Best practices to improve your TripAdvisor listing
Just as Google dominates Internet search, TripAdvisor dominates in hospitality review websites and we’re always on the lookout for how to improve listings and how to respond to reviews. We’ve compiled some tips and tricks we've learned on how to effectively manage your TripAdvisor listing.
Categories and ranking
Understanding how TripAdvisor ranks your business is important but it’s also important to have picked the right category for your property. In the hospitality industry, we’ll often use hotel, B&B, and inn interchangeably but there are some differences the site looks at for your property. The differences include:
B&B/inn requirements
- Daily housekeeping as part of the room rate
- Daily on-site management
Hotel category requirements
- 24-hour front desk
- Daily housekeeping as part of the room rate
- Private bathroom for each unit
- No more than a three-night minimum stay
Once you’re in the right category, your rank will be determined by the quality of your reviews, how frequently reviews are added, and how recent your reviews are. Always be sure to add some verbiage to your thank you email about writing a review on TripAdvisor to encourage a steady stream of reviews on your listing.
Responding to reviews
You know potential guests are using TripAdvisor to see what other travelers have to say about your property and you know that certain reviews require management responses but do you know which reviews TripAdvisor recommends responding to?
For reviews in the one to three bubble range you should reply 100% of the time
Reviews in the four to five bubble range should be responded to about 35% of the time
TripAdvisor recommends sending review requests about three days after check-out to give travelers time to get home, decompress, and get back to their normal routine. Sending too soon could lead to your email being read during their travel and then forgotten about when they get home and sending too late means your guests may have forgotten certain aspects of their experience they wanted to talk about.
Favorite review
TripAdvisor is testing a new feature with some of its business listings where innkeepers can pick a favorite review and showcase it in the second review position. They recommend picking a review that spans the whole experience at the property, so highlighting amenities, rooms, and things to do in the area.
If this option is available for your property, it will be available in the “Manage your business listing” section:
Photos
At RezStream, we talk about quality photos with our clients a lot, especially for their website and social media networks and TripAdvisor holds the same stance. They suggest having at least 30 management photos on your listing and these photos should showcase different aspects of the property. Thirty photos of the front of your property or one particular room isn’t going to cut it. Though, having an external property photo or the view as your leader photo is a recommended tip. TripAdvisor also recommends updating your photography each year so it’s current and shows the property as is. But, if you have a few favorite photos that are still representative of your property, delete them and re-upload them so they have a more recent upload date.
Special offers
If you’re running a special offer on your website you should be running it on TripAdvisor to increase your visibility in their special offers search category. Having special offers will help your property get more visibility for your specific city and then the greater area of your region. For more customizable options, try the package category of special offers.
Photo credit: TripAdvisor