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Tripadvisor’s Best of the Best Awards begin long before the list is announced.
They start every time a guest leaves a good review. One happy guest becomes ten, ten becomes hundreds. Over time, these reviews become something incredibly valuable: trust.
As an independent hotelier, reviews are your most important marketing asset. Travellers trust other travellers. Every glowing review is a compliment to you; it represents a guest who enjoyed their stay enough to share their experience with others.
We’ve been working with independent properties for over 28 years, so we know a thing or two about reviews. Hoteliers should aim for 100+ recent reviews across Google and Tripadvisor. While there’s no magic number, consistently collecting fresh reviews helps build trust with potential guests. It demonstrates you’re delivering great experiences today, not just in the past. As online search evolves to include AI-generated summaries and recommendations, maintaining an active, well-reviewed presence across trusted platforms becomes even more important. You should also be responding to reviews, the good and the bad!
We asked this year’s Tripadvisor award winners how a personalised guest experience, and the right tech, help grow their reviews and reputation.
Tripadvisor’s Best of the Best Awards are unusual in that they’re based on one thing: guest reviews.
When we spoke to this year’s award winners who use freetobook, they didn’t talk about chasing five-star reviews. They talked about creating experiences worth talking about.
As Jane from The Bosham Boathouse (B&B and Inns UK #16) explains:
“Every guest is treated as an individual, and no two guests are treated the same. We discovery what our guests want and need and adjust our approach accordingly.”
And for Chris at Fossil Tree Hotel (Small & Boutique UK #6), that commitment has helped earn Tripadvisor’s Best of the Best award four times in five years.
“Being Best of the Best provides reassurance that we’re getting the guest experience right.”
Those kinds of experiences naturally earn great reviews. This is where independents in particular have a chance to shine; guests rarely get the same personal touch in a corporate chain hotel.
The challenge is that even your happiest guests don’t always remember or have time to leave reviews. Not because they didn’t enjoy their stay; because life gets busy.
Businesses with outstanding online reputations don’t leave reviews to chance. They make asking for feedback part of the guest journey. This benefits them twofold; more good reviews mean more bookings, while constructive feedback helps improve the guest experience even more.
But for busy hoteliers, chasing reviews is time–consuming and often falls to the bottom of a busy to-do list.
That’s where Reputation Suite comes in…
Reputation Suite helps accommodation providers collect more reviews and manage guest feedback more effectively.
It’s perhaps no surprise then that 60% of this year’s award-winning freetobook customers use Reputation Suite!
It helps you collect more feedback, build trust with future travellers, and strengthen visibility across platforms. Reputation Suite automatically sends guests review requests, so you don’t have to chase them yourself.
You can prioritise where guests leave reviews; we recommend Google or Tripadvisor. You can also add a rating threshold, to filter out negative feedback and deal with it privately without impacting your review score.
This is all fully integrated into your booking process, personalised with your property’s logo and branding.
“Reputation Suite is extremely good. I hadn’t appreciated how powerful it was until we started using it, but it’s incredibly clever. It lets us respond properly to guests who’ve had an issue, while at the same time get good reviews from those who are happy with their stay.”
- Willowbank Lodges.
Reputation Suite does the hard work for you, giving you more time with your guests…leading to even better reviews!
Of course, software alone doesn’t create award-winning hospitality.
But it can make it easier to collect reviews that reflect the exceptional experiences you’re already delivering.
Great reputations aren’t built overnight. They’re built one happy guest and one review at a time. If you’re already delivering exceptional hospitality, Reputation Suite can help ensure more guests hear about it.
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