Effect Of Online Reviews On Hotel Bookings




A recent survey done by TripAdvisor, the leading online travel site showcased that 80% of Indian travelers read from 6 to 12 reviews before zeroing on the hotel of their choice, which suits not only their budget but also their taste. They are checking sites like TripAdvisor, Expedia, Yelp, Travelocity, HolidayCheck and Google+ Localto help them make decisions on where to stay and where to travel. This has shown that many of the travelers rely on travel review websites for information on destination and mainly hotels, before booking a stay at a hotel in a new city.

According to the survey, number of travelers are rapidly becoming reliable on the popular Internet-based social services to help them plan their hotel bookings as well as trips. Online sources, in general are heavily depended upon by consumers as the usage of the Internet and social sites have increased so much, that a bulk of their trip planning, whether it was to research an a vacation destination, read online reviews or source initial ideas about where to travel and stay.

The TripAdvisor also stated that many of the hotels are relying on the reviews made by the visitors who have already visited the destination as well as the hotel.

Hotels are disturbed with online reviews because their booking decisions are influenced by it, as travelers are becoming highly influenced by online reviews. But still hotel businesses have noticed this trend and have responded by enabling public to post reviews on their own websites and they not only respond to actively good reviews but also to the negative reviews as well. Hotels are getting aware of the fact that they cannot afford to be left out of the conversation, even if it means to allow negative reviews on their websites.

The TripAdvisor study result shows that 57% of travelers said they would be more likely to book a hotel whose management responded to reviews, compared with a comparable property whose management was silent on the subject.




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