Articles tagged “ugc”

This is the type of user-generated content hotels really don't mind embracing: Inspirational images taken by fans -- all for free.

Adding guest reviews of hotels to its official star-rating system is a great move by Abu Dhabi Tourism as it will boost the credibility of its classification system, and keep hoteliers on their toes. And, for TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Expedia and Hotels.com, it is confirmation of their global stature.

A redesign has to be more than pretty pictures, and TripAdvisor's facelift is geared to emphasize its no-apologies approach to user-generated content.

Given the expense of dispatching staff to each hotel to write reviews and take photos, Oyster never had a clear business model. But it is clear that TripAdvisor values Oyster's photos as a way to bridge the gap between hotel-supplied photos and very amateur guest photos.

Many reputation management firms have made a living out of criticizing Yelp and TripAdvisor, and some of them have crossed the line and gotten into the fake-review writing business themselves. There are reputation management firms with integrity out there, but these 19 companies are not among them.

There have been enough shakeups at the cruise line over the past few months to signal that they are trying something new. But the line will need more than good PR and slightly better leadership to deal with its deeper problems.

Kayak is becoming a more comprehensive hotel-information source as it moves to compete more directly with TripAdvisor. Look for a lot more back and forth in coming years between the two rivals.

Like Facebook's concerns that mobile would dilute advertising revenue, TripAdvisor fretted that hotel and restaurant reviewers on mobile would get cryptic in their reviews. But, if TripAdvisor is to be believed, mobile reviewers can be just as verbose as people behind desktops.

Satisfaction surveys are more important that ever to hotels that prefer guests to gripe in the privacy of a survey than online, but airing bad service on social media has a way of pushing hotels to make a change.

Once hated, then feared, and now accepted, user reviews have evolved into a way for hotels, cruise lines, and restaurants to let their fans gush and for savvy brands to better manage customer relations.