Ready for Reviews
Speaking to Hotelier Middle East about TCA Abu Dhabi’s plans, Abu Dhabi hoteliers were generally confident in their properties ability to cope with any new regulations.
Crowne Plaza and Staybridge Suites Abu Dhabi Yas Island area general manager Thierry Perrot explains that “third-party review sites such as TripAdvisor are utilised by the travelling public, so we do view any and all comments as part of our hotels’ online story.
Every comment, post, review we receive tells the story of a guest’s experience and hopefully provides a good 360-degree view of our hotel and available services.”
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This is also a view shared by Le Royal Meridien Abu Dhabi general manager Shaun Parsons who is proud that his hotel is “actively engaged with our guests through various social media channels” but admits that “the need to stay closer to our customers has never been greater, and the way in which we adapt to this will have profound impact on our bottom line.”
However, some Middle East hoteliers are also wary of any potential change to regulations, with Craig Bruce, general manager of Yas Island’s Radisson Blu and Park Inn by Radisson hotels admitting that the “social media and the online world changes so quickly that this will need to be heavily regulated so that the hotel rating reflects this, for example your position on TripAdvisor can rise or drop quickly over a couple of weeks.”
However, Park Rotana general manager Francisco Giles admits that, regardless of any proposed legislation “it is more and more common for people to choose a hotel based on reviews of other guests found on social media, being TripAdvisor or Facebook.
“TripAdvisor is at the moment the world’s number 1 social media channel for hotels/restaurants and we already take it as an official hotel rating,” he adds.
There is so far no confirmed date for when TCA Abu Dhabi’s new hotel classification system will be ready, with the authority expected to update the industry within the first months of 2014.
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