It is official; the walls on every hotel worldwide are now made of glass and are completely transparent; the outside world can now see into your hotel lobby and witness how real guest are treated in the real-world daily. For those who thought that TripAdvisor had revolutionized the hospitality industry, be assured that we have so far only seen just the beginning.

Now that TripAdvisor has just recently integrated with facebook by offering it’s “Trip Friends” link, those who are researching future travel plans will rely less on the number of stars or diamonds on the plaque behind the front desk; they will also relay less and less on online guest reviews posted by strangers. Instead, they will be reaching out to their own network of facebook friends for advice and input.

On one level, this is really nothing new to our industry which has always been judged by the subjective opinions of others. Long before the days of Tripadvisor postings, those traveling to unfamiliar destinations would often confer with friends, associates, and colleagues on the best places to visit and stay. It’s just that today’s travelers have more “friends” to confer with and much faster tools for connecting.

Although providing excellent guest service has always been important for future word-of-mouth advertising, the numbers today are exponentially that much greater. In the past it was theorized that an unhappy guest would tell 9-10 others; today’s unhappy guest can easily notify 90, 900, or even 9,000 about their perception of bad service while they are still experiencing it!

This is why it is vital that hotel operations managers communicate frequently with their frontline operational team members and let them know just how important their jobs are to the hotel’s “brand management” efforts.

Read More at Hotel Marketing.Com