There are two things that you need to be aware of when working in today’s hospitality business. One, your time is precious. Two, Google guest reviews are your golden ticket to gaining back more of that time.
There has been a lot of buzz over the last few months regarding Google’s entrance in the online reputation sector for hotels. Google is estimated to receive more reviews than any other individual source and 63% of consumers actively read these reviews. It’s becoming obvious that Google has slowly but surely become one of the most reliable and popular review sources.
So how exactly does all of this impact your hotel business? First of all, as you are probably aware by now, the more Google reviews your hotel gets, the more its online visibility increases. This ultimately translates into more chances of being seen by travelers and getting booked, something that we have previously touched base on in this blog post.
Second of all, know that modern travelers trust Google reviews, even more so when they include a response from the management. A 2018 study by Trip Advisor showed that hotels that responded to reviews received 12% more reviews and their ratings increased by 0.12 stars. Also, Google has confirmed that responding to reviews improves your businesses’ local SEO. This is all good news – but there is one hang up. Without a third-party solution, like TrustYou, reviews can only be responded to through your Google My Business account. From experience, we know that there is often the issue that the owner of this account is not the same person/team/department who responds to reviews. This seemingly small detail has plagued many hoteliers who hesitate to share permissions, as well as adding an extra step to the review response strategy.
As of right now, this is no longer the case. The TrustYou feedback solution, in coordination with Google, has recently integrated a direct response API that enables users to reply to Google reviews without leaving the feedback platform. The new “Respond” button automates the process and the response from the company is posted directly to Google. There is no more need to have different sign-ins that, if we’re honest, are normally a waste of your time. The setup of this feature is a breeze and can be applied to all users in the same group. This ensures that the process is easy and fast, just like the functionality of the feature itself.
In a nutshell, these are the main benefits of leveraging the Google reviews integration within the TrustYou platform:
• You save valuable time by not leaving the main feedback management platform
• You only need one sign-in for all the users
• You can quickly integrate this feature through a single setup
• You can better leverage the power of Google reviews to increase your online visibility and chances of getting bookings
Responding to Google reviews just got a lot easier and faster due to this integration! Manage your hotel’s reputation while improving operations and save valuable time, with our award-winning feedback platform. You can sign up for a demo or start now with a free trial!