPORT #16
2014
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3. When it comes to making choices about hotel destinations, travel-
ers are deeply and increasingly invested in the online review. At the
same time, hotel brands seeking consumer bookings have invested
time and human resources in managing and developing the online-
review space as well. On both ends of the equation, the infrastruc-
ture surrounding online hotel reviews is becoming more sophis-
ticated, its users more savvy, and the options for how, when, and
from where reviews can be posted, consumed, and responded to
is evolving toward new models.
The push for proactive approaches to online reputation management
(ORM) in the hotel-review space is now augmented by third-party
aggregators, big-data analytics, and the critical — if at times sensitive
— notion that reviews need to be not only a two-way communication
between brands and travelers, but also a curated experience, so that
consumers see the feedback that is most relevant to them.
Furthermore, the very concept of the online review is entering
the mobile space, where travelers are already — and developers
mean them to be increasingly — employing apps to find site- and
scenario-specific feedback that helps them to make in-destination
decisions. Brands, meanwhile, are also working with new mobile
interfaces, ones that allow their ORM teams to see and react to the
reviews that consumers create. At a speed that is approaching real-
time, technology is empowering brands to conduct ORM independ-
ent of where any given manager or hotelier may be located, when-
ever the need to respond might arise.
Executive summary
The Next Phase of Online Reputation Management for Travel Brands SKIFT REPORT #16 2014
3

4. Table of contents
About Skift
Skift is a travel intel-
ligence company that
offers news, data, and
services to professionals
in travel and professional
travelers, to help them
make smart decisions
about travel.
Skift is the business of
travel.
Visit skift.com for more.
Executive Summary 3
Introduction 4
Traveler behavior: online reviews in 2014 8
Creation, reception, and trust of online reviews 8
Brand response and the traveler review 9
Developments in online reputation management 11
Aggregation, curation, and analytics 12
Reviews and the mobile traveler 13
Social media and the online review 14
Insights and strategies 16
Endnotes 17
About Skift 18
The Next Phase of Online Reputation Management for Travel Brands SKIFT REPORT #16 2014
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