Guest feedback, online reputation management, and hotel ratings mean nothing without reviews. TrustYou collects and analyzes reviews from the most sources on a global scale in order to showcase the true performance level of your hotel. We took a closer look at the feedback housed in our database from 2018 to unveil which are the top performing review sources that play important roles on a global level but also from a regional perspective.
Let’s look at the top review sources that achieved the highest growth in one year (2017 to 2018) on a global level:
In 2018, Google ranked first in growth for top performing review sources and showed the highest increase in the number of reviews with an impressive plus of 93.37% compared to 2017.
Also, Expedia experienced a very successful year in 2018 and reported double-digit growth in bookings and revenue for the full year compared to 2017. Our review analysis supports this growth by seeing a whopping +63.45% increase in review volume on a global level.
With the success of its big sister Expedia, Hotels.com’s review count grew in 2018 compared to 2017 and put the online travel agent (OTA) in third place of the TrustYou sources with the highest increase. Hotels.com was one of the main contributors to Expedia’s overall success in 2018. Hotels.com uses TrustYou to help power their review summaries, ensuring that the reviews are well understood and accessible to travelers.
On the other hand, TrustYou noticed some decreases in review volume for big players such as Facebook and TripAdvisor. Facebook’s drastic decrease (-69.42%) can be traced back to their change of “reviews” to “recommendations,” which means that there aren’t scores and full-text reviews about hotels on the social network anymore.
TripAdvisor reviews saw a decrease of -10.62%. With so many other great possibilities for guests to leave reviews, it’s getting more difficult for the popular review source to stay on top in the review business. TripAdvisor helped shape the online reputation industry into what it is today, however with advancements in review possibilities, going to another website might seem like a lot of extra effort to travelers when a review has already been submitted elsewhere. TripAdvisor recognized this trend and has perhaps diversified its business and reported to see major growth in areas like experiences and restaurants.
Read Original Article
