When checking in a guest- ask them for their email and other social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, etc). This information is very important to your hotel. And if you know they had a good time, this is a potential returning client. There are many ways that you can use their information to encourage online reviews:
- Ask them to write a review of their stay: If you’re not doing this yet, it’s a great practice. Anytime someone says something positive about your hotel or you get an e-mail with some positive feedback, you should have some sort of a system for asking these people to share their experiences with others online.
- Add your customers to the hotel’s Facebook Fan Page. By doing this, you can ping them with information on special deals and contests offering free lodge for former guests. You also create a Facebook Group just for your former guests. This will make your former guests feel special and offer them the opportunity to return to your hotel. Facebook Groups also allow you to send email campaigns to their inboxes, a perfect way to ping your former guests with special deals just for them.
- Social Media for Hotels: Use all your accounts to attract your former guests back to your hotel. Attractive and constantly updated Social Media accounts will separate from your competition, especially in Panama, where the norm is to open a Facebook Page and never update it with news.
- Email newsletters: Email newsletter are an excellent way to send information about your hotel. Also, this is a great way to remind your guests about the good time they had. It also serves as an excellent way to get feedback on their stay and what you need to do to better the quality of your service and facilities.
There are many others ways to use this information as a database to encourage online reviews. You can contact us for more information. One last thing- don’t spam your guests with information. Keep it light. If you constantly ping them about news and items they will just unsubscribe. You want them to return- not run away!
