TripAdvisor: Survey shows that about 80% of hotels invite customers to post reviews

TripAdvisor, a major online review site, plans to complete a series of survey reports on tourism and hotel industry trends (twice a year), and it has commissioned a research agency to complete the first round of surveys.

The survey, released for the first time by TripAdvisor, was conducted by StrategyOne, an independent research organization under the global market research and strategy consulting company Edelman Berland. It surveyed more than 35,000 travelers and accommodation owners in 26 countries.

Some key findings about the travel tech sector:

Online channels continue to outpace offline travel agents in usage.

The top three most “useful” sources of information for global and European travelers are all online: travel review sites (38%), online travel agencies (19%) and tour operator websites (16%). In contrast, 6% of global and European travelers consider travel magazines and brochures useful, and only 4% of global and European travelers consider physical travel agencies useful.

In terms of the main booking channels, most respondents prefer online channels, as shown in the following chart:

Another frequently mentioned issue that has attracted attention is how hotel owners respond to the influence of user reviews.

The survey report shows that some hotel owners are not ignoring or resisting TripAdvisor, but are making full use of the website. About 4/5 of the hotels invite guests to submit their reviews.

The survey report pointed out that about 50% of hotels provide rewards to employees based on positive reviews.

However, the above data still has certain limitations:

A common problem with surveys is that they reflect what respondents say, not what they actually do. Also, respondents may have different meanings for what they say on a particular topic. It’s clear that TripAdvisor wants to see respondents give positive answers to all questions, so the way it frames the questions may also be biased.

via: traveldaily