Articles tagged “reviews”

Global tourism is growing despite a still slow economy, and as the largest travel site in the world, it is no longer just PR to say that hotels' TripAdvisor pages have an impact on their profits.

As Google and a crop of smaller startups attempt to crowdsource local reviews and recommendations, Yelp's legacy and continued growth keep it ahead of the curve. But that might not be enough for shareholders who want to see profits more than potential.

Writing hotel reviews has become a common part of a travel experience. Guests and hotel managers are getting better at filtering through the noise to write and comment on the service and amenities that really matter.

Oyster began with grand ambitions and little understanding of how to create content without spending lots and lots of money. That content will now find a home at a brand that understands more sensible ways to do the same thing.

It doesn't matter if a luxury hotel is based in New York City, Caracas, or Dubai. A strong social presence is needed to attract new guests and engage loyal customers, all of whom expect mobile updates and content from their preferred brands.

Many reputation management firms have made a living out of criticizing Yelp and TripAdvisor, and some of them have crossed the line and gotten into the fake-review writing business themselves. There are reputation management firms with integrity out there, but these 19 companies are not among them.

Some hotels see TripAdvisor as an adversary, and that's especially true of those that felt the wrath of negative reviews. In recent years, TripAdvisor has worked closer with hotels, or perhaps hotels have just come to accept founder Steve Kaufer's underlying message to the industry: "Adapt or die."

It's sensible that guests are happier when they've chosen a hotel based on quality and service instead of price. Hotels across the board should be cautious of following the trend towards service automation.

Axing the staff doesn't bode particularly well for a sale of Oyster.com, which many people said from its beginnings didn't have a viable business model. A expensive experiment, with Oyster's professionally written reviews taking precedence over hotels' marketing drivel, has all come to this.