Everyone knows that a really poor review can prevent potential guests from staying at your hotel. Reality is that no matter how good your service is, bad reviews happen. No company is perfect and sometimes you miss the mark. While you can’t completely eliminate a bad review, here are some simple things you can do to prevent one person’s bad experience from turning other people away.
Respond promptly
This should be self-explanatory, but unfortunately many bad reviews aren’t responded to quickly and many aren’t responded to at all. No matter how busy your schedule is, you need to respond within three days at the latest. Nothing looks worse than a really bad review that your hotel seems to have no response for. Responding quickly will show that you are on top of things even if you made a bad mistake that led to the poor review.
Address the person directly
Even though you can follow a similar pattern in responding to reviews, you don’t want a generic response. Address the person by name and be specific to the situation. Show that a human being is responding to them, and cares about what they have to say. You don’t need to get too detailed, but make sure they can tell that you actually read their review.
Thank them and apologize
Thank the person for bringing your attention to the matter. Every company makes mistakes and learning about them is just another way to improve as an organization. It is unfortunate however, that this mistake had to happen to this particular guest. Even if you really weren’t the cause of their woes, apologize. Something simple like, “We are sorry that your experience didn’t meet your expectations.” is ideal.
Offer to talk further
There is no need to have an endless back and forth in the review section, try and resolve the issue one-on-one. Give contact info and be willing to talk with them about their feedback. Many won’t take you up on your offer, but showing that you are trying to fix mistakes reflects well on your hotel. This shows that you care about each customer and you don’t want to lose a single one. Even if you are unsuccessful at earning back their business, let them know you’d love to try and do better if they gave you another chance.
Keep it simple
Nobody wants to read a novel in response to a simple complaint. You can appropriately respond in only a few sentences. You want to say enough to show that you care, but not too much that you come off as defensive. Sometimes the reviewer will still be mad, but some people just can’t be helped. You’ve done your job in attempting to resolve the situation. Responding to these reviews improves your image for everybody else that might stay at your hotel.
