As negative reviews become an increasingly major problem for business everywhere, including within the hotel industry, more business owners are turning to the review suppression services offered by reputation management companies.
NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- For members of the travel industry, negative online reviews are an increasingly major threat. This new reality has hardly escaped the attention of industry insiders, however. According to a recent report, filed by a hotel industry publication, the problem of negative online reviews is one that more and more hotel managers are taking seriously. And hotels are hardly the only business entities being damaged by unflattering words written on sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor. But if online reviews are impossible to erase, they are not impossible to suppress, something members of the online reputation management industry say is the only real solution.
Justin Singletary, the Chief Executive Officer of reputation management company Reputation Changer, says these reviews sites can be absolutely devastating to a business. "When someone goes to Google or Bing to search for a hotel and sees a one-star Yelp review, that seals that hotel's fate," he says. "In terms of public perception, that hotel essentially becomes a one-star hotel." The hotel industry trade publication agrees; the article states, "More than ever before, people are turning to each other through the [Internet] to glean opinions about hotels, their staff, and even how the hotel dealt with problems, before making any concrete decisions about where to stay."
According to Singletary, many hotels and other businesses make the mistake of trying to control negative reviews, or else rebut them. "Responding to bad reviews on sites like Yelp is almost always a poor idea, as it lends more traction to the review on the search results page," Singletary cautions. He also notes that it is something of an uphill battle, due to the very nature of these review sites. "Yelp and many of the sites like it use algorithms that heavily favor negative listings," he nods. "In fact, sometimes positive reviews are systematically removed from the batch."
But businesses being bogged down by negative reviews don't have to settle for an undesirable online reputation, Singletary says. Reputation management companies offer review suppression plans, a method that proves far more effective and cost-effective than seeking to control or respond to bad reviews. Reputation management companies will suppress these Yelp and TripAdvisor reviews beneath positive online content, seeking to push unwanted reviews off the first search results page.
Singletary says the need for a good reputation management service cannot be overstated, especially when company is faced with negative reviews. "We have seen case studies of hotels that have been absolutely devastated by a single negative review. A one-star review can lead to a decrease in reservations, and ultimately to the hotel having to lower its rates just to get people in the door," he notes. "What's more, that lone negative review can be based on something completely outside the hotel's control, like construction noise coming from outside. That's when review suppression is really necessary."
Even in less dramatic scenarios, a negative review can still be a major detriment, thanks in large part to the sponsored ads found on Google and Bing. Singletary says that a customer can search for a hotel and find that it only received one star in a Yelp review, then see a sponsored review for a rival hotel, heralding it as a five-star establishment. "Which of the two hotels is the customer most likely going to pick?" muses Singletary.
Companies like Reputation Changer make their services available to companies from all different industries, and fight negative reviews as well as unwanted publicity. Each reputation management campaign is different, drawing on resource as varied as newswires and blogs. What doesn't change, Singletary says, is how urgent it is to suppress negative reviews, before the business' reputation is tarnished any more than it needs to be.
ABOUT:
Founded in 2009 by a team of online marketing and sales professionals, Reputation Changer is one of the premier providers of online reputation management. The company works 24/7 to provide comprehensive reputation management strategies to its clients, which have included politicians, public figures, Fortune 500 companies, and more. Reputation Changer owns several media outlets, and is known for its innovation in positive SEO techniques, social media implementation, and more.
For more information about Reputation Changer, its services and how it can assist in reputation management and promotional campaigns, visit www.ReputationChanger.com.