If you haven’t been sure yet whether to be on tripadvisor and Co., now you should.

A few weeks ago the Daily Mail published an article about how important online reviews are. If you’ve been debating whether or not to be on tripadvisor and Co., this may be your answer. Over 352 million trips worldwide have been influenced by an online review. People actually do plan their trip based on reviews found online, despite what you may initially have thought.

TripAdvisor is the world’s most dominating travel website, with 20 millions members. But how can you use this for your hotel or restaurant?

The first and most important part is hiring an amazing staff; people who love to serve. Once you have your team together, coach and inspire them every day. Show them that it’s their responsibility to make your guests happy and keep them loyal to your services.

Did you get a really positive review? Share it with your staff, make them feel appreciated and think about how you can deliver that experience to every other guest at your hotel or restaurant.

Don’t panic if you get a negative review, try to understand what happened and work on solutions about how to solve those issues and avoid them for the future. Never forget that you are talking to real people, even though everything is based online. See each reviewer as a unique person, rather than simply answering them with standardised phrases. Be personable.

If you want to get a review, make sure people are aware that your business is on TripAdvisor. People should be able to see that you are a part of an online review platform; Whether you have a small reminder on a table, at the reception, or stickers on your windows.

Answering every customer can certainly be time consuming. Swell media agency is more than happy to help. We can help you improve your TripAdvisor interaction, just contact us for more information.