More Support for Truth being Online Gold Dust
A recent survey by the Kelsey Group recently announced that consumers are willing to pay at least 20% more for products and services receiving a 5 star (or excellent) rating versus those receiving a 4 star (or good) rating. The study also indicated that about 24% of the Internet users that were surveyed use online ratings during the research and buying process. More than three quarters reported that the online reviews played a significant role in their decision to use a product or service, with the highest percentage allocated to hotels.
So, this is yet another confirmation for those of you who are hold-outs in embracing online reviews as a way of ensuring your brand is represented online. A colleague recently said to me “Wait a minute, hotels have always had comment cards in their rooms, how is that any different then writing a review online?”. My answer to that question is that when you fill out a comment card it is for the hotel’s use only and if the comment is negative, the hotel controls how the information is used. In the case of online reviews, the hotel has no control over the information and so they must be willing to take action to respond to the negative comments online. This type of user controlled review and customer feedback increases the transparency of the customer service process and ensures that you have the management’s attention.
I would like to see a comment card at a hotel that says “How are we doing? Let us know by writing a review at TripAdvisor.com”. Wow, how forward thinking would that be.
Read the summary of TripAdvisor CEO Stephen Kaufer’s Presentation at PhoCusWright
Read the original Travelmole.com article here.
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3 Responses to “More Support for Truth being Online Gold Dust”
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Stephen,
I write a post some week ago about hotel and user review:
‘How was your stay?’ : Does the Hotel Ritz has something to learn about Travel 2.0 ?
http://tinyurl.com/26tuh5
You will see that it’s a long way before we can see some change in the hotel management reviews
best regards from France
Claude
Hi Claude,
It’s nice to know we’re both on the same page with this. As I tried to explain at the Blogger Summit at PhoCusWright, UGC is an invitation to start a conversation which the hotel should be participating in. Every negative comment is a lost opportunity to turn a negative into a positive for the hotel.
BTW, your sample review card is EXACTLY what I had pictured in my head!
thanks for the call from Vancouver
I will send you a mail soon with all the contacts for french market
Best regards
Claude