The Ultimate Guide to TripAdvisor for Hotel and B&B Owners
TripAdvisor allows you to share important details about your B&B including food and snacks.
Do you have a TripAdvisor hotel and B&B marketing strategy?
If not, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity.
TripAdvisor is the most recognized travel review service online.
They help people find the perfect flights, hotels, and other travel information. In 2010, they surpassed 40 million monthly visitors. That number just keeps growing.
Some reasons why TripAdvisor will boost your business:
- It puts your B&B in front of millions of travelers
- It’s trusted worldwide (because of its high standards)
- It gives people a chance to provide feedback/interact with your B&B
- It’s optimized for social networking
- It connects you to other businesses nearby
So how can you use TripAdvisor to gain a competitive advantage?
TripAdvisor for Hotel and B&B Owners
Claim your listing
Start by claiming your listing. Being a registered user gives you more control over your listing, and it only takes a few minutes. Remember to add your signature photo, along with some other photos and contact information.
A basic listing on TripAdvisor is free. They also a paid service called “Business Listings” that can get you more traffic. Try searching your hotel or B&B for custom rates. Paid listings don’t increase your popularity through – it’s the beauty of TripAdvisor!
Description best practices
Travelers are more likely to book a room if they can get a good feel for the place. As a registered free user, you can add a description of up to 500 words. Use keywords and detailed language to optimize your search listings.
Always make sure your photos and description are up-to-date, and let the site know if your basic contacts change.
Comment cards
A little-known TripAdvisor secret is that the site offers 250 free comment cards to newly registered users. (tweet this) After you’ve claimed your listing, you can order the cards from the Management Centre on your profile.
The comment cards are subtle way to encourage reviews in person. You can make them available at the front desk, within the each room, or hand them to guests as they check out.
Don’t push the cards too much on your guests – just make them available as a way to gather valuable feedback.
Your website
You can partner with other businesses on TripAdvisor like fishing guides.
TripAdvisor’s big-eyed owl is immediately recognizable to most travelers. If you reserve a small section of your front page for this little guy, visitors will immediately feel more at home on your website.
The Westside Guesthouse has incorporated TripAdvisor in a neat ‘Read our Reviews’ box. They’ve also included a mini icon on the bottom left corner. This is a really smart way to give solid yet subtle evidence that people love your B&B!
Use the TripAdvisor Widget Centre to add similar features to your site.
Sync with social networks
The widget centre also lets you add a TripAdvisor tab to your Facebook page. If you’re going to add any review app, this is the one. It’s continuously been the top travel application on Facebook for more than five years now.
Check out Craigend B&B’s page for a real world example of using TripAdvisor with Facebook.
Some B&B’s also benefit from linking to positive reviews on Twitter. Used in moderation, this can be a great way to spread the word. You might also add a #tripadvisor hashtag to any relevant status updates.
Manage your reviews
Your TripAdvisor reviews are a great (and free) source of market research. (tweet this) Monitor your reviews to find out what people love most about your hotel or B&B. If they discuss any weak points, use this as an opportunity to work on them.
Replying to TripAdvisor reviews is also a good way to engage with your guests. Respond with a quick and friendly thank you to positive reviews. More importantly, make sure not to ignore negative reviews. In one user survey, 79% of 2,100 travelers felt reassured when they saw a professional management response to a negative TripAdvisor review. Here’s a great article with tips on responding as a hotel owner.
Although the site is known for its strict policy against fake reviews, sometimes you’ll find something a little suspiciously nasty on your profile. If you find a really negative review and think it’s fake, use the “Problem with this Review” link to report it. They’ll usually remove these with reasonable evidence.
Now go make TripAdvisor work for you!
What are your experiences with TripAdvisor? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Photos by Applegate Inn and Spoon’s Rock Creek Ranch
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Couldn’t have put it more positively myself