The Avertine Snooze Cruise Hotel — a gorgeous property with a prime location and fresh renovations — was struggling to fill rooms. Their strategy for hotel online reputation management involved checking TripAdvisor (when they remembered) and responding only to the most critical reviews. Meanwhile, their competitor across the street with similar amenities (and higher room rates!) consistently ran at 85% occupancy with a higher overall star rating.

The difference? A smart, proactive approach to online reputation management transformed guest feedback into a powerful marketing asset.

Here’s the reality hotels and resorts are facing: Four out of five travelers (81%) always or frequently read reviews before booking anywhere. In today’s digital-first travel world, your online reputation is crucial for success, with every star rating, review comment, and social mention shaping how potential guests see your property long before they ever walk through your door.

For hoteliers, the challenge isn’t just collecting feedback. It’s what you do with it that counts. How do you leverage it to build trust, improve experiences, and drive lucrative direct bookings?

This guide delivers straightforward, actionable strategies to boost your property’s online presence, handle guest reviews like a pro, and turn your digital reputation into one of your most valuable assets.

What is hotel online reputation management?

Hotel online reputation management boils down to controlling how guests perceive your property in the digital world. It’s your strategy for gathering, monitoring, responding to, and leveraging all your guest feedback across review sites, online travel agencies (OTAs), social media, and even from your in-house messaging to form positive perceptions of your property and drive bookings.

This goes beyond traditional brand perception, which historically relied on word-of-mouth recommendations and industry relationships. Modern online reputation management encompasses:

• Monitoring reviews scattered across dozens of platforms
• Delivering thoughtful, timely responses to guest comments
• Analyzing review sentiments to reveal operational blind spots
• Showcasing your happy guests’ experiences as marketing gold
• Transforming those inevitable service hiccups into recovery wins
• Actioning guest-provided data to enrich a guest’s Rich Guest Profile, re-market to them through personalized communication, and convert them to loyal guests

Why hotels are so reliant on guest reviews

The fact is, hotels and resorts are uniquely vulnerable when it comes to online reputation.

1. Properties sell promises, not products. Unlike buying a car or a pair of shoes, your guests can’t “test drive” a hotel stay before booking. Instead, they’re making decisions based on experiences others have shared online.

2. The numbers don’t lie. Almost 95% of today’s travelers are reading reviews before making booking decisions, and they are more likely to book a hotel with a higher rating when choosing between two otherwise identical properties. Even more telling, over half (52%) prioritize reviews summaries to save on time.

3. Your brand name? Not as powerful as you think. If you think your brand name is your greatest asset, think again. Expedia Group found there’s a 72% chance travelers place more weight on guest ratings than your hotel brand name — a finding that’s remained consistent since 2019. The takeaway? Your reputation has actually become more valuable than your brand identity.

4. Playing in multiple digital sandboxes. Hotel review management isn’t just about TripAdvisor anymore. Properties must now manage their reputation across a complex ecosystem of OTAs, review sites, social media platforms, search engines … the list keeps growing, and you need to be on top of all of them.

5. The snowball effect. One scathing review (particularly one that’s not respectfully addressed) can scare away countless potential bookings. While a solid bank of positive reviews helps build trust that justifies premium rates and drives direct bookings.

Good hotel review management allows you to strategically build a digital presence that showcases what makes your property special. The right hotel online reputation management tool can turn the whole complicated process into your competitive edge, streamlining how you monitor, respond to, and learn from your hotel guest data.

Up next, let’s explore why managing the impact of online reviews is essential for a property to thrive in today’s hyper-competitive market.

The impact of online reviews on a hotel’s success

If you’ve been in the hospitality business for even a short time, you’ve likely seen firsthand how customer reviews affect perceptions of your business. But the impact runs much deeper — with those star ratings and guest comments delivering a significant impact on your property’s bottom line.

• Reputation fuels direct bookings. Maybe you recall a time when you only had to worry about how your property looked in travel agent directories. Now online reviews have become the new trust currency. When potential customers see consistently good feedback about your hotel, they’re not only more likely to book — they’re actually willing to bypass the OTAs to book direct, and even pay you more for the privilege. Research shows that when your ratings climb by just one star, your revenue can jump by over 5%.
• Guest feedback lifts your NPS. Properties that prioritize their reputation management often see real improvements in guest satisfaction. In fact, properties using Revinate Guest Feedback in 2024 reported a clear increase in their Net Promoter Scores (NPS) — a strong indicator that guests felt heard and valued. When guests are given an easy, thoughtful way to share feedback, they’re more likely to return and recommend the property to others.
• Reviews become the tiebreaker. Ever had this happen? A guest starts to book, then abandons their cart, never to return. Or cancels at the last minute. What can sometimes happen is they’ve gone down the review research rabbit hole and discovered something that scared them off. In markets where several properties offer similar amenities and locations, hotel reviews often become the tiebreaker. Properties with savvy online reputation management strategies consistently outperform nearly identical competitors simply because they manage their digital presences better.
• Ratings boost your search ranking. Here’s another factor many hoteliers miss: Those reviews aren’t just influencing potential guests’ bookings; they actually play a role in whether those guests even see your property in the first place. Search engines like Google surface businesses that have a steady stream of positive reviews coming in over those that don’t. It’s the same story with TripAdvisor and OTAs. These sites bump highly rated properties to the top of their search results. Fresh, frequent, positive reviews tell search engines that your property is relevant and worth showing to travelers.

Effective digital review management sets a powerful cycle in motion, where great guest experiences lead to glowing reviews, which in turn boost visibility, trust, and direct bookings. As more satisfied guests walk through your door, the cycle strengthens, creating a flywheel effect that drives sustainable success.

4 key benefits of excellent hotel online reputation management

Research from Expedia shows that 59% of potential hotel guests start planning vacations without a specific destination in mind, and nearly half of travelers draw inspiration on where to go from online review sites. They’re essentially saying, “Show me something great, and I’ll go there.” Understanding these facts helps you understand what an effective tool your digital reputation management can be for capturing attention early in the travel decision journey.

And while hoteliers often obsess about pricing strategies, for hotel guests specifically, those ratings and reviews actually outweigh price when travelers are making booking decisions. Here are four game-changing benefits you’ll see when you master this aspect of your business.

1. Increase guest trust and booking confidence

Nothing builds traveler confidence like seeing loads of happy guests singing your praises. When potential bookers spot consistent positive feedback across multiple platforms, you transform from just another option into their “safe bet.”

This trust factor is especially impactful if you’re running an independent property or boutique hotel going up against the big chains. A track record of positive reviews creates an emotional safety net that travelers need before committing, especially for those higher-rate reservations or longer stays where they’re shelling out serious cash.

2. Improve loyalty through targeted responses

Every single review that comes in — the glowing five-stars and yes, even those painful one-stars — gives you a golden opportunity to strengthen relationships and demonstrate what your service philosophy is all about. Thoughtful, personalized responses show both the author and all future readers that you’re genuinely listening.

When guests see you acknowledging specific points they raised and taking real action, something magic happens. You begin building connections and loyalty. One-time visitors start thinking about coming back. And potential visitors who read these exchanges get a preview of how attentive you’ll be if they choose your property. That’s powerful stuff for driving booking decisions.

3. Enhance service through actionable insights

When you have a steady flow of reviews coming in, you’re essentially gaining access to a free focus group. Advanced hotel reputation management software helps you spot patterns and trends that might otherwise get lost in the daily operational shuffle.

This feedback loop lets you:

• Spot where specific departments might need additional training
• Identify your superstars so you can recognize and reward them
• Figure out which amenities or services your guests absolutely love
• Catch and fix recurring issues before they become reputation killers

When you turn visitor comments into actionable hotel guest data, you lay the foundation for ongoing service enhancements that elevate guest satisfaction with every stay.

4. Gain a competitive edge in saturated markets

In markets where everyone’s location, amenities, and price points are practically carbon copies of each other, your online reputation is what can tip the scales in your favor. Properties with consistently better ratings and more positive reviews can:

• Charge premium rates without watching occupancy tank
• Drive more direct bookings, letting you wean yourself off OTA dependence
• Cut marketing costs by letting happy guests do your advertising for you
• Stand your ground when competitors try to undercut prices

Strategic hotel review management essentially builds a protective moat around your business that competitors can’t easily cross. The result? A resilient brand that outlasts price wars and outpaces your comp set.

Strategies for successful hotel online reputation management

Let’s dig into what it takes to really nail your online reputation management — a systematic approach from soliciting feedback to transforming feedback into tangible improvement.

Proactive review generation: Creating a feedback loop

Nearly 8 out of 10 travelers focus on your most recent reviews when deciding whether to book. What a guest said last week matters more than what they said last year. Savvy hoteliers don’t sit around and wait for reviews to roll in, they actively encourage continuous feedback. And since hotel guests are increasingly mobile-first, your outreach efforts should make it easy for them to share feedback from their mobile phones and personal devices.

Tactics that really work:

• Send post-arrival surveys to catch issues early
• Implement mid-stay check-ins to help prevent negative reviews
• Follow up with post-departure surveys while experiences are still fresh
• Use messaging to connect — Revinate’s 2025 Hospitality Benchmark Report reports 22.42% average guest engagement rate with messaging

Comprehensive monitoring: Your digital radar system

You can’t manage what you don’t see, right? The foundation of solid hotel reputation management starts with keeping your finger on the pulse of what guests are saying everywhere.

What this looks like in practice:

• Setting up alerts so you know immediately when someone mentions your property
• Using tools to track sentiment trends (are you getting better or worse over time?)
• Keeping an eye on how you stack up against your comp set
• Centralizing feedback with reputation management software

Responsive engagement: The art of the reply

How you respond to reviews can move the needle as much as the reviews themselves, with 89% of travelers saying that when they see a thoughtful response to a negative review, it improves their impression of a business.

What works best:

• Speed matters — aim to respond within a day or two
• Personalize responses — this increases booking likelihood by 77%
• Show genuine appreciation for positive feedback
• Address criticism constructively without getting defensive
• Outline specific improvement steps for addressing legitimate concerns

Learn: How to respond to negative hotel reviews

Operational integration: Transform feedback into action

Sophisticated hotel reputation management approaches close the loop by using customer feedback to make your property better and raise guest satisfaction scores.

How to do this:

• Turn insights into departmental KPIs
• Share review highlights with team leaders
• Incorporate feedback into onboarding and training programs
• Create action plans to tackle persistent challenges
• Recognize team members who get positive mentions to reinforce behavior

By implementing these techniques, you’re turning reviews into revenue and guest satisfaction into long-term success.

How to leverage technology in reputation management

Gone are the days of scrolling separately through TripAdvisor, Google, Booking.com, and Expedia to keep track of guest comments. Smart hotel operators now rely on specialized hotel reputation management software to do the heavy lifting, spot trends, and drive improvement. But with so many vendors claiming to offer the perfect solution, how do you cut through the noise and find the right tech partner for your hotel online reputation management strategy?

Keep your eyes peeled for these must-have features:

• Intelligent automation: Choose hotel reputation management systems that streamline your workload by integrating AI-powered tools. The best solutions include direct messaging capabilities that engage guests at the right moments. AI-powered Revinate Ivy can resolve guest requests over 1,000% faster than staff, helping you maintain higher levels of customer satisfaction.
• Built-in survey capabilities: Select a solution combining review management with direct feedback collection. Top platforms deliver customizable surveys at optimal moments in the guest journey, resulting in actionable insights and higher review volumes. Hotels using Revinate Guest Feedback have seen a remarkable 409% increase in TripAdvisor volume.
• All-in-one review collection: Look for a platform that pulls in reviews from everywhere your hotel appears online into one dashboard. Revinate technology monitors reviews across more than 100 sites, giving you complete visibility without the hassle of multiple logins.
• Effortless multi-platform management: The right solution lets you manage reviews from multiple platforms in a central dashboard. Even better if it offers time-saving templates that allow you to respond quickly and consistently to customers yet still maintain that personal touch guests notice.
• Smart sentiment analysis: Choose software that doesn’t just count stars but tells you exactly what visitors love (and don’t love) about specific aspects of their stay. Revinate’s advanced sentiment analysis identifies improvement areas across departments by analyzing the actual content of reviews, not just ratings.
• Plays well with others: Consider how the tool connects with your existing systems to create a complete picture of each guest. Revinate Guest Feedback integrates seamlessly with your Customer Data Platform (CDP), property management system (PMS), and other systems, enhancing guest profiles and enabling hyper-personalized marketing through advanced segmentation capabilities.

How to use guest data to power better reputation outcomes

When you treat reviews and feedback as valuable guest data points instead of just comments to respond to, you unlock insights that can transform your property’s operations. With the right online reputation management solution, you’ll identify patterns, fix pain points before they spread, and create the kind of experiences that have guests raving about your property.

Connect guest data to personalized experiences

The right solution prioritizes hotel data management by linking guest feedback to your broader guest data, allowing you to:

• Get personal with responses by referencing past feedback, preferences, or spending patterns (“Thanks for staying with us again, Ms. Davis! We’re thrilled you enjoyed the spa upgrade this time.”)
• Spot operational patterns by connecting feedback dots across room types, stay lengths, or booking channels (noticing that guests in west-facing rooms consistently mention noise issues)
• Anticipating needs by recognizing what similar guest segments typically request or comment on
• See if your fixes actually work by tracking how specific operational changes impact what guests say afterward

Create a unified guest experience ecosystem

Industry-leading solutions like Revinate bring together multiple touchpoints in the guest journey, instead of leaving you with disconnected tools. Revinate Guest Feedback becomes even more effective when you integrate it with other capabilities such as messaging and marketing:

• Real-time issue resolution: Hotels typically receive around 1,109 guest messages monthly. AI-powered Revinate Ivy automatically resolves many queries in just 1.8 seconds flat, allowing you to quickly address concerns before they turn into those dreaded negative reviews.
• Boost your response game: Properties using Revinate’s integrated solutions have watched their review response rates climb, with North American hotels now hitting an impressive 62% response rate.
• Market smarter: All those feedback insights flow right into your marketing systems, so you can send targeted offers based on what you know guests truly care about. In fact, this is a key benefit of having a CDP.

Learn: What is a CDP?

One King West Hotel & Residence, in the heart of downtown Toronto, shows the power of an integrated approach. After implementing Revinate’s combined solutions — Ivy, Guest Feedback, and Marketing — they saw some eye-opening results:

• Manual response volume dropped by 60%
• Average inquiry resolution time plummeted to just 13 minutes
• Mid-stay surveys hit a strong 33% response rate
• They maintained a stellar 4.7/5 average rating

Zoku has properties in Amsterdam, Vienna, Copenhagen, and Paris. Upon recognizing the power of using integrated hospitality-focused solutions, the company implemented Revinate’s Guest Feedback and Marketing solutions across their portfolio and successfully improved guest engagement while gaining market share from OTAs. In addition, they achieved:

• 300% growth in upsell revenue year-over-year
• Average revenue per one-time campaign: €7,595
• Average revenue per automated campaign: €11,500

Belmont Hotel Manila in Newport City, Manila also experienced the power of integrating Revinate Guest Feedback and Marketing for leveraging guest insights, improving the guest experience, and driving more direct bookings. The hotel has:

• Generated more than 18M Php in direct bookings
• Achieved an open rate of 31% for one-time inspirational campaigns
• Transformed hotel email marketing into their leading direct booking marketing channel

In today’s hyper-connected world, strong hotel online reputation management isn’t just a reflection of guest satisfaction — it’s a strategic asset. And smart hoteliers don’t simply react to feedback; they use it to drive their business. With the right tools in place, your guest data becomes a roadmap for better decision-making, sharper service delivery, and stronger guest relationships. Hotel reputation management isn’t a one-off task — it’s a mindset shift that transforms everyday feedback into long-term value.

Ready to get started? Learn more about Revinate Guest Feedback.

Key Takeaways

• Your online reputation directly impacts your bottom line, with every additional star potentially increasing revenue by over 5%, driving real dollars to your property.
• Modern travelers read an average of nine reviews before booking, with 79% choosing the higher-rated property when deciding between two otherwise identical hotels.
• Effective hotel online reputation management creates a positive flywheel effect where great guest experiences generate glowing reviews, boosting visibility, trust, and direct bookings.
• Revinate Guest Feedback consolidates customer feedback from over 100 sites into one dashboard, streamlining monitoring and response while providing actionable insights.
• Properties that implement integrated solutions like Revinate have seen transformative results, including a 409% increase in TripAdvisor review volume and significant boosts in direct booking revenue.