Many TripAdvisor members have profiles on Facebook which gives users the opportunity to share thier TripAdvisor activity with their friends on Facebook. This week TripAdvisor launched a new integration with Facebook which instantly personalizes the site for each person who visits, surfacing trusted reviews from friends, most popular destinations among friends, and an interactive social map.

[ Read more → ]

It has emerged that Online Reputation was a significant topic at this years World Travel Market which took place in London last week.
VP of the Hotel Marketing Association has said that “Word of mouth is now both global and immediate, which presents a major challenge for anyone working anywhere in hospitality,”

[ Read more → ]

TripAdvisor has released its predictions for Travel Trends in 2011. And needless to say there are some very interesting stats: 36% of Americans plan to spend more on leisure travel in 2011 than this year with 90% planning to take 2 or more leisure trips next year.
While these figures predict an increase in online travel, rising airfares (40 percent) is the top travel concern for 2011.

[ Read more → ]

The reviews are in, and TripAdvisor is a bigger hit than ever with travelers. The world’s largest travel site attracted 40 million visitors worldwide in July, up 60% from the beginning of the year, according to comScore, and carries more than 35 million reviews of 450,000 hotels in 23 countries. The questiosnis Are hoteliers being whiners or is the system truly flawed?

[ Read more → ]

A new study by Epsilon surveyed over 400 consumers who recently booked a hotel and analyzed their experience throughout the selection process. Overall the study found that recommendations and property reviews heavily influence travelers’ decisions about which hotels to stay in – even if they have previously stayed in the hotel – and email remains the channel of choice for communications.

[ Read more → ]

Back in 2000 Kaufer co-founded TripAdvisor with the mission to help travelers around the world plan and have the perfect trip. Over the years the hotel industry have increasingly become aware of the power wielded by internet sites such as TripAdvisor. To date TripAdvisor has experienced tremendous growth in site traffic, with more than 40 million unique monthly visitors.

[ Read more → ]

With the increase in product personalisation what were once products are now services, especially in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry.

This has implications on how review websites operate. If the customer really did ask for salt on their chips they can’t complain about the taste.

If the customer really did only give 30 minutes to cross from one side of the airport to another they can’t complain about missing their connection.

Of course a travel supplier must make an effort to stop a customer buying a combination that really isn’t practical – but ultimately the customer may choose not to take that advice and the supplier is left in a very difficult position of turning away business or accepting a booking that might result in the customer having a poor experience.

[ Read more → ]

In today’s digitally connected world, guests’ desire for access to the Internet during their hotel stay continues to be strong. Whether it is to connect a mobile device or iPad to Wi-Fi or to connect a laptop to access work files, guests indicate their most important hotel amenity is wireless Internet access…

[ Read more → ]

Hotels need to embrace the fact that it is a Social Media world and people will talk about anything and everything. As more and more travlers seek online reviews the best thing a hotel can do to improve its online reputation is to monitor what their guests are saying, and interact.

[ Read more → ]