TripAdvisor CEO Pushes Hotelier Participation

11 years, 3 months ago - December 06, 2012
TripAdvisor CEO Pushes Hotelier Participation
The correlation between positive reviews, the number of bookings and hotelier pricing power continues to strengthen. And, while the number of booking sites that include user-generated content is on the rise, TripAdvisor remains the most popular tool for travelers to research guest feedback.

Since its split from parent company Expedia a year ago, TripAdvisor has been focused on growing even larger and becoming even more relevant. To do so, the company is increasing its focus on hotelier involvement, inviting owners and managers to administer their property’s listing on the site and leverage tools and resources to optimize their hotels’ presence.

HotelNewsNow.com recently conducted a Q-and-A interview with TripAdvisor CEO Stephen Kaufer to ask for the review site’s take on a number of key issues affecting hotels and online reviews.

HotelNewsNow.com: How is operating the company different since the split from Expedia?

Stephen Kaufer: “We continue to focus on delivering great products to help travelers plan the perfect trip. At the same time, we continue to offer our partners great opportunities to drive leads and reach researching travelers.

We see a huge and growing opportunity in the market. Operating as an independent company enables us to focus on capitalizing on every opportunity.”

HNN: Verified reviews are becoming more prevalent. Do you see this as a threat? Has TripAdvisor considered evolving to a verified platform?

Kaufer: “We believe all travelers, not just the one individual who made the reservation or has the receipt, are entitled to share their honest feedback about their experience. The average traveler reads dozens of reviews before booking, allowing them to get the complete picture of a property and make an educated decision based on the opinions of many.

We allow hoteliers to respond to any review with a management response that appears directly below the review. We strongly encourage business owners to take advantage of this feature.”

HNN: How much traffic is driven from TripAdvisor to direct sites versus to third parties? Is there an optimal number you’d like to see for this?

Kaufer: “We continue to offer our partners great opportunities to drive leads and reach researching travelers through channels including (cost per click) and (cost per impression) advertising, as well as direct via TripAdvisor Business Listings.

We don’t break out the amount of traffic by channel.”

HNN: What are some ways hoteliers can better take advantage of the demand TripAdvisor can drive?

Kaufer: “Once registered, (hotel) owners can log in to the management center for their property; they can sign up for notification emails that tell them when new reviews come in; they can access valuable data about each review of their property, with feedback about their level of service, cleanliness, value, etc.—all for free. There also is a tool enabling owners to compare their business’ performance with that of a competitor.

We offer hoteliers a number of widgets and badges, which they can add to their own websites or Facebook pages, to display their TripAdvisor content, including recent reviews, ratings and any TripAdvisor awards they have won.

Perhaps the most important tool in the management center is the management response feature, ensuring that business owners are able to contribute their side of the story and thank reviewers for feedback. Recent PhoCusWright research commissioned by TripAdvisor shows that 84% of users agree that an appropriate management response to a bad review improves their impression of the hotel.

We also offer master classes and webinars, which are free seminar sessions for hospitality business owners to provide them with more information about TripAdvisor and offer tips and strategies for making the most of their presence on the site.”

HNN: What kind of correlation can be deduced from a hotel’s TripAdvisor rating to its pricing power?

Kaufer: “I don’t have any specific data to share on the correlation between ranking and pricing power, but I think it’s fair to say that the higher a property ranks on TripAdvisor, the more interest they will receive from the millions of travelers who visit our site every month.”

HNN: Google purchased Zagat and Frommer’s. While this speaks to the importance of reviews, does it also add another competitor?

Kaufer: “Google can buy a travel guidebook company, but they can’t buy a community of millions of travelers. The reviews and opinions we have on TripAdvisor (we just announced hitting the milestone of 75 million reviews and opinions) is more than you would find in all the world’s travel guidebooks combined. Plus, guidebooks are published once a year, whereas on TripAdvisor, 60 new pieces of travel advice are posted every minute. It’s that remarkable freshness and scale of content that keeps millions of users every month coming back to TripAdvisor to plan their perfect trip.”

Text by Hotel News Now

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