Digital Developments in Hospitality

I was glad to participate at a "Digital Developments in Hospitality" think tank last Friday, Organized by Lise Craig from Onglobe Network.
We view and discuss about different subject. I was interesting of "Reviews & Revenue presented by RJ Friedlader from Review Pro.
With my friend hotel owner, we always wonder about client reviews speaking about ours hotels. Is it good or not? Did we really know what we said about our hotel? In general we go on trip advisor and that's all. This type of information are really nice to know what work or not in our hotel, and gives priorities to improve our services. RJ Friedlader tells us how reviews could impact on our revenue. Here is many things he tells us that I find really interesting:

- More and more people use hotel reviews (before to book, and after the stay), they also use other contains source

- In average a person will book a hotel 17 days after the first search about this hotel

- In general a person spends 8 hours on the Internet to chose a hotel destination, that an amazing time!

- Online review influences hotels in: brand management, distribution & distribution, marketing, operation, quality

- Online review change buying process and purchase decision

- 85% of hotel professionals believe online review influence the revenue

- This is difficult for a hotel professional to analyse reviews, it take a lot of time. Review Pro propose solutions, not that expensive, that analyse all Internet reviews about your hotel


I think it could be interesting to try it, but analyse is not the end, lot of work is waiting after.