There was a day that a hotel did sales and marketing, and took care of the guest at the hotel level. If a guest had a complaint or a raving review they filled out a comment card, that would only be seen by the hotels management, and staff. Never to be seen by a potential guest who has never stayed at the property before. Hotels were giving away free dinners, free drinks, having guest receptions to fill rooms. So the future guest would see the marketing, and be lured to stay at the hotel with out knowing of past service.  Hotels for the most part had it easy. However in 2011 and beyond that wont be the case any more with today's technology and shopping habits.



Now a days with social media, trip Advisor, online forums, travel blogs, and foursquare, people are staying in contact and sharing more experiences online more then ever. Whether they are having a good day, because their husband bought them flowers, or whether they were traveling to Nashville and stayed at YOUR hotel and had a terrible experience. People are looking for real reviews by real travelers just like them more then ever. Close to 65% of Americans who travel will look up their hotel online, and then look at review sites such as Trip Advisor, Google Places, Yelp, and Facebook to see what other people are saying about their past stays.

So offering all the discounts, having a wonderful website, and a great sales team won't mean a bit of good unless your using some form of reputation management. Not only do people write about their bad experiences, but a lot of people write a public review because they were very happy with the service. So don't you think you need to know as a General Manager or Director of Sales, what your guest are saying about your services?

I know some of you will say, that your too busy with all the other things you are trying to do with running and marketing your property that you just don't have time to research reviews online. Now for some of you hotels that have a budget can purchase online reputation software, and other hotels can assign this tasks to a lead front desk agent, or a sales manager. It would only take an hour once a week to make sure you are seeing what your guest are saying about your weakness's and strengths so you can tweak  your operation.