The Web gives hotel guests the last word
April 12, 2007 | Hospitality Industry
As review sites have become more popular, customer feedback that was once viewed only by a hotels staff is increasingly being posted online for all to see, enabling guests to share their praise or air their gripes publicly.
Nearly every morning, over his second cup of coffee, Tom Brady, general manager at the Affinia Chicago, logs onto his computer and surfs over to TripAdvisor.com to see if there are any new postings about his hotel.
Its an obsession, he said. If the review is positive he moves on. If its unfavorable like the complaint posted in March from a guest who had received a $90 parking ticket because of a valets error hes on it immediately. In that case, he marched straight out to the valet to find out what had happened. After identifying the guest, he made sure that the company issued an apology and a reimbursement for the ticket.
This is all over the world, he said, describing his concern about any negative comment on TripAdvisor. Everyone is looking at this. Ive got to make sure its solved quickly, so God forbid someone else doesnt have the same problem.
The individual travelers word is weightier than ever. Before the advent of travel review sites like TripAdvisor, IgoUgo.com and MyTravelGuide.com, customer complaints about dirty showers or threadbare sheets typically went to hotels directly and discreetly in the form of comment cards, phone calls or e-mail messages. But as review sites have become more popular, customer feedback that was once viewed only by a hotels staff is increasingly being posted online for all to see, enabling guests to share their praise or air their gripes publicly.
We love it and we hate it, said Steven Pipes, vice president at the Jack Parker Corporation, which owns the Parker Meridien in New York and the Parker Palm Springs in California. He regularly checks TripAdvisor. We love it because we really look for feedback and want to know what people are thinking about, and we know they dont always tell us to our faces, he said. We hate it because its anonymous. The anonymity of the comments makes it difficult to respond to guests and find out exactly what happened, he said, or to know if they truly stayed at the hotel.
Get the full story at The New York Times
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