{"id":5363,"date":"2019-07-09T08:11:41","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T08:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/?p=5363"},"modified":"2022-10-14T11:22:29","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T11:22:29","slug":"holiday-cottage-owners-how-to-handle-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/holiday-cottage-owners-how-to-handle-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday cottage owners: How to handle reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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There are a number of different marketing tools that you can use to help maximize bookings for your holiday home. Choosing the most relevant advertising platforms, taking good photos, engaging with social media<\/a> and creating and maintaining your own website all help to generate bookings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arguably the jewel in the crown for holiday home owners is positive feedback from previous guests. Guest reviews are a natural extension of word of mouth marketing. They are free, unbiased and show potential guests that other people have had a great time staying at your holiday home. They also confirm that you are a credible and trustworthy business. With more and more people booking their holidays online, guest reviews have never been so important. This article looks at how to get good reviews and how to handle those that are less complimentary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to\nget good reviews<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It goes without saying that in order to get a good review you need to give your guests something to shout about. Whilst you can\u2019t control the weather or the traffic, there are a number of things that you can<\/em> control to ensure they have a good holiday. As well as making sure your holiday house is spotlessly clean, warm and comfortable, a thoughtful welcome pack and a few personal touches goes a long way to getting your guests into the holiday mood. For more tips on how to get your guests holiday off to a flying start read our article here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Encourage\npeople to leave reviews<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, even when they have had a great holiday,\nguests need a little nudge to give their feedback. Don\u2019t be shy to ask for a\nreview. It is best to email shortly after they have returned home so their\nholiday is still fresh in their minds. A good time to ask for a review is\nfollowing the return of a security deposit. Or you could send a thank you\nemail and ask if they had a nice holiday. Try and gauge if your guests had a\ngood holiday first. If they left a list of complaints in the guest book you\nmight decide to address them off line!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Show that your property is a great place to stay at any time of the year\nby making sure that you collect reviews from guests staying in the winter as\nwell as during the peak seasons. Endorsements of your warm and cosy cottage,\nrefreshing seaside walks or the roaring fire at the pub at the end of the road,\nwill help sell those harder to fill out of season gaps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to\nshow off your good reviews<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are a number of different places that you can collect reviews. If you advertise your property through OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) such as HomeAway or TripAdvisor, it is likely that your guests will be prompted to leave a review here. Some OTAs ask you, as holiday home owners, to also review your guests. Assuming you were happy with them, it takes less than one minute to give them a good review. This in turn might prompt them to give you a positive review too. A page of glowing reviews will certainly help your property stand out from the crowd when potential guests are sifting through a number of similar properties. If you have a number of good reviews you can consider adding a link from your own website to your reviews page. Make sure you remind guests that it is much cheaper to book their holiday directly with you though! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst good reviews on OTA sites are likely to help boost\nyour bookings, remember that if you decide to stop advertising with them you\nwill lose all the reviews that you have built up over the years. It is\ntherefore important to collect reviews in more than one place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Collect photos of guest book comments and let potential guests see them<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is a good idea to leave a guest book in your property where you can ask guests to write a review at the end of their holiday. With your guest\u2019s permission you can then copy these reviews onto your website. You can also upload photos of guest book comments onto your Independent Cottages advert or use it on your social media posts. Make sure that you protect personal data and delete any personal information such as names and addresses of your guests first. The advantage of this is that you can choose not to publish any reviews that are less favourable! However, bare in mind that future guests will be looking for unbiased and objective comments and if you only publish reviews that you have personally approved then they will seem a little less credible.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have a business page on Facebook this is also a good\nplace to ask guests to leave a recommendation. Facebook no longer has the star\nrating review system. Guests now choose whether to \u2018recommend\u2019 you or not. If\nyou are publically recommended in a group, or to someone\u2019s friends, it will\nappear on your page for everyone else to see. If your guests \u2018check in\u2019, Facebook\nare likely to send them an automatic reminder to write a recommendation for where\nthey are staying. For holiday home owners who use Facebook as part of their\nmarketing strategy this is a great place to collect reviews or recommendations.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the 2018 ReviewTrackers Online Reviews Survey<\/a>, Google is the review site of choice. The survey found that 63.6 percent of people are likely to check Google reviews before visiting a business. This is more than any other review site \u2013 including TripAdvisor and Facebook. In addition, your ratings in your Google reviews will help your ranking in the local search results. It is relatively easy to set up a Google My Business<\/a> account. Once you are up and running you will ideally need a steady stream of new reviews in order to stay visible on the search results page. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is worth noting that anyone can write a review on your Google account, including someone who has never stayed at your property. As a small business it is unlikely, but not impossible, that someone will write a \u2018fake review\u2019 of your holiday home. If they do, you can flag it to Google and ask them to remove it. It can sometimes take a while for Google to evaluate your request and decide whether it warrants removing or not. You can find more information on how to remove a fake review here<\/a>. In the meantime, it is a good idea to politely respond to the review so other potential guests know that you are aware of the review, and whilst you have no record of them staying at your holiday house you are also serious about remedying any problems. Google provide some useful tips on how to respond to reviews.<\/a>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to\nhandle a bad review<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Three<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When good reviews come rolling in it is\neasy to pat ourselves on the back and enjoy reaping the benefits of doing a\ngood job. It is likely that you have worked hard to provide your guests with\nthe best possible experience whilst staying at your holiday house and it is\nrewarding to know that this has been appreciated. It can therefore come as a\nbit of a shock, and feel like a bit of a disaster, when you receive your first\nnegative review. However, don\u2019t panic! This won\u2019t be the end of your\nbusiness. You need to accept that you cannot please everyone all of the time\nand not everyone will give you a 5 star review. Whilst\nnegative reviews are never nice, if you respond to them in the right way you\ncan use it to your advantage to show how much you care about your business and\nyour guests.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important to act quickly and calmly.\nLook\nat the review objectively and see if there is a simple way that it can be\nresolved. Even if you disagree with the comments made, there is a time and a\nplace to pick your battles, and this certainly isn\u2019t one of them. If possible respond within 24 hours. If\nsomeone has taken the time to write a review it is important that you respond\nas quickly as possible. Thank them for their comments, apologise, and show that\nyou care by taking their comments seriously. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you reply to a review, you are not just replying to\nthe guest. You are replying to everyone else who might read it. Potential\nguests will judge your response to reviews. If you are polite, appreciative and\ncan be seen to be doing your best to solve the problem as quickly as possible, it\nwill reflect well on you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make sure you take note, and if necessary, make any improvements to help\nprevent future guests having the same issues. It may be something as simple as replacing\nan old mattress or adding a few extra pots and pans. Whatever\nthe problem, don\u2019t automatically think that a bad review means a guest will\nnever book a holiday again with you. In some circumstances an apology is enough.\nIf you make improvements to your property on the back of a review, let them\nknow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep\ncalm and carry on<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is no denying that good reviews are paramount\nfor any holiday home owner. It is easy to sing the praises of your own holiday\nhome, but when past guests do the same, it becomes a powerful marketing tool.\nHowever, you can\u2019t expect positive reviews all the time. Whilst it is\ndisappointing to get a bad review, especially if you feel it isn\u2019t warranted,\nremember that negative reviews are an opportunity to learn and make\nimprovements. With the right approach it is perfectly possible to turn a\nnegative review into a positive experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have had any experiences involving negative or positive reviews that you could share with other holiday home owners we would love to hear from you. Please leave any comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are a number of different marketing tools that you can use to help maximize bookings for your holiday home. Choosing the most relevant advertising platforms, taking good photos, engaging with social media and creating and maintaining your own website all help to generate bookings. Arguably the jewel in the crown for holiday home owners […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":5387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[63,4],"tags":[96],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5363"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9954,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5363\/revisions\/9954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}