Don’t Have Enough Reviews? Frustrated with only getting 1 or 2 weeks per month? You Might Be Committing These Seven Mistakes. Learn how to get your hotel guests to remember to post a review.

1. Don’t Have Enough Reviews? Frustrated with only getting 1
or 2 weeks per month? You Might Be Committing These
Seven Mistakes.

2. Today, the number of reviews your hotel has is directly proportional to the number of
bookings you get. The more positive reviews you have, the more bookings you'll get.
When your property is not getting a lot of reviews, it’s easy to fall into the trap of crying
over spilled milk and blame external factors.
“My guests don’t appreciate my hotel.”
“They don’t know how to post online reviews.”
“It's so hard to get my guests to write a review.”
Before blaming your guests and other external factors, ask yourself, “What am I doing
wrong?” Most of the time, you'll find that the problem is internal – something you’re
doing the wrong way or not doing enough of.
If your hotel is not getting enough reviews, you might be committing these seven
mistakes.

3.  Let’s say a guest named Mr. Smith books a room at your hotel. He checks in and your
front desk staff does a mediocre job greeting him. Over the next few days, you and
your staff did not interact with him, beside a hi or hello.
Do you think Mr. Smith is going to publish a review about his stay? Probably not. Why
would he when he felt invisible while staying at your hotel. In fact, after a couple of
days, he might have forgotten about you already. Engaging with your guests allows
them to have a personal connection and memory with you. It’s what makes their
experience at your hotel stand out and worthy of their review. Read tips on How to
Boost Staff-Guests Engagement at Your Hotel, then download Free PDF:17
Questions Staff Must Ask at Check-in

4.  Remember, the key to getting more positive reviews for your hotel is to exceed your
guests’ expectations. If you’re just delivering the basic, the things that are expected,
your guests won’t feel compelled to go out of their way and spend time writing your
hotel a good review and a glowing recommendation.
Deliver what’s expected plus more! Surprise them. WOW them. Do things you would
do for your own family. Personalize their room to their preferences and liking. Do your
guests a favor and they will return it in the form of a stellar review.
5 Hospitality Phrases Guests Remember Most

5.  Let’s go back to the example of Mr. Smith, our loyal hotel guest. He definitely enjoyed
staying at your hotel. However, during their stay, no one asked him for his feedback or
comments. Mr. Smith will not publish an online review because he thinks that his
comments are not important to you.
Before your guests check out, make sure to ask them for their feedback because this will
communicate to them that you care about what they think and when they get home, they
are more likely to publish a review about their stay. To help you do this, SmartGuests.com
has a produce called We Care Cards. It’s essentially a comment card with two simple
questions. First, it asks guests to rate their stay from Poor to Excellent. Second, it asks
guests what you can do to improve your services. Aside from encouraging guests to
publish a review about your hotel, it also allows you to resolve any issue before your
guests check out.
 Related: 10 Fast Ways to Becoming Highly Ranked on TripAdvisor

6.  You and your staff did everything to meet his expectations and he had the best hotel experience possible.
You engaged him in meaningful conversations and he was really happy when he checked out.
Now, you’re eagerly waiting for Mr. Smith to post his review. A few days passed and there’s nothing. A
couple of weeks and there’s still no review. What happened?
Well, did you actually ask Mr. Smith to write a review? This is one of the common mistakes hoteliers
professionals make – assuming that their guests will post a review out of their own volition. While a small
group of guests would do this, majority need prompting and reminding with multiple touch points.
Train your hotel staff to proactively ask guests for review. Provide training and tools. Giving guests a
reminder cards will result greatly increase the probability they will post a review. Check out our hotel
marketing site, SmartGuests.com’s Social Review Tools. Tools such as Staff Review Cards, CareFresheners
(Air Freshener Reminder Tool), Write a Review Cards all help in aiding and guiding guests to post that
important review for your hotel.
 If you're not reminding them with physical items, you are making a mistake.
 Must Read: Top 5 Reasons Why ALL Hospitality People Need Business Cards

7.  Let’s now follow Mr. Smith home. He finds himself having a few minutes to spare so he
decides to go online and write a review for your hotel. However, when he looked at your
TripAdvisor profile, he saw that you’re not responding to the people who left you reviews.
Mr. Smith is baffled and thinks that you don’t care what people are saying about you
because if you did, you would have responded. Mr. Smith switched off his computer and
forgets about your hotel altogether.
This is another reason that underscores the importance for you to respond to online
reviews in a timely manner. If you want to encourage your guests to publish a review,
show them that you would actually care when they do.

8.  Here’s another scenario. Our "good-money-paying" guest now leaves your hotel happy
and you did proactively asked him to post an online review. He said yes and departs from
your hotel. A couple of days later, Mr. Smith finds himself swamped with worked and
other obligations and he totally forgets that he told you he would write a review about his
stay.
This stresses the importance of following up with your guests a few days after they
checked out. People are busy and it’s very possible that they will forget. Send them an
email, handwritten note text or call them. Always assume that there is a possibility that
your guests might forget and it’s your responsibility to remind them.

9.  We know that you are juggling a lot of things in running your hotel, but managing your
hotel’s online reputation can no longer be relegated to the back burner. You must dedicate
enough time and resources to this component of marketing your hotel, especially now
that there are irrefutable evidences how online reviews can affect your hotel’s business
performance.

10. When you’re not getting the online reviews that you want,
always look internally first because chances are, you’re
committing one or more of these mistakes.
What are you doing to get reviews at your property that other
hotel professionals can learn from? I would love to hear your
comments below.
Like this? Here are more insights for your hotel
Free Guide: Get 35 Best Ways to Respond to Guest Reviews
Emailed to You
Top 5 Reasons Why ALL Hospitality People Need Business
Cards
How to WOW Hotel Guests at Check-in

11.  ABOUT: Rupesh Patel leads SmartGuests.com, a U.S.-based hotel marketing firm that is
devoted to helping hotels and hotel managers improve their online presence and
customer engagement, through innovative engagement tools and strategies. He also
consults hotels on Customer Service Excellence and “How to Get Guest Reviews
Everyday”.
 Twitter: @smartguestscom
Blog: www.smartguests.com/blog
Facebook: www.facebook.com/smartguests
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/smartguests
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