The Guide to Hotel Online Review Sites

Hotel management responses to online reviews are extremely important. But because there are so many different review sites, it can be difficult to keep track of them. Here’s our UPDATED list of the major review sites that allow hotel management responses. We’ve also included instructions on how to obtain the credentials you need to start responding.

TripAdvisor® is the world’s largest travel site, and it allows public management responses. To start replying to reviews, you must first register as an owner of your hotel (CLICK HERE to get started). TripAdvisor also allows you to send reviewers private messages. This is great for service recovery purposes—if you not only respond publicly but privately to a negative reviews, it re-iterates to your guest that you really do care about his or her experience. CLICK HERE for TripAdvisor’s official guidelines for management responses.

Booking.com is a dominant review site globally, especially in Europe. Previously, the site only allowed hoteliers to contact review authors privately. But, since a public response feature is now in Beta, Booking.com has removed the private response feature. As of the writing of this article, the public response Beta was only available for a select number of properties. Hoteliers should check in with Booking.com regularly to stay on top of further updates. They need to be ready to jump in and start managing their public Booking.com reputations should the site allow their properties to respond in the future.

Expedia and Hotels.com allow public management responses. To respond, hoteliers must log in at Expedia Partner Central. You can also respond to reviews by emailing Expedia. If responding by email, please make sure you include your Expedia Property ID. The email address for responding to reviews on Expedia is ehrr@expedia.com and the email address for Hotels.com is htlrvw@hotels.com.

Google+ Local is growing fast and is likely to become more prevalent in the coming years. It allows public management responses. In order to reply, you will first need to claim your listing. If you are having trouble verifying your Google+ Local listing, note that Google is now providing phone support for verification issues. CLICK HERE for Google’s official guidelines for management responses.

Travelocity has a “Comment” button located at the bottom of each review to allow for management replies. This functionality also allows hoteliers to add photos and videos to the response.

Ctrip, an OTA, has the largest share of online reviews in China. It also syndicates reviews from other sites. Hoteliers can respond publicly to some reviews on Ctrip, but not all. It only allows public management responses to the reviews left directly on Ctrip, not to the reviews that come from a syndicate. If you have not created login credentials for the Ctrip Extranet, email ebooking@ctrip.com or call 021-34064880 ext 76153, 761151, 76143 or 761140.

Wotif* is the dominant review site in Australia and New Zealand. It allows hoteliers to reply publicly to a review. If you have not yet registered as a supplier on Wotif, you can register on the Supplier’s Registration Request form. CLICK HERE to learn more about Wotif’s guidelines for review responses.

*Please note that Wotif was recently purchased by Expedia, so these guidelines may change in the near future.

Learn about what’s trending, review response metrics, and a look forward at hospitality reputation in our 2018 Reputation Benchmark Report. Available free for download.