With more than 200 million reviews from travelers TripAdvisor is a great place to get attention from quality travelers. Is your property getting the most out of your profile to attract high quality travelers? Use these comprehensive tips to get both your free profile and business listing to be as productive as possible.
Contact Information
This might seem simple but it is so important to have the correct address available on your listing. This impacts the search engines who pick this up and match it to the one on your website and across your profiles.
Fill Out Your Description and Amenities
This is the place to describe your property to your guest and share the amenities it has to offer. The more detail you provide the more likely your profile is picked up in search engines but more importantly it will give guests the tools they need to make a decision to stay at your property. Be sure to use some of your most valuable keywords in the description to give more SEO (Search Engine Optimization) value.
Get More Quality Reviews
Persistently ask for reviews from guests who have had a 5 star experience at your property. Sheer quantity of quality legitimate reviews is so important to your property to be ranked and highly regarded by guests. Get several ideas from our blog on how to increase the quantity of your TripAdvisor reviews.
Respond to Reviews
Our perspective is that you should respond to all reviews of your property on any platform that you can. Take the personal experience you provide to your guest while they are staying with you to the internet. It’s another point of contact for them to remember how amazing their experience was. It has also been proven to develop trust with potential guests viewing your profile and deciding whether to book with you. You want them to see that you care and are responsive.
Add Photos and Videos
Tell your story by adding photos and videos and organizing into a slideshow. Be sure to include only the best photos that you have available of your property that tell your story. If you want to shape your property into a romantic getaway then use photos that allow guests to picture themselves there with their partner. If you want groups to visit or corporate travelers show appropriate photos of those areas. Tailor it to your ideal guest. If you’ve invested in quality photography for your property then this is just one place to use them.
Quickly Answer the Q&A Section
Quickly answer the questions travelers ask on your profile about your property. They are in the booking phase of their trip and looking for information. The more quickly you provide that the more likely they will book with you.
TripAdvisor Business Listings
If you pay for and get value from a TripAdvisor business listing there are a few enhancements you should take advantage of to maximize this listing.
Special Offers
This is where a special offer can appear according to TripAdvisor.
- Special offers appear on your own TripAdvisor profile
- On the special offers page for your city – gives you strong exposure
- The top of your city page! – This is important for additional exposure especially for bed and breakfasts / inns that typically appear on a separate tab from the hotels.
- 3 special offers appear in member newsletters
- On your slideshow
Keeping a consistent special offer is one of the key benefits of a business listing. Keep it updated consistently and keep tabs on if guests are actually using it. Also, this doesn’t have to be something unique to TripAdvisor. One client offers a terrific gourmet breakfast experience that no hotel in their city can match. This amenity can be added as a special offer to highlight that feature to a potential guest.
Additional Contact Information
Having a business page gives you the benefit of a direct link to your website, email, and phone number at the top of the page. Make sure these are present and correct. We recently updated a profile for a client who had an email showing that hadn’t been in existence for over a year!
Measure Your Efforts
The business listing allows you to get some detailed information about your profile and how potential guests are interacting with it. Keep an eye on the views you see on the page to understand how your profile is being used by travelers.
Consider TripConnect
You may be able to boost direct bookings to your property with a TripAdvisor tool called TripConnect which connects to your (TripConnect ready) booking engine. It essentially allows you to show your property next to OTAs on the site or by itself (if you don’t list on OTAs). Instead of a tiny text link to your website with a business listing you get a big button on the page that encourages people to book with your property. For some properties this may be an additional traffic driver to get more direct bookings.
Wrapping Up
Whether you have a paid or free listing with TripAdvisor it is important to ensure you get the most out of your listing.
Red Oak Hospitality Marketing provides integrated (comprehensive) marketing packages to independent lodging properties such as bed and breakfasts, inns, boutique hotels, and lodges. Getting the most out of your TripAdvisor profile is part of this comprehensive service designed to get more heads in beds at your property and keep them coming back.
We offer free consultations to discuss your current strategies and share how Red Oak might be able to help. Go ahead, contact us to schedule that phone call today.
