Hospitality Reputation Marketing: Get Great Reviews

Smart Hospitality Operations = Smart Marketing! A talk with Stuart Butler of Fuel Travel https://www.dropbox.com/t/2Kkt0NcOWa1aGBw9

GM’s, DOSM’s, and HOTEL OWNERS- You won’t want to miss this episode!

Whether you are a veteran in the industry or one of the many newly minted GMs and DOSMs out there that rose to the occasion when duty called during the past year of COVID-19, this episode is for you.

My guest, Stuart Butler is the Chief Operating Officer of Fuel Travel Marketing based in South Carolina is one of the top Hospitality Marketers in the country and the host of the award winning Fuel Hospitality Marketing Podcast. Stuart and I agree the power of guest reviews is one of the most underutilized and misunderstood marketing opportunities for most hotels.

“Reviews are the byproduct of how you operate,” says Stuart Butler. But they are the also foundation of your Hospitality Sales, Marketing, and Revenue success, so they require a team approach. I hope you will listen to this episode and think about how to update or initiate your reputation management strategy with full team alignment.

Across the industry, we hear leaders speak about leveraging guest data. Guest feedback is guest data, yet because reputation, guest satisfaction, and guest reviews fall into both marketing and operations, often leaders feel it is not their area. For that reason, reputation is either completely ignored, it’s relegated to someone without the leadership position to truly analyze and leverage the data, and sometimes a third party is paid to make it seem as though the feedback was heard, even though it wasn’t actually dealt with at the property.

Instead, let guest feedback be the spark of daily creativity and innovation at the property. Let operations and marketing embrace the voice of the guest for insights as to how to make the experience of booking and staying at the hotel easier, faster, more convenient, and absolutely more delightful.

Are you wondering how to change your processes to create more loyal guests? Are you wondering what you need to change in your communications to best win new guests and manage expectations to avoid disappointment for your guests and conflict for your teams to handle? Begin deeply listening to and acting upon the feedback your guest took the time to give you.

Every day is a great day to implement innovation. Just look at your reviews for friction points and ask your team to suggest small actions and creative ways to fix or soften friction points to reduce complaints.

If you are a GM or a DOSM, you cannot afford to be absent from this conversation with your guests and your line staff.

In this podcast, we discuss using reviews, aka “The Voice of the Customer” to:

• Identify Friction Points
• Spark Innovation
• Inform Marketing Decisions
• Optimize ROI
• Motivate Teams
• Develop Future Leaders
• Lower Cost of Acquisition
• Attract New Guests
• Create True Loyalty
• Manage Expectations
• Create Product and Service Differentiation
• Elevate Perceived Value

Enjoy the podcast and please let us know if you have any questions for Adele. 

Send us your email on www.adelegutman.com and never miss another episode of the Hospitality Reputation Marketing Podcast. https://www.adelegutman.com/blog

Also check out Stuart Butler’s Fuel Travel Podcast: https://www.fueltravel.com/hotel-marketing-podcast/

Loren Gray’s Hospitality Marketing Podcast: https://www.hospitalitydigitalmarketing.com/podcasts/

Lily Hospitality Marketing Podcast: https://www.thinkupenterprises.com/podcast/

Holly Zoba’s Hospitality Sales Podcast: https://influencer-sales.com/podcast/

Dean Schmit’s Hospitality Meta Search Podcast: https://www.audible.com/pd/Hospitality-MetaSearch-Podcast/B08K581QTP

How the Casablanca Hotel by Library Hotel Collection Ruled the Top of the Tripadvisor Charts in New York City for 15 Years.

Interview with Casablanca Hotel General Manager, John Taboada. 

In this episode, we discuss the power of :

Embracing Guest Feedback.

Making Staff feel Appreciated.

Making Guests feel Cared about "Like Family".

And how daily coaching and grooming team members on the job so that they can make great decisions and grow their careers, all while winning at making guests happy.

Everything we talk about is totally do-able!

Do you want more tips on how to achieve extraordinary success in guest satisfaction?

Please remember to subscribe to this page, as well as our podcast!

For personal attention, I would love to hear from you at [email protected]

Alert: this assessment was based on a minimum 10% Discount off BAR for Hoteliers. If you are offered the program based on a higher discount than what the media and I were informed of, please be sure to do the math yourself to see if that new offer will work for you. And remember, I always prefer to give my hotels direct and loyal guests the best offer on our own websites.

I won’t lie. Tripadvisor has been my favorite website for two decades. If you sell travel, it should be yours too! Hundreds of millions of people use the site every month. If you know how to make your business stand out from the crowd on Tripadvisor, and believe me, I do, you can leverage the world’s largest travel guidance website, and giving yourself a huge billboard. I have devoted 20 years to honing a five-star review system that is so powerful in attracting bookings I really don’t know why everyone doesn’t work this way.

Adele’s Tips:

Remember it is a fenced-in rate. Make sure you have an offer that is competitive and enticing to the traveler yet a win for you to get direct and commission-free. You won’t want to have any commissionable rates out there for less that your own websites member rate or Tripadvisor Plus.

Make sure you inspire as many 5-Star reviews as possible by treating every guest like a VIP. If you need help with a plan to help your hotel earn consistent 5 Star reviews, I promise, I can help you like no one else can. We can work on this on a short-term coaching program 

But first, why not schedule a free, No Obligation, first session with me at adelegutman.com. I will look at the reviews with you and give you as much free advice if I can. I am happy to help everyone recover as quickly as possible.

Make sure that the rate is competitive with the OTAs. It won’t help you get direct business if you give better rates to OTAs.

I love that this move by Tripadvisor is making a strong distinction from the OTAs which focus on commission, and this focuses on creating great experiences and providing knowledge and value for travelers.

When and if you do try it out, I'm very eager to hear how it is working for you. Please comment below or write to me at [email protected]

If you are a hotelier who needs help with Tripadvisor, please feel free to sign up for a free or low-cost first session with me at www.adelegutman.com

Carlo Carroccia, GM of the #1 Rated Hotel in the USA on Tripadvisor

How did Charlestowne Hotels and General Manager Carlo Carroccia lead the team at The French Quarter Inn in Charleston to be the #1 hotel in the country based on Guest Satisfaction, not once but two years in a row?

According to the American Hotel and Lodging Association, there are 54,200 hotels in the USA. To be rated by actual travelers as the #1 hotel in the USA is a monumental feat.

 Having personally helped several of my hotels to land on the Top 25 List of Tripadvisor, and one of my hotels achieve the ultimate win of #1 hotel in the World on Tripadvisor, I felt obliged to chat with Carlo to see if they used the philosophy and methods were different or similar to what we found worked so well for the Library Hotel Collection.

 You won’t want to miss this conversation!

 We discuss:

 The importance of a culture of caring, collaboration, and continuous improvement on long-term business success.

 The personal characteristics and mindsets that impact guest reviews.

 How to continuously keep the team attentive to cues from the guest which creates personalized service.

 How authenticity in marketing sets the stage for a great guest experience.

Part 2 -- EV Hotel’s CEO, Ken Patel is ready to revolutionize the hotel industry with a new, technology-based hotel concept and a mission to make human life better.

He believes by making technology do many of all that it can, our hospitality professionals' life will be better as they will have the time and energy to focus on the guest experience.

He questions that while Hotel Brands may have a good reputation, doesn’t it matter as well that each individual property has a great reputation?

Let’s re-examine the ways hotels have continued to work and revolutionize the process. Let’s examine all the advancements that have changed how we live, and bring the hotel experience into the new age.

EV Hotel’s CEO, Ken Patel is planning to revolutionize the hotel industry with a new, technology-based hotel concept and a mission to make human life better.

He believes by making technology do many of all that it can, our hospitality professionals' life will be better as they will have the time and energy to focus on the guest experience.

He questions that while Hotel Brands may have a good reputation, doesn’t it matter as well that each individual property has a great reputation?

Let’s re-examine the ways hotels have continued to work and revolutionize the process. Let’s examine all the advancements that have changed how we live, and bring the hotel experience into the new age.

Larry Mogelonsky is the most prolific author on hospitality with over 1000 articles published over the last decade, and six books, including the latest two, Hotel Mogel and More Hotel Mogel, which is on my desk now, and I highly recommend it.

A few quotes from our chat:About traveling for inspiration, before Covid, Larry and his brilliant wife Maureen traveled 30% of the time and tried to visit over 35 new hotels each year.

“The goal in going to a new property any property for or from my standpoint is learning what is it that this hotel is doing that is new or unique or different that can be applied to other hotels to either to improve revenue, improve loyalty, improve guest satisfaction, or create a new experience”

“There is so much we can learn from each other so many opportunities so we can take advantage of to enhance how we operate how we live and importantly how we as hoteliers can do our job better and it represents another one of those seismic shifts which are going to change how we look at hotels, and importantly how hoteliers look at their guests.”

About the Guest Forward Concept:

“It’s all about you- the guest. It’s not about us. We are going to take care of you as best we can within the facility that we have. No, we haven’t put in the fastest elevators, and the world’s thickest mattresses, and the world’s largest bathrooms, because that doesn’t matter to you. Ultimately, what matters to you is, do you feel comfortable. What matters is that the guest feels good about being there and if you do that, that will be reflected in the reviews very quickly.”

“The flip side is don't pay attention don't do anything don't handle reviews people start to get surly and nasty and you don't care and watch what happens to your ADR your revenue and your percent occupancy and your staff who won't be happy because guests are not happy and the spiral will spin downward very quickly.” 

Larry is also the Managing Director of Hotel Mogel Consulting. https://www.hotelmogel.com/about/

Adele Gutman can be reached at https://www.adelegutman.com/

Charlotte Purvis, author of The Customer Communication Formula: How to communicate with your customers and boost your customer service brand

For over two decades, Charlotte Purvis has used the Customer Communication Formula to help corporate, campus, community, and church organizations boost their customer service brands. She is proud to have influenced millions of customer service interactions. Plus, Charlotte is a Customer Service Enthusiast who enjoys being a customer and observing customer service in action.

In this episode, Adele and Charlotte discuss the current challenges of the hospitality industry and the sometimes overwhelming strain it has put on our teams, and the importance of supporting them so that they can help our hotels accelerate the recovery of hospitality and tourism. 

Sarah Dandashy, Ask a Concierge and Author of Hospitality From Within

Sarah Dandashy of Ask a Concierge is a very busy woman. Sarah is the host of the podcast Say Yes to Travel, a very inspiring series called Unscripted. Sarah also produces a segment called Hospitality Minute, a regular feature on Hospitality Live with Rupesh Patel with whom she also partners for a Social Media Bootcamp.

Soon, Sarah’s tens of thousands of followers will be able to enjoy Sarah’s first book, Hospitality From Within.

During this conversation we discuss:

Leading by Experiences

Nurturing employees to set them up for success

Sharing Best Practices

Putting things into perspective

Being Authentic

Simple ways to make a lasting impression

The Art of the Follow-up

Understanding Why Employee’s Roll Matters Equally in the Pursuit of Guest Satisfaction

The Unexpected Benefits of Giving Yourself a Break

Did you ever wonder how restaurants like French Laundry, Daniel, and Hall’s Chop House top the charts on review sites like Tripadvisor? 

I recently had the pleasure to experience dining at the #3 rated restaurant in the USA according to the 2020 Best of the Best Tripadvisor Travelers Choice Awards. The service and experience as so warm, welcoming, theatrical, yet completely unpretentious. I loved it even though it is a steak house and I am a vegetarian!

My interview for this episode is Sara Faienza, the Assistant General Manager of Hall’s Chophouse, a lawyer by profession, who could not deny her passion for hospitality.

In this conversation we discuss:

How the culture of the company was built by Bill Hall, who started his career in Hospitality as a busboy and went on to luxury hotels working in Ritz Carlton among other prestigious and guest-centric brands.

Every person who walks in the door is treated like family. Everyone is a VIP. Every day is a special occasion.

How they keep the team happy and focused on their mission of building customers for life who will return and share their experiences with others.

How their reputation, great reviews, and guest experience success allows them to provide generously for their team as well as their community, all while expanding their business empire to new brands and new locations.

By the way, when Sara speaks of SNOB, she is talking about their sister restaurant, Slightly North of Broad. The Hall’s Restaurant Group also includes Rita’s Seaside Grill and High Cotton.