The Next Phase of Online Reputation Management for Travel Brands

With travelers increasingly influenced by

online reviews, hotels & destinations are

expanding their attention to ever more

sophisticated strategies surrounding

management, response, and analysis of

the feedback consumers create. Meanwhile

technology firms are additionally providing

fresh approaches to online reputation man-

agement that foreground data, curation,

and the mobile review experience.

SKIFT REPORT #16

2014

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When it comes to making choices about hotel destinations, travel-ers are deeply and increasingly invested in the online review. At the same time, hotel brands seeking consumer bookings have invested time and human resources in managing and developing the online-review space as well. On both ends of the equation, the infrastruc-ture surrounding online hotel reviews is becoming more sophis-ticated, its users more savvy, and the options for how, when, and from where reviews can be posted, consumed, and responded to is evolving toward new models.

The push for proactive approaches to online reputation management (ORM) in the hotel-review space is now augmented by third-party aggregators, big-data analytics, and the critical — if at times sensitive — notion that reviews need to be not only a two-way communication between brands and travelers, but also a curated experience, so that consumers see the feedback that is most relevant to them.

Furthermore, the very concept of the online review is entering the mobile space, where travelers are already — and developers mean them to be increasingly — employing apps to find site- and scenario-specific feedback that helps them to make in-destination decisions. Brands, meanwhile, are also working with new mobile interfaces, ones that allow their ORM teams to see and react to the reviews that consumers create. At a speed that is approaching real-time, technology is empowering brands to conduct ORM independ-ent of where any given manager or hotelier may be located, when-ever the need to respond might arise.

Executive summary

The Next Phase of Online Reputation Management for Travel Brands SKIFT REPORT #16 2014

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Table of contents

About Skift

Skift is a travel intel-ligence company that offers news, data, and services to professionals in travel and professional travelers, to help them make smart decisions about travel.

Skift is the business of travel.

Visit skift.com for more.

Executive Summary 3

Introduction 4

Traveler behavior: online reviews in 2014 8

Creation, reception, and trust of online reviews 8

Brand response and the traveler review 9

Developments in online reputation management 11

Aggregation, curation, and analytics 12

Reviews and the mobile traveler 13

Social media and the online review 14

Insights and strategies 16

Endnotes 17

About Skift 18

The Next Phase of Online Reputation Management for Travel Brands SKIFT REPORT #16 2014

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