Stephanie Sparks Smith is CEO and Digital Matriarch at Cogwheel Marketing™️ and partner and consultant at Cayuga Hospitality Consultants. Her agency focuses on helping hotel owners and management companies drive incremental exposure and revenue to their websites and online channels through hotel digital marketing and advertising. I recently had the pleasure of talking with Stephanie about her perspective on the impact of guest reviews on marketing.

Please listen, and share your feedback and if you enjoy the program, please share with your friends and your associates. Sharing and talking about podcasts with your team is a simple and affordable way to develop and inspire your team.

For lots of great resources including Adele's Top Takeaways from this episode, please visit, https://www.adelegutman.com/getgreatreviews.

If you would like more personal attention and assistance to support your team in a Reputation Cultivation Program, please feel free to contact Adele at [email protected] and we will be happy to help. 

Get the Free Guide: Ten Tips To Take Your Team to the Top on TripAdvisor: https://www.adelegutman.com/getthefreeguide 

Follow and connect with Adele Gutman:

Website: https://www.adelegutman.com/

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Thanks to our Sponsor! 

Thank you to our sponsor Guest Chat! Please visit https://www.guestchat.com/adele to enjoy your hotel's 90-day free trial with no contracts or obligations. 

Turbo Boost Your Success with Cogwheel Marketing: 

The expertise of Cogwheel Marketing is knowing the intricacies of the branded hotel systems and understanding where brand marketing stops and hotel level marketing begins. Cogwheel Analytics™️ , developed by Cogwheel Marketing, is a hotel digital marketing reporting and BI tool that aggregates data from multiple sources to allow companies to identify trends and opportunities in their online presence. https://cogwheelmarketing.com/ 

Happy Housekeeping Week, Hospitality Stars! Please enjoy this episode of Get Great Guest Reviews with our guest, Lonny Wolfe of The Art of Housekeeping. Lonny shared some ideas on what he does this week and every week, the infuse the spirit of Housekeeping week into the way he works to support his teams every day.

Lonny and I know that supporting your team to present a sparkling-clean property is absolutely essential to inspiring five-star reviews and the guest loyalty that comes with it. According to Bain and Company, as reported by Harvard Business Review, it costs 25 times more to attract a new customer than to keep an existing customer. Additionally, Therefore, for hoteliers to optimize revenue and maximize profits, we hoteliers need to think of the heart of the house as an extension of our commercial strategy.

Lonny is the authority on creating great guest experiences through housekeeping excellence, so please listen to his thoughts directly on the podcast.

For lots of great resources including the complete show notes for this episode and more, please visit, https://www.adelegutman.com/getgreatreviews.

Please listen, and share your feedback and if you enjoy the program, please share with your friends and your associates. Sharing and talking about podcasts with your team is a simple and affordable way to develop and inspire your team. 

If you would like more personal attention and assistance to support your team in a Reputation Cultivation Program, please feel free to contact Adele at [email protected] and we will be happy to help. 

Follow and connect with Adele Gutman:

Website: https://www.adelegutman.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adelegutman/

Adele’s Speaker & Consulting Sheet

 

Thank you to our sponsor Guest Chat! Please visit https://www.guestchat.com/adele to enjoy your hotel's 90 day free trial with no contracts or obligations. 

When your guests shower your hotel, motel, B&B, restaurant, or vacation rental in 5-star reviews, your guests will do so much of the marketing for you, making your business more visible online, and more enticing by elevating the perceived value of the unique experience you offer.   Today, let’s learn from Kathleen and Amy Smith, who are phenomenal hoteliers and hospitality reputation cultivation experts! Kathleen and Amy own and operate the #1 hotel on Tripadvisor in Saratoga Springs, the Saratoga Arms Hotel, which is celebrating its 25th year in business. Congratulations ladies!   There’s a Gaelic saying to describe the heart of hospitality in Ireland, “cead mílle fáilte,” a hundred thousand welcomes. That authentic Irish spirit of hospitality is in the family DNA of these two women hotel owners, and it is easy to witness their leadership and heartfelt commitment to hospitality reflected in the work of their team. Just take a look at the astonishing 90% of Tripadvisor reviews scores showing enthusiastic 5-star reviews (aka-promoters) and only a pittance of 2.74% of reviews coming in at 3 stars or below (aka-detractors). This is world-class operational excellence and fantastic business savvy!   You’ll definitely want to listen to Kathleen and Amy share their tips on how they do it directly on this episode of Get Great Guest Reviews!   Please visit for a few of my top takeaways from the conversation that you can start using today!    For more resources, including the blog with complete show notes and more, visit: https://www.adelegutman.com/getgreatreviews     Thank you for listening! If you appreciate this content, please share, comment, and subscribe! Your reviews also help others find us, so thank you in advance for your support.    If you would like a Reputation Renovation or a Reputation Cultivation Program for your hotel or business, please contact Adele Gutman at [email protected]

Did you ever dream that your hotel, restaurant, or attraction could be ranked #1 in the USA? Well, dreams do come true when you commit to a proven plan for success.     Consistency, Culture, Communication, Collaboration, and Celebration are just the start of these Inspiring Tips from Matthew Douzuk, General Manager of the Perry Lane Hotel in Savannah, ranked as the #1 Hotel in the USA on Tripadvisor Best of the Best for 2023 as well as #24 in the world!    If you are looking for the path to astonishing results in loyalty, passion, and enthusiasm among your associates and your guests, I promise you if you put these concepts to work at your hotel, restaurant, or any service industry business, you will see remarkable results!   Please listen in and share this thought-provoking conversation with Matthew Douzuk with your colleagues!   For more resources, including the blog with complete shownotes and more, visit: https://www.adelegutman.com/getgreatreviews

If you want to learn the inside scoop from a General Manager of a highly rated hotel as to what it actually takes to help a hotel’s team inspire consistent Five Star Reviews from guests, this is the podcast for you!

The Bardessono Hotel and Spa in Yountville, California, managed by Remington Hospitality, boasts a stellar 5 out of 5 Stars on Tripadvisor and Google, 9.1 out of 10 on Booking.com and 9.6 out of 10 on Expedia, not to mention some stunning ratings from travel guides and international publications. I had the pleasure of chatting with Alain Negueloua, the Vice President and General Manager of the Bardessono, to find out what kind of magic he and his team are doing to inspire such consistently enthusiastic reviews.

If you care about revenue optimization, culture, and attracting and retaining great guests and great employees, increasing profit and customer lifetime value, please listen and share this episode of Get Great Guest Reviews with your associates.

As a hotelier who led my previous hotel collection to the highest guest review scores in the world, a 96.1% GRI, Global Review Index from Review Pro, I am passionate about learning about the daily habits of high-rated hotels and what habits they have in common.

SPOILER ALERT! While each General Manager and Hospitality Leader has a different way of describing what they do, there are core habits that highly rated hoteliers all share! Even better, you can apply these habits and philosophies to your daily work life, and you, too, will enjoy similar rewards. These proven principles will work in any category of hotel, restaurant, or attraction and in any service industry business where it is beneficial and vital to have returning customers and enthusiastic referrals, recommendations, and online reviews.

Here’s a quick overview of our discussion topics. For the Full Show Notes visit adelegutman.com/getgreatguestreviews 

• The elevating impact of an entrepreneurial spirit
• How experiencing excellence inspires more excellence in a community
• How to Stand Out from the Competition
• How to Build Trust
• Stories of the Power of Taking Action on Feedback
• The importance of collaborating with your team to solve problems
• Making Innovative Problem Solving a Daily Habit
• The Importance of Sharing the WHY.
• Hiring the right people and implementing standards.
• Clearly communicating standards and expectations
• The importance of listening to feedback.
• Relentless, constant, gentle pressure delivers a great guest experience.
• The importance of paying attention to the little things.
• The value of cross-training teams.
• How a stellar online reputation can help you stand apart.
• How stellar online reviews can give a competitive advantage.
• How stellar reviews help attract and retain employees.

Books we discussed:

• Setting the Table by Danny Meyer
• Built to Last by Jim Collins
• Good to Great by Jim Collins

Become a Hospitality Star Maker!

If you want to learn more about making every guest and valued team member feel cared for, appreciated, and respected?

Keep tuned into this conversation and subscribe to Get Great Guest Reviews!

I hope you enjoy and benefit from this episode!

Thank you so much to my guest Alain Negueloua Vice President and General Manager of The Bardessono Hotel and Spa in Yountville, California, managed by Remington Hospitality: https://www.bardessono.com/ 

If you would like some help implementing these ideas, it would be my pleasure to make the process easy for you. Please set up a time for us to chat on

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Website: https://www.adelegutman.com/

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Twitter: @AdeleGutman

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Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/get-great-guest-reviews/id1607713697

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5saWJzeW4uY29tLzM3NzIxMy9yc3M?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYyoi9gqH4AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ&hl=en

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AAgxomCdTCWue20ru3QWs

Thank you for listening!

Have a great week, and keep reaching for the stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Adele

Dr. Peter Ricci has been honored as a Hospitality Hero and a Top 25 Minds by HSMAI and a Global Top 100 Most Power Leaders and Thirty Most Influential Educators in Hospitality by International Hospitality Institute. Undoubtedly, Peter is one of the most influential leaders in our industry. He deserves all these honors and more for applying his unrelenting yet loving, gentle pressure on the industry to move the culture forward in a more positive and richly rewarding direction.

As Clinical Professor and Director of Hospitality and Tourism for Florida Atlantic University, Dr. Peter Ricci has his finger on the pulse of the dreams, frustrations, challenges, and opportunities of today’s goal-oriented and aspiring hospitality professionals. In today’s episode, Dr. Ricci shares his insights on why reputation and guest feedback management are more important than ever and how hospitality leaders can best empower and inspire our associates to deliver excellence in hospitality to every guest.

As a former vice president of sales, marketing, and revenue for a boutique hotel collection for 20 years, getting great guest reviews, referrals, and recommendations was one of my key responsibilities. I believe that an energized team of cross-trained associates who take pride in creative problem-solving and continuous improvement is as fundamental to revenue optimization as a great website, booking engine, and pricing strategy. Therefore, I am excited to share my conversation with you, both operations and commercial leaders, with the extraordinary Dr. Peter Ricci.

Please take a few minutes to listen and learn more from Peter’s insights during our conversation on Get Great Guest Reviews, the Podcast!

For full access to the show notes and more, please visit:  https://www.adelegutman.com/getgreatreviews

Please subscribe and listen to the podcast so you won’t miss a single concept that you might like to try to progress and elevate your employee and guest experience.

• Why being in a state of flux is an exciting opportunity for growth
• How to infuse technology without “tipping over the Apple cart”
• One hotel’s big tip for offering flexibility in scheduling
• What the Country Club industry envisions for the future of work-life quality

We also chatted about great books to read now:

Show up, by Anthony Melchiori 

Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara 

The One Minute Manager

How to Make Friends and Influence People

Adele’s Favorite Peter Ricci Quote from the show:

“…the better the service, the more the finance on the top and the bottom. And so in the reduction in turnover, it’s less costly, so it just makes financial sense as well. But that’s always the missing piece. ‘Oh, you want to add headcount, we can’t afford it.’ Well, how about what we’re spending on turnover? Spending on retraining. Let’s try it at least. All I say is try it, then you can see where it goes."

If you want to learn more about making every guest and valued team member feel cared for, appreciated, and respected, keep tuned into this conversation and subscribe to Get Great Guest Reviews!

General Managers, would like a free strategy session for your hotel? Feel free to connect with me and send a request. I love to help hospitality professionals elevate their productivity and profitability.

Contact: [email protected]

Until next time, keep reaching for the stars!

Adele Gutman

I am so excited to share with you my recent discussion with Raul Moronta, Chief Commercial Officer of Remington Hotels as we talk about Brand Performance: Mission, Action with Intent, and Guest Satisfaction.

Ask most travelers, and you are likely to hear about the lowering of hospitality and service excellence since the devastating impact of COVID. In fact, most consumers would say that customer service in all industries has taken a severe tumble. But counter to the trend, in the past year or so, Remington Hotels has been dramatically elevating its brand performance and loyalty across its diverse portfolio of 120 hotels by investing in its people and the guest experience they deliver.

You’ll definitely want to hear what Raul Moronta has to say about this initiative and its impact.

As someone who has led multiple hotels to successfully achieve Guest Review Scores that dominated their city, country, and, yes…the world, I was fascinated to learn more about what Remington Hotels is doing to drive revenue and loyalty at both branded and independent properties.

Please take a few minutes to learn more from Raul’s insights during our conversation on Get Great Guest Reviews the Podcast!

For full access to the show notes and more, please visit:  https://www.adelegutman.com/getgreatreviews

What Actions Will You Take to Elevate Loyalty?

A great guest experience worthy of a five-star review is no accident. It takes “action with intent” to continually support teams, diminish friction and make guests happy.

Please take the time to comment, subscribe and share this podcast with business leaders who are passionate about elevating loyalty by creating a culture of hospitality and continuous improvement. And don’t forget to check out our previous articles for tips you can start to apply immediately to your own business.

Want a free strategy session for your hotel?

Feel free to connect with me and send a request. I love to help hospitality professionals elevate their productivity and profitability. [email protected]

Until next time, keep reaching for the stars!

Adele Gutman

Welcome Back to Get Great Guest Reviews, Season 2!   

Recently, on LinkedIn, there was a poll asking what hotel general managers and hospitality professionals care most about and want to see content on. As I recall, Trends in the Industry, Technology, and Revenue Management were all popular. However, Reputation and Social Media were combined and still came out at the bottom of the list, with only 2% of hospitality professionals showing any interest.

Say it isn’t so!  I took this surprising information as an opportunity to start our new season of podcasts with why everyone needs to care about guest reviews. 

It is a fundamental concept of business success that highly satisfied customers are more likely to return, purchase more frequently, and spread good word-of-mouth advertising to help a business attract and keep more loyal guests. In the world of hotels and global online distribution, this basic principle is exponentially elevated and more important than ever before. 

In this episode, Adele Gutman breaks down 9 Top Reasons Why Hoteliers Need to Make Reputation and Guest Feedback a Super Power for Revenue Results.  

Listen in now to hear about the impact on customer loyalty, employee retention, Average Daily Rate, Sales & Marketing conversions, display algorithms, and more! 

THANK YOU! 

I want to thank everyone who supported this podcast and patiently waited for the next season while I tended to matters at home. I am deeply grateful to everyone who helped Get Great Guest Reviews to be recognized as one of the top 35 podcasts in the hospitality industry for 2023 by the International Hospitality Institute! Check out a copy of Global Hospitality Magazine and discover all the honorees in the industry that you may want to follow. 

If you have a question about reputation and how to inspire consistent five-star reviews from your guests, contact us at [email protected] 

Subscribe, Follow, and Connect with Adele Gutman:

Website: https://www.adelegutman.com/ 

Podcast Page: Get Great Guest Reviews Podcast Page

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adelegutman/

Invite Adele to speak at your next conference: https://www.adelegutman.com/AdelesSpeakersSheet 

If you have a question about reputation and how to inspire consistent five-star reviews from your guests, contact us at [email protected] 

Did you know that there are over 130 000 hotels in the USA? I consider myself fortunate that three of the four hotels I worked with at Library Hotel Collection were rated among the top 25 hotels in the USA on the Best of the Best, Tripadvisor's Travelers Choice Awards, and the fourth one was followed very closely behind. The people whose hotels rank among the top guest-reviewed hotels in the country are all part of a very fortunate group of hoteliers who have discovered and implemented the secrets to what it takes to make guests happy. The guests are so happy they can’t help themselves from writing 5-star reviews for the kind people who treated them like VIPs. The secret these General Managers have is a process, a daily discipline, and a philosophical commitment to continuously improve the guest experience.

This episode is an edited revisit to a conversation with one of the top General Managers in the United States, the serial award-winning Carlo Carroccia of Charlestowne Hotels.

Carlo is the Dual General Manager of both the French Quarter Inn and the Spectator hotel in Charleston, and time and time again, those two hotels keep showing up among the top 25 Hotels in the US on Tripadvisor. He’s not trying to be the #1 Hotel in the country on Tripadvisor. Instead, he is focused on creating a culture where every day, every employee is on a mission to make every guest experience a happy one.

Please enjoy this episode and learn from a master!

The process works. It works for Carlo, it worked for me, and they will work for anyone who wants to learn how to make guest happiness a growth strategy for their hospitality or service business.

 

If you would like to learn how to implement these principles at your hotels or portfolio, please get in touch with Adele at [email protected] or subscribe at adelegutman.com