You make a booking online and after your stay, you receive a request by email to rate the hotel. Does it really matter if you do review the hotel? Does anyone at the hotel really care? The management of some hotels certainly do care what customers think about the guest experience at their property. With online booking sites showing ratings and reviews at every reservation search, hotels have begun to make it a top priority to pay attention to guest reviews. A negative review score can impact profitability. A 2014 survey by Software Advice found that while price is the first piece of information a traveler considers when looking for a hotel room, specific guest-submitted comments, rather than star rating, photos or ranking, are what most convince travelers to actually book a room. To understand how a hotel's management perceives and uses online reviews, Saudi Gazette spoke with Nizam Bou Antoun, General Manager, Park Inn by Radisson Al Khobar. TripAdvisor.com ranks the hotel number five out of 55 hotels in Al Khobar. According to Bou Antoun, to easily track and view online guest reviews, Park Inn has found the Guest Feedback Suite from Revinate to be very convenient. This is a guest feedback and reputation management platform used by tens of thousands of hotels worldwide. The Guest Feedback Suite aims to assist hotel managers in turning guest data into guest satisfaction and enhanced revenue. Carlson Rezidor Hotels Group, of which the Park Inn is a part, have been pioneers in Saudi Arabia in considering online reviews as a measure of guest satisfaction instead of relying only on guest surveys done by their hotels. “We still have a corporate satisfaction survey called ‘Madallia,' that we make available to every guest,” said Bou Antoun. “What we have found though is that travelers frequently don't have time to fill out these surveys and with the rise of online social media, they simply find them an outdated concept.” With the Revinate app, whenever there is any review of the Park Inn by Radisson Al Khobar posted at online booking channels or travel sites, the review is automatically sent to the hotel GM's smartphone. He can immediately read the guest review and reply to it. “The dashboard view in the application shows us what is trending positive or negative with our hotel according to the guests who have stayed with us,” said Bou Antoun. “We can select competitors to see how they are performing according to guest reviews and we can compare our ratings with our competitors in the market. The goal of course is to help us offer the most pleasing guest experience.” Replying to reviews depends on the options allowed by the guests and the online booking or travel sites. At some online booking sites a reply to a review is only possible if the guest ticks a box that permits such a reply or if the guest indicates that he wants to be contacted and makes an email or mobile number available. It is only recently that booking.com provided a feature to allow Saudi hoteliers to reply to reviews. TripAdvisor.com has always allowed replies to guest reviews. For Al Khobar's Park Inn, it is the general manager's responsibility to read and reply to any guest reviews. The management of Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, expects that where possible, one hundred percent of the reviews, positive or negative, receive a response. And negative feedback, while not pleasant, is very important.
“I want to know if we are underperforming and not meeting guest expectations. If it's a single incident, I can make amends and be confident in my service offering,” said Bou Antoun. “A negative sentiment trending in any area gives me an alert that we need to make changes. I can also watch the reviews and see if the changes we make are having a positive effect.”
Bou Antoun pays close attention to the guest reviews because the management of Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group has given him targets for guest satisfaction and the Revinate app shows if he is meeting those targets. Nasty reviews not only impact the hotel's bottom line, they impact his own compensation and future with the hotel. “Hotel guests have higher expectations now than in the past. Our hotel needs to provide more services and facilities. Free Wi-Fi, a fitness center, a swimming pool and non-smoking rooms are just some of the amenities that guests expect as standard at any four-star hotel such as ours,” advised Bou Antoun. “For guests to be happy with their stay at our hotel, all the facilities and services have to be functioning well. My staff and I are always working to match guest requirements so great reviews keep being posted online.” Does Bou Antoun ever feel that a review isn't fair? “If a guest gives our hotel a negative review because it's not on the beach, then I would be upset because we never claimed that the hotel is on the beach,” said Bou Antoun. “Valid feedback, positive or negative is always welcome. If guests are happy, then we hope they tell everyone about their experience with us. If they aren't happy for any reason, then all I ask is that they tell me first while they are still at our hotel and give us the chance to meet or even exceed their expectations.”
