sunday, april 15, 2012
Study on online reviews in the tourism industry
I've just returned from the ITB (International Tourism Berlin), the world's largest tourism trade show: over 10,000 exhibitors, 170,000 visitors... where 4 hours of wandering is not enough for a reconnaissance tour. Numerous countries are present to promote their tourist attractions, along with major hotel groups (Hilton, Accor, Best Western...) and a myriad of service providers.
Before getting down to business, we'd like to point out that it would be hard to do better in terms of organization and quality of welcome, even if the size of the site (160,000 m2 spread over 4 floors) can make it seem like a maze with no way out.
The most talked-about topics this year revolved around social media and customer reviews on the Internet... Here are a few highlights from a very interesting conference I attended.
Internet reviews in the German hotel sector
Context
- Growing influence of customer reviews on purchasing behavior
- Increase in the number of online review sites ...
- Estimated 18% to 35% of fake reviews posted online
- 48% of Germans read reviews before booking their holiday (Bitkom 2010 study): this is slightly less than for the French and English, where recent studies show rates of between 70% and 90%.
- Yet 95% of Germans find them reliable (vs. 51% in the US, source: e-tailing group).
- The influence of traveler reviews goes beyond the Internet: what about the Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence displayed in restaurants and hotels?
- Online review sites are generally better referenced than hotel websites
- The majority of reviews are positive
- Detecting fake reviews, whether human or computer-generated, is very difficult. Whereas buying fake reviews from web agencies is easy.
Key findings of the survey of 330 hotel managers (groups and independents)
- 97% of them have been evaluated in the last 12 months on online review sites.
- Top 5 review sites in Germany: Holidaycheck, Booking, HRS, Hotel.de, Tripadvisor ...
- 93% of them regularly read reviews on the main portals, concerning their hotels and those of competitors. They spend an average of 2 hours a week there.
- 81% use reviews as a means of handling complaints
- 70% encourage customers to leave a review
- ...
Among the main recommendations made to hoteliers :
- Regularly monitor reviews of your hotels and those of competitors
- Set up a system for collecting and displaying notices, with the help of market solutions
- Use reviews to improve conversion rates
- ...
The study clearly shows that the business stakes have become too high: referencing, higher customer conversion rates after reading customer reviews..., to leave the management of reviews to third parties.
Tourism companies need to reclaim the right to display customer reviews. Only they can assure visitors to their site that the reviews posted are in fact from their own customers, since they alone possess the transactional data.
This is a huge opportunity for the company to establish itself as a trusted third party. Of course, it will have to be transparent and deal with negative reviews. But if these are dealt with and communicated appropriately online, it's a big step towards the greater transparency demanded by today's consumers, and an open approach to continuous improvement of the services offered.
