How can hotels prevent negative online reviews?

During ATM 2016, the travel tech show hosted a panel discussion on the role of Online Travel Agents (OTAs) in the Middle East.

During the discussion, Jumeirah Group vice president of revenue management Alexander Lee suggested that one key area of development for OTAs is in working with hotel brands to offer guests "the right information" about the property from the point of booking. Content strategy, he added, is “critically important”.

Commenting on how hoteliers can prevent bad reviews on OTA sites by guests, Expedia’s Ait Voncke, vice president of market management EMEA revealed that the company has launched a real time feedback option in order to help hotels deal with this issue.

The new system contacts guests on check-in with a series of short questions regarding their satisfaction with the hotel room, which Vocke comments can be “answered in a couple of seconds”.

Voncke explained that the real time feedback is relayed immediately to the hotel, who then have the option of rectifying any issues during the guest's stay, giving hoteliers a better chance of avoiding negative feedback on the OTA once the guest has checked out.

During the panel discussion, the experts also suggested a future system whereby a hotel’s physical star rating could become linked to a hotel’s user generated rating on OTAs. Commenting on the potential of this, Rak Hospitality director of asset management Rashad Saab said: “We are not there yet, but in the future, I see it coming.”