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How hotels use Twitter to tackle customer complaints
June 25, 2010
If your online musings include a gripe about a hotel, its front-desk clerk may be listening — through social media. As The Wall Street Journal reports, many hotels and resorts are protecting their reputations by monitoring what’s said about their venues online. Employees search social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter for unhappy guests and address their complaints. They keep tabs on guests who post about upcoming stays — sometimes offering them perks or personalized attention at check in — and write groveling apologies in response to negative reviews on TripAdvisor.
Travelers with lots of followers on Twitter and Facebook might find that their complaints have more power, especially when their posts include their real name and the full name of the hotel. In fact, using the social Web to make a complaint or a request can be more effective than calling the front desk, the Journal reports. To solve the problem privately, most hotels avoid back-and-forth public confrontations and are more likely to make conciliatory gestures like apologizing or asking the guest to contact staff via e-mail or telephone.
And just as hotels are monitoring social media for client complaints, they’re also using these online tools to market their properties, such as sending out special discounts via Twitter. — Greg Beaubien
Comments
Murray Bent says:
I agree with article that Internet-savvy hotels can easily jump up the rankings at TripAdvisor. My trip planning was delayed a day trying to book a room at the top-rated hotel in the small resort town of Kota Kinabalu. It turns out that most of the rooms at this hotel aren't built yet, but its sure to be a success once its built, with demand stoked up by its own management reviews online. The credibility of TripAdvisor will suffer if these rankings are so easily gamed.
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