Reputation is everything in the hotelier business and having a good reputation is even more valuable. If you have a good reputation, there is no need to spend millions on your next marketing campaign, especially if you don’t have them.  And by  “good reputation”  we mean the reputations you’ve gained by your TripAdvisor reviews and rankings, of course. Since May 2016 TripAdvisor has made a change to their ranking algorithm to enable fairer ranking systems and to resolve the issue of “fast-risers”.  But the three main factors that affect your rankings remain the same:

1. Quality
2. Recency
3. Quantity

So, here are a few suggestions on how to get your rankings up!

     Quality of your reviews

It sounds simple, but we all know that you just need to put that extra effort to improve the quality of the reviews your customers are leaving.

• Check whether your booking button on TripAdvisor/your website is easily visible!
• Make sure you have great photos on your TripAdvisor page, which accurately represent what you have to offer. To get more photos, why not encourage your visitors to upload photos along with their reviews?
• Have you redecorated your rooms, recently? Did you remember to update your website with the up-to-date description? To set your guest expectations high, make sure you have all the information about your property up-to-date.
• Provide a great service – it is hard to be perfect every day, but you should always try to give the best customer service! Be welcoming and respond to all the questions and requests of your customers.
• Respond to your reviews, especially when you receive a negative feedback. It is important for future customers to see that you are following on the feedback you are getting. Check our blog on 10 dos and don’ts for managing reviews for more information on how to deal with negative/positive feedback.

  Get more recent reviews

 So you have excellent customer service, but your reviews are outdated. Here is what you can do:

• Use our service Review Express  to send automated TripAdvisor review request email to your customers. Review Express is completely free and you can easily switch it on/off from your TripAdvisor account.
• Get business cards with the TripAdvisor logo on.
• Display your TripAdvisor award in a visible place to influence your customers to leave a review.
• Track your review performance with Review Express .

   Quantity of your reviews

• By using Review Express you can increase the quantity of your reviews up to 34%
• When you keep your reviews fresh, you will soon see how this will encourage more customers to leave a review
• Did you know that when you have more reviews it is easier for TripAdvisor to rank your business accurately?

Follow those steps and we can guarantee you that your rankings will go up and your bookings will increase. And some friendly advice: Don’t try to boost your rating by writing fake reviews or by asking someone else to do that for you. TripAdvisor puts all reviews under a microscope so they will spot your fake review immediately, what is more people will know if your reviews are genuine or not.