I’ve been travelling non-stop for the last week and part of my time was spent in Stockholm, where I was speaking at the Internet Marketing Conference.
Naturally, this trip involved hotels, planes (and in my case trains). And as I recently wrote here about how social media sites like Flickr and You Tube are changing the behaviour of visitors and I thought I’d share this classic example from my own experience, because I think there are lessons to be learned for tourism businesses.
When I was invited to the Internet Marketing Conference, I started my search for a hotel at the recommended conference hotel’s website. I wasn’t overly impressed, so next stop Trip Advisor.
A mixed bunch of reviews, but with a recurring theme – bad bathrooms. I really hate a dingy hotel bathroom and the hotel had done nothing to reassure me the fears were needless, so clearly the conference hotel wasn’t for me.
And so I started a search for my perfect hotel in Stockholm, beginning with scanning the reviews in Trip Advisor. In just a few moments, one hotel with great reviews caught my eye – the Hotel Rival. 
Here are some examples of the comments:
“Just returned from a 2 night stay at the Hotel Rival in Stockholm, chosen largely based upon reviews in Trip Advisor. It was just as nice as we had anticipated.”
“My husband and I stayed here for two nights at the end of September. We loved it and my husband said it was his favorite hotel ever!”
“Just returned from a stay at the Hotel Rival. It’s every bit as hip, cool and luxurious as everyone says.”
“I chose this hotel because it is the No1 most popular on Trip Advisor and I was so pleased I did.”
Notice a theme? People are mentioning in their review that they chose the hotel because they read the reviews. Then they are validating their decision by informing others that they made the right choice. Without realising it, I did exactly the same thing when I added my own review earlier this morning.
Super-charged word of mouth
Hotel Rival is getting great reviews, because people booked on the strength of the great reviews and are “passing it on”. Supercharged word of mouth in action – and despite the fact that none of these people are likely to ever meet.
Once I’d read the reviews, I was excited – maybe this was the hotel for me. Could I afford it? Next stop Expedia, where there was a great deal.
Did I book? No – not yet.
Next I visited the hotel website – music (a big minus point for me – I’m at work, people will be wondering!) but excellent apart from that and lots of information about the practicalities I needed to know.
So, did I book? Again, no – not yet.
I thought I’d get some independent views from my trusted community on Flickr, the photo sharing site. Even before I added my own shots, there were a massive 132 pictures of the Hotel Rival – reflecting its photogenic-ness and quality of product. I looked at a selection of pictures from different photographers, showing different rooms and aspects - clearly, this place was something special.
Decision made. I went back to Expedia and booked. And over the coming weeks before my trip, I continued to look at pictures on Flickr and read reviews on Trip Advisor – even though the decision was made and I had pre-paid via Expedia.
Do I do this for every hotel? Of course not – a Travelodge (which I frequent regularly on business trips) is a room by the right road and not something I fret over for longer than it takes to print directions.
But this was different; it was turning into a quest for an experience. In my scouring of info about Hotel Rival, I was turning into a tourist, not a business traveller. I was enjoying the anticipation before my stay had even begun.
Because of its great product, social media sites are generating vast amounts of word of mouth for Hotel Rival and are driving business.
Is this online buzz being harnessed?
So, is Hotel Rival (and potential other sites lucky enough to be in this position) really doing enough to capitalise on this online buzz?
I don’t think so. (But if you’re reading, please feel free to disagree!)
While Hotel Rival has hundreds of blog mentions, it has no blog of its own where I can continue a dialogue with it and happily act as a champion.
It has some of the best reviews on Trip Advisor, but has not taken advantage of the free feed that Trip Advisor offers, to import these into its site and share them with pride to potential customers.
Many of its customers made their decision on the web and like me were posting great images and reviews online before they’d even left the hotel – as a manager, I’d reconsider the 99Kr per 24 hours of Internet access (roughly £10) that is being charged to let them do this.
Because they have their product so very right, I came away wanting to tell the world how clever I was for having chosen this hotel. I know I am not alone.
Any tools (from a photo album uploader to a group on Facebook) that Hotel Rival chose to invest in would be utilised by its fans (sorry customers). The result would be that it could therefore use its word of mouth more strategically in supporting its business development goals, rather than being a haphazard beneficiary of good will.
The lesson for all businesses with a great (or even an improving product) is monitor this buzz and goodwill and thing how you can harness it. Understand where you are being talked about and what is being said. And good or bad, plunge into the conversation in an authentic way.
If, like Hotel Rival, you have real champions out there – work with them to achieve you marketing goal. They’re your fans and they want to have contact with you – and your potential customers will trust them more than they trust you!
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 11:56 am and is filed under Marketing strategy, Online customer behaviour, Opinion, Tourism blogging, Travel 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
