Since 2007, Jay Karen has been the president and CEO of the Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII), the world's largest bed and breakfast organization. In this recurring feature, Jay will speak on topics of interest to members of the industry.
In this installment, Jay notes the impact that online reviews have on innkeepers.
For further reading, visit Q&A with Jay Karen: Part 1 - What Can PAII Do For You?
The Internet, clearly, has leveled the playing field for most innkeepers in terms of promotion and marketing, but in what ways has it been a detriment?
The whole online review phenomenon has changed the game for innkeepers – in large part because of the threat of negative reviews. And that has had an effect on innkeepers who may no longer want to be doing this. If you are not on your game and if you are rude and ornery and unpleasant because you really don’t want to be doing innkeeping anymore, you are going to be exposed because guests are going to mention it on TripAdvisor and BedandBreakfast.com and other online review sites, and there’s no question about it.But I’d imagine that’s a small percentage of active innkeepers…
Absolutely. Yet even if you are into innkeeping but are having a bad season or whatever, and you feel a rude or combative guest is being unreasonable, now the prospect of a negative review forces you to think twice on how you react.I recall an innkeeper telling me about a particular guest who made some kind of demand of him; a request that he felt was unreasonable. It put the innkeeper over the edge a little bit, especially when the guest threatened a negative review if the innkeeper did not give him what he wanted…
For further reading, visit Q&A with Jay Part 2: Tips for Aspiring Innkeepers
So a guest can hold the threat of a negative review over an innkeeper’s head?
I can’t say it happens a lot, but sure. The innkeeper said that before the advent of online reviews he would not have thought twice about giving someone like that a piece of his mind and telling them that they were not welcome back, but now he has to hold his tongue.
The threat of someone going to TripAdvisor and giving you a 1 out of 5 rating and dropping your ranking from #1 to #3 is a real threat to innkeepers and has changed the way they have to look at their customers. It’s a real and kind of scary dynamic. There are a lot of people who are uncomfortable with it and a lot of people have figured (TripAdvisor) out; a lot of people hate it and a lot of people love it. But online reviews have really become a lightning rod for discussion because it’s not only innkeepers -- the whole industry is still trying to figure out how to navigate and adjust to it.
