When planning a trip, 95 % of travelers read travel reviews.
Most travelers turn to TripAdvisor when looking for reviews (e.g. accomodation, restaurants). It’s an important channel for the hospitality industry (e.g. vacation rental owners, B&Bs, hotels).
Although the „Popularity Ranking Algorithm“ will constantly be changed in order to improve fairness and accuracy, your TripAdvisor ranking is determined by 3 main factors:
- Quality. Vacation rentals with 4 or 5 bubble ratings (note: TripAdvisor uses „bubbles“ instead of „stars“) will rank higher than holiday homes with 1 or 2 bubble ratings (all other things being equal).
- Recency. More recent reviews get a higher value than older ones. You’ll have to constantly meet guest’s expectations. Potential guests want to know what they can expect if they stay at your place tomorrow (not how it was a few years ago)
- Quantity. There needs to be volume in your 5-bubble reviews. TripAdvisor is looking for enough reviews to deliver statistically meaningful comparison to other properties.
Make sure, that your property ranks high on TripAdvisor in order to drive more traffic to your vacation rental website (requires consistent attention).
Upload images to your TripAdvisor property page so that guests know what to expect from your vacation rental before they book.
Be proactive and ask your guests, whether there are any issues. Address and resolve any complaints immediately to get ahead of negative reviews.
Go the extra mile to see more positive reviews.
Encourage guests to leave a review of your vacation rental (e.g. when they are checking out or shortly afterwards).
Constantly monitor all reviews on TripAdvisor and quickly respond especially to any negative ones.
(Source: via @VFMLeonardo – Get full details at http://blog.leonardo.com/tripadvisor-algorithm/ )
