One of the biggest concerns of hotels using social media is the dreaded negative review. No one likes to get one but the fact is, they are part of the industry and while you hope to minimize them, they will happen at some point.
So how do you respond to a negative hotel review? Here are some things you should not do:
- Don’t ignore it – The worst thing you can do with a negative hotel review is ignore it. It won’t just go away and it makes you look unprofessional and uncaring if you don’t reply.
- Don’t reply in anger – Whatever you do, never reply in anger, no matter how unjust the review might be. If you’re upset, take time to cool off before replying to anything.
- Don’t get defensive – It’s easy to want to explain your position, defend your brand or make excuses for the experience. Avoid being defensive in public replies to the negative review.
Instead you want to:
- Acknowledge the complaint – A good first step is to acknowledge the complaint. This doesn’t mean you are admitting fault in any way. This simple means you’re saying you heard the complaint/review.
- Offer an apology – Next, you should offer a sincere apology. Again, an apology is not an admission of guilt. This is just a good faith approach to recognizing the fact that the customer/visitor felt they had a negative experience.
- Give a solution – If you make any changes or plan to make any changes as a result of this review, be sure to let them know. Often people leave these reviews because they want to see change, or the problem fixed. Future potential guests will also want to see what you did to remedy the problem.
Once you have appropriately replied to the complaint, you still don’t want to just toss the review aside and forget about it. Look at it objectively and see if there are things you can learn from it or possible ways you or your staff can improve the experience for the next guest.
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