Hotels - Guest Retention - some very interesting numbers

Regular readers of this blog will know that one of the major focuses of Dialogue is on ensuring that guests have a channel for communicating issues to our clients so:

1. They don't post negative opinions to sites like TripAdvisor (and Booking.com and anywhere else that may detract form a hotel's reputation)
2. Just as importantly: the hotel has a chance to turn a guest from 'I won't stay with you again' into 'Thank you for explaining [the reason for whatever issue I had with my stay], and reassuring me, I will stay again.'

Gaining repeat stays (guest retention) is a big part of any hotels' marketing efforts. Here we look at how effective Dialogue is in helping our clients do this.

We analyse all our clients data very thoroughly (both pre- and post-joining), so we can be sure Dialogue is working at maximum effectiveness...

First, some numbers (these are up-to-date statistics for a client):

Before implementing Dialogue:

• Reviews to TripAdvisor: one review per 1296 guests
• Positive reviews: one per 1074 guests
• Negative reviews: one per 6048 guests

After implementing Dialogue:

• Reviews to TripAdvisor: one review per 1076 guests - an increase of 8.3%
• Positive reviews to TripAdvisor: one per 934 guests - a rise of 8.6%
• Negative reviews to TripAdvisor: one per 22096 guests - a fall of over 75%
• Negative reviews through Dialogue: 79
• Negative reviews through Dialogue - resolved in private: 74*

Two very important things emerge from these numbers: that Dialogue is getting more positive reviews and less negative reviews posted to TripAdvisor (impacting on the hotels' ranking and their CSI - the 'thumbs up') and that the hotel is resolving a significant number of guest issues - privately - to greatly enhance the prospect of that guest returning.  

We gain confidence when watching the 'private conversation' that takes place between the hotel and the guest in Dialogue (and our moderators watch and report on every one), and this gives us a very accurate idea of the chances of guest retention. Here are some generic examples (London hoteliers will recognise them!).

• "I wont stay again because the room was too small". Response: "We'll allocate you a larger room next time you stay."
• "I didn't like the view from my room". Response: "We'll give you a room with a view [of] next time you stay."
• "My room was noisy." Response: "We'll allocate you a quiet room."

So: not only did Dialogue choke off these reviews form being posted to TripAdvisor (with the attendant issues - putting future guests off booking, damaging ranking etc.) but it enables the hotel to do its very best to ensure a repeat booking from each guest concerned.

*Keen eyes will have noticed that this figure (dissatisfied guests posting through Dialogue) is massively higher than the figure for negative posts to TripAdvisor (either before or after Dialogue). Dialogue is giving this hotel - and all our clients - a crucially important (and previously unavailable) channel to engage in a conversation with one of their most important categories of guests: those who may not otherwise return.

The key point:

Dialogue is enabling all your dissatisfied (potentially non-returning) guests to 'speak' to you so you can turn them around. And that number is massively higher than those who bother to post a negative review anywhere at all.