Another Hotel Chain Adds Trip Advisor Ratings

By Danielle Contray
October 3, 2012
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Everyone has their feelings on Trip Advisor—some take the reviews as bible, others take them with a shaker full of salt. But whatever your feeling, more and more hotel companies are adding links directly to the site whether there are negative reviews or not.

Best Western is the latest chain to do so, adding Trip Advisor ratings front–and–center when you search for hotels. Part of an overall site redesign, the new look also includes the five most recent Trip Advisor reviews for the hotel.

Back in March, the Wyndham hotel group announced a partnership with Trip Advisor to display ratings in reviews on the site for the Wyndham Rewards loyalty program, with plans to add the content for their more than 7,200 hotels, spread across brands including Wyndham, Ramada, Days Inn, and Travelodge.

Are hotels concerned that negative reviews will turn off potential guests? “Most of the reviews we see out there are positive,” Michael Morton, Best Western's vice president of member services, told the Los Angeles Times. “If negative reviews come up, we respond. It’s another way for our hotels to show our priorities.”

Of course, not all hotel chains are jumping on the Trip Advisor bandwagon. The Starwood hotel group (which is made up of Le Meridien, Westin, Aloft, and Sheraton hotels, among others) launched a program last October for guests to post reviews after their stay directly on the hotel's site. To cut down on fraudulent reviews, guests have to enter a Starwood Preferred Guest number or confirmation number to even write a review.

How important are Trip Advisor reviews to you? Does seeing the rating up front help form your decision, or save you the time it would take to search Trip Advisor directly?

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