In case you have not noticed, recently the number of reviews from third party websites such as tripadvisor that shows up when you see your property on Google Places has dramatically dropped in numbers and in some hotels there may be no reviews left.
What happened? Well simply put Google has obviously taken the strategic decision to take over the new media arena. It has Google + in beta currently but everyone’s guess is that in a few years this new platform may have more subscribers than facebook.
So the few reviews that you may see currently all appear to come from Google users that have posted a review directly through the Google places platform. You can still see links to other sites such as trip advisor with the number of reviews showing in brackets, but those reviews are now one extra click away slowly making them redundant.
The Good News? As Google Places is gaining momentum Hoteliers and Restaurateurs will not have to worry so much about some of the negative reputation they have been getting from sites like Tripadvisor. The hope is of course that Google may police its reviews much better than Tripadvisor since users already have accounts with a trail of activity and posting completely anonymous comments or manipulating the system may not be that easy…
The Bad News? One more platform to keep an eye on, as time goes by and more reviewers use the site the same symptoms you had in other similar websites will come back to haunt you… Google has so many applications and platforms on the go that the attention needed in policing hotel and restaurant reviews may not be a priority.
A 3 step Solution:
1. Use Common sense; Ensure your product and service is consistently excellent.
2. Be proactive! Get to know Google Places and understand the demographics of people that may be using it for your property. Experiment with Google+ if you can get someone to invite you to the beta testing.
3. Adjust your online strategy to include Google Places and Google+ in the picture.
This will give the hotels a clean slate to start building up their reputation again. But if they still have bad reviews here and bad reviews in TripAdvisor, then maybe they should start changing their management.
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