E marketer traveler_reviews-online_communities_reshape_marketing_strategies

TRAVELER
REVIEWSOnline Communities Reshape
Marketing Strategies
JUNE 2013
Dan Marcec
Contributors: Dan Munns, Stephanie Wharton
Read this on
eMarketer for iPad

TRAVELER REVIEWS: ONLINE COMMUNITIES RESHAPE MARKETING STRATEGIES ©2013 EMARKETER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2
CONTENTS
2 Executive Summary
3 Travel Reviews: By the Numbers
5 Travelers Look for Relevant Advice over Specific Sources
8 Hotel Marketers Respond to Traveler Reviews
11 eMarketer Interviews
11 Related eMarketer Reports
12 Related Links
12 Editorial and Production Contributors
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Travelers have always relied heavily on
recommendations for trip inspiration and planning,
and online review sites have made peer commentary
much more visible and accessible. Online reviews
provide a lens into unfiltered consumer sentiment
and behavior that was previously unavailable.This
information is becoming simultaneously more
sophisticated and unwieldy, presenting concurrent
opportunities and challenges for marketers.
Marketers must also recognize that travelers behave
differently when interacting through review sites or
in their personal social networks. In review forums,
consumers are in direct communication with or about
travel brands while thinking about past or planned trips.
Reviews are personal interactions much like social
mentions, but consumers typically view travel information
on social networks on the periphery of their everyday
lives, not as a deliberate stop on the path to purchase.
Traveler reviews are also democratizing travel marketing.
They have a direct influence on hotel operations, for
example, and the collaborative nature of online review
communities is contributing to the evolution of travel
brands. Marketers have the opportunity to harness this
collaboration if they are humble enough to recognize they
may not always be driving their brand’s message.
KEY QUESTIONS
■■ How many travelers read and write travel reviews?
■■ In what ways do travelers distinguish between
review sites and social media posts when deciding
on travel destinations?
■■ How are marketers mining travel review data to
personalize communications with customers?
% of respondents
Internet Users Worldwide Who Gave Reviews or
Recommendations About Accommodations,
Jan 2013
Recommended the accommodation you stayed at to friends and
family ofﬂine (e.g., talked to them, gave them a call, etc.)
58%
Wrote a review about the accommodation you stayed at
51%
family online (e.g., posted a comment on Facebook, sent an
email, etc.)
41%
Source: TripAdvisor, "TripBarometer" conducted by StrategyOne, March 6,
2013
154004 www.eMarketer.com

TRAVEL REVIEWS:
BY THE NUMBERS
Online reviews have become an integral part of
travelers’ digital path to purchase, and the influence
of peer-to-peer travel information is increasing.
More and more travelers are going online to
share their opinions, providing a deep data mine
for marketers looking to learn more about these
consumers’ preferences.
Travel reviews posted online have exploded in recent
years, and they’ve garnered significant attention
because there are so many of them.The number of
reviews onTripAdvisor, for example, surpassed 100 million
in March 2013, bolstered by a 50% increase year over
year. WhileTripAdvisor far and away boasts the most
traveler-submitted reviews, other major online travel sites
have also compiled tens of millions more.
Profile of Select Travel Review Websites Worldwide,
June 2013
TripAdvisor
trivago**
Booking.com
HolidayCheck
Hotels.com
Agoda.com
Hostelworld.com
Expedia
Yelp (travel/hotel-specific)
Travelocity
Verified
reviews*
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Number of reviews
(millions)
100.0+
34.0
20.8
10.0
7.0
4.0+
3.5
3.0+
1.5+
0.5
Note: *reviews are only accepted by verified guests who booked through
the website itself; **includes reviews by trivago users as well as reviews
aggregated from partner sites such as Expedia and Booking.com
Source: eMarketer compiled from company websites, June 6, 2013
More than half of the 15,000 internet users worldwide
who responded toTripAdvisor’sTripBarometer,
conducted by StrategyOne in January 2013, said they’d
written a review for an accommodation after staying
there, and 41% noted that they also shared personal
recommendations via other online channels, such as
social networks or email messages.
% of respondents
Internet Users Worldwide Who Gave Reviews or
Recommendations About Accommodations,
Jan 2013
family offline (e.g., talked to them, gave them a call, etc.)
58%
Wrote a review about the accommodation you stayed at
51%
family online (e.g., posted a comment on Facebook, sent an
email, etc.)
41%
2013
Among US internet users in particular, just fewer than
half said they’d post an online review for excellent
or good service at hotels, with 36.0% saying they’d
post for poor service, according to ReviewInc and
Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business and
Management’s “Online Reviews Study.” Just 15.4% of
respondents said they would not post about a hotel either
way.The survey queried consumers about a variety of
products and services, and hotels were the second most
likely category respondents would review overall, trailing
only fine dining establishments.
% of total
US Internet Users Who Would Post a Review Online
After Receiving Select Levels of Service, by Industry,
Spring 2012
Fine dining restaurants
Hotels
Health & medical
professionals
Spas & personal care
Automotive
Financial services
Nightlife
Event planning & services
Coffee & tea
Real estate
Arts & entertainment
Fitness professionals
Chain restaurants
Active life
Will post
for excellent
service
51.4%
41.1%
36.0%
34.9%
32.0%
26.3%
25.7%
25.7%
25.1%
25.1%
25.1%
25.1%
24.0%
20.6%
Will post
for good
service
12.0%
7.4%
7.4%
8.0%
6.9%
4.6%
3.4%
7.4%
5.7%
8.0%
8.0%
9.7%
8.6%
6.3%
Will post
for poor
service
36.6%
36.0%
31.4%
27.4%
30.3%
23.4%
24.0%
24.6%
25.1%
24.0%
22.9%
21.7%
29.7%
20.6%
Will not
post
0.0%
15.4%
25.1%
29.7%
30.9%
45.7%
46.9%
42.3%
44.0%
42.9%
44.0%
43.4%
37.7%
52.6%
Note: numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding
Source: ReviewInc and Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business
and Management, "Online Reviews Study"; eMarketer calculations,
March 11, 2013

In addition, Deloitte’s “Customer Loyalty in the Hotel
Industry” report—which looked at 4,000 US travelers
in October 2012—found that 15% of respondents had
written a hotel review in the past 12 months.
Travelers almost universally agree that reviews are
instrumental to their buying decisions. For example,
TripAdvisor’s traffic numbers indicate how important
reviews are for travel research:The company’s Q1 2013
financial results reported that the site had 200 million
monthly unique visitors—accounting for approximately
11% of the world’s monthly unique visitors in online
travel, per comScore data.
“[Travel] is a confusing purchase, and reviews from other
customers who experienced that same product are much
more credible than content from the company,” said
Faraz Qureshi, founder and general manager of cruise
review forum Cruiseline.com. “Brands can talk about their
experience, but obviously they’re going to emphasize all
the positive aspects, so consumers are relying on reviews
more and more to make their decisions.”
According toTravel Weekly’s “ConsumerTrends 2012”
study, more than 96% of US leisure travelers in each age
demographic surveyed—21 to 34, 35 to 54, and 55 and
older—said travel review sites influenced their purchases.
Approximately one-third of travelers ages 21 to 34 said
reviews “have much influence” on their travel buys,
compared with 18% in each of the other demographic
sets polled.
% of total
Influence of Travel Review Sites on Travel Purchases
According to US Leisure Travelers, by Age, June 2012
55+
18% 82%
Have much influence
Have some influence
Have little or no influence
Note: among those who have used a travel review site in the past 12
months
Source: Travel Weekly, "Consumer Trends 2012," July 30, 2012
21-34
31% 67% 2%
35-54
18% 78% 4%
Among different traveler types, leisure travelers are
more likely to rely on online reviews. Google, Ipsos OTX
and Ipsos MediaCT found that 50% of leisure travelers
considered online reviews of lodging establishments
important when planning vacations, compared with 39%
of business travelers.
% of respondents
Importance of Features When Choosing a Hotel
According to US Business vs. Leisure Travelers,
May 2012
Price
Hotel desktop website
Promotions
Specific accommodation options available
Online reviews of the lodging establishment
Virtual tour or pictures of the lodging establishment
Can earn rewards points/miles
Online videos posted by the lodging establishment
Posts, comments or reviews on social
Hotel mobile website
An app on a mobile phone
Business
81%
55%
51%
49%
39%
32%
58%
19%
18%
20%
9%
Leisure
90%
58%
57%
50%
50%
42%
33%
21%
18%
16%
6%
Source: Google, Ipsos OTX and Ipsos MediaCT, "The Hotel Traveler's Road to
Decision 2012," July 2, 2012
Not surprisingly, given the influence they have on
purchase decisions, a lack of reviews has a distinctly
negative effect on hotel bookings. According to a
September 2012 PhoCusWright survey commissioned by
TripAdvisor, 53% of travelers said they wouldn’t book a
hotel that doesn’t have reviews.

TRAVELERS LOOK FOR RELEVANT
ADVICE OVER SPECIFIC SOURCES
There’s a fundamental difference between how people
interact within travel forums and how they interact in
general-purpose social networks. On social networks,
travelers may mention brands and experiences and
share information and recommendations, but those
mentions are peripheral and fleeting in the context
of people’s everyday lives. Consumers go to travel
review sites with specific purposes:To write or read
about travel excursions they’ve experienced or plan
to purchase.
To wit, travelers put greater emphasis on internet
reviews than on recommendations from their own
social networks. According to an October 2012 survey
fromText100 conducted by Redshift Research, leisure
travelers from 13 countries in the US, EMEA and
Asia-Pacific collectively said that internet reviews and
online travel forums were more influential than social
networks when choosing travel destinations. Forty-four
percent of respondents said that they looked to internet
reviews, and 37% participated in online travel forums;
about one-quarter of respondents said they turned to
Facebook, while one in five identified Pinterest andTwitter
as a source of travel inspiration.
% of respondents
Online Sources Used to Choose a Travel Destination
According to Leisure Travelers* Worldwide, Oct 2012
Internet search 55%
Individual provider websites 49%
Online travel sites 46%
Internet reviews 44%
Tourist board websites 41%
Online travel forums 37%
Facebook 27%
Deal sites 26%
YouTube/Vimeo 24%
Pinterest 22%
Twitter 21%
Note: *traveled for leisure purposes in the past 12 months or intend to do
so in the next 12 months
Source: Text100, "Digital Index: Travel & Tourism Study" conducted by
Redshift Research, Nov 28, 2012
In the US, travelers consult reviews during travel
shopping more than any other online resource aside
from interactive maps. PhoCusWright’s “ConsumerTravel
Report Fifth Edition” found that nearly two-thirds of US
travelers used other travelers’ reviews, and 10% said
they used travel reviews every time they planned a trip.
Just 31% of travelers said they used social networks
for recommendations from friends, with 4% looking to
advice from those networks every time they traveled.
% of total
Frequency with Which US Travelers Use Select Online
Features to Plan Leisure Travel, 2012
Interactive maps
11% 11% 16% 29% 34%
Traveler reviews
10% 11% 14% 29% 36%
Professional reviews
7% 10% 13% 27% 44%
Professional photos
7% 7% 12% 26% 48%
Traveler photos
5% 7% 11% 23% 54%
Social networks (friends)
4%4% 6% 17% 69%
For all trips (100%)
For most trips (about 75%)
For half of the trips (about 50%)
For some trips (25%)
Not at all
Note: n=2,364 who typically use websites to plan travel; numbers may not
add up to 100% due to rounding
Source: PhoCusWright, "Consumer Travel Report Fifth Edition," April 30,
2013
Traveler videos
2%
4% 7% 15% 73%
Professional videos
2%
3%
6% 19% 70%
Social networks (companies)
2%
3%
5% 12% 78%

According to J.D. Power and Associates, reviews are
more influential along the path to purchase than family,
friend or colleague recommendations. One in five
respondents to a November 2012 survey said they were
influenced in part by reviews to select the travel website
from which they purchased, while 16% of respondents
said they visited the travel site where they booked based
on recommendations from close counterparts. In both
cases, millennials overindexed: Approximately one-third
of travelers ages 18 to 24 were influenced to visit the
sites from which they purchased by reviews, along
with about one-quarter of respondents ages 25 to 34.
Twenty-seven percent of 18- to 24-year-olds and one in
five consumers in the 25-to-34 age group took advice
from personal connections before visiting travel sites
where they booked.
WHAT MAKESATRAVEL REVIEW
TRUSTWORTHY?
A debate has intensified among travel professionals
over whether consumers should trust what they read on
user-generated content sites.TripAdvisor is at the center
of this discussion, since the site does not require proof
that the reviewer actually experienced what they evaluate.
Those concerned about the impact of fake reviews ask
the question: “If you can’t trust one review, can you
trust any?”
Companies that sell travel—both brands and third-party
agencies—want to minimize the time and energy it takes
to sniff out fraudulent reviews, so most travel booking
sites require reviewers to make an actual purchase
on the site in order to submit an evaluation. Ideally,
verified reviews provide assurance that the information
is from real guests who actually paid and stayed at the
hotel, easing concerns for both hotel operators and
travelers who are skeptical about the authenticity of
travel reviewers.
For example, Wyndham Hotel Group’s system
collects validated reviews on the brand’s website and
then funnels them straight toTripAdvisor, according to
Flo Lugli, executive vice president of marketing at
Wyndham. HotelMe, a website developed by USATODAY
andTravel Media Group, takes this action a step further by
allowing anyone who has proof of a booking on any site
to submit a review, essentially creating a verified-review
metasearch engine.
“Travel is a product for which there essentially are no
returns, and so reviews are very, very important, and our
guests have told us they want authenticated reviews,”
said Clay Cowan, vice president of global digital for
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. “It’s not like retail
when you can buy something and even if you read some
great reviews and it turned out that you didn’t like it, you
can always take it back to the store.”
From a consumer standpoint, collections of unverified and
verified reviews—quantity vs. quality—are both useful.
Different travelers with different needs mean that verified
review sites are not unequivocally better or more useful
on the whole than unverified review sites.There are
potential pitfalls in the verified review process, as well as
positive implications for allowing unimpeded access to
traveler feedback.
The review authentication process is not foolproof, and
certain drawbacks could have the opposite intended
effect of increasing credibility, considering that many
travelers gauge a hotel’s legitimacy by its number
of reviews. While verifying purchases eliminates the
potential for falsified accounts, doing so could make
legitimate reviews more difficult to collect—for instance,
a traveler whose spouse paid for a hotel would be unable
to leave his or her impression of the property without
chasing down the purchase information required for
verification. Under the same scenario, large family groups
traveling on a single payer’s credit card would have even
more logistical difficulties in gathering the information
required to leave their impressions on a verified site.
Requiring verification from the paying “customer” could
also block business travel reviews. If frequent business
travelers are unable to review their experiences because
they didn’t enter their credit card information—whether
it was paid by their travel manager, travel agency or
traveling partner—brands that rely on lucrative business
traveler bookings could lose valuable feedback from some
of their top customers.
Adam Medros, vice president of global product for
TripAdvisor, noted that participants solicited for reviews
through email may be more inclined to post positively
than reviewers organically inspired to write something. In
addition, some hotel brand surveys ask typical customer
feedback questions about the stay—comfort level, staff
friendliness, intent to return and so forth—and then
automatically compile that information into a review
format that appears organic.

“In contrast to other types of direct marketing and
consumer outreach, reviews are written free-form,” added
Michelle Wohl, vice president of marketing at Revinate,
which provides an online reputation software platform
for the hospitality industry. “When someone is writing
a review, they’re essentially telling you what’s most
important to them, rather than being guided through a
survey or feedback questionnaire.”
According to PhoCusWright, travelers look to multiple
review sites during their research process, which means
they’re using both verified and unverified reviews.
Approximately two in five US travelers used online travel
agencies, general search engines and travel-specific
review sites during their planning process, and about
one-third went straight to a hotel website. Fifteen percent
said they specifically sought out social networking
websites to read travel reviews.
% of respondents
Websites Used by US Travelers to Read
Traveler-Submitted Reviews, 2012
OTA websites
44%
General search engines
40%
Travel review websites
38%
Hotel websites
32%
Travel search engines
25%
General user review websites
16%
Social network websites
15%
Blogs/online forums
11%
Other
3%
Note: n=1,989 who read reviews online
Source: PhoCusWright, "Consumer Travel Report Fifth Edition," April 30,
2013
“Quantity is incredibly important if you are looking at
reviews from strangers. … It’s the same idea as asking
for three quotes when you want to get your roof retiled,”
said AlanYoung, senior vice president of marketing and
strategic partnerships atTrustYou—which aggregates
and analyzes reviews, tweets and posts across the
social web. “Travelers are much more savvy in today’s
marketplace, and as such, they are spending a little bit
more time online to make those decisions.They are
willing to take a look at more sites.”
Travelers are accustomed to seeing exceedingly large
numbers of reviews, and the majority already take a
sophisticated approach to filtering out potential fakes.
According toTripAdvisor’s September 2012 study,
conducted by PhoCusWright, 59% of travelers ignore
extremes when reading evaluations, and approximately
seven in 10 said they prefer to see basic information
about contributing reviewers, like how many assessments
they’ve written, as well as traveler-submitted pictures
as they browse. Each of these elements provides
a way for travelers to weed out phony posters and
planted, fictionalized photography—for both good and
bad reviews.

HOTEL MARKETERS RESPOND TO
TRAVELER REVIEWS
While reviews are influential across all travel
categories, hotel recommendations carry the most
weight.TravelWeekly’s June 2012 study found that
more than 60% of US leisure travelers reserved both
resort and nonresort hotels as a result of reading
reviews, compared with about one in five who looked
to peer sites before booking airfare or cruises, and
one in seven who sought advice for rental cars.
% of respondents
Purchases Inﬂuenced by Travel Review Sites
According to US Leisure Travelers, June 2012
Nonresort hotel 65%
Resort hotel 61%
All-inclusive resort 37%
Air 22%
Packaged tour 19%
Cruise 19%
Rental car 14%
Escorted tour13%
Other 8%
Note: in the past 12 months
Source: Travel Weekly, "Consumer Trends 2012," July 30, 2012
Hotel reviews are not only the most influential among all
travel categories, they stand out among all product and
service categories across industries as well. ReviewInc
and Pepperdine University’s study found that nearly
all US internet users were “very likely” or “likely” to
consult hotel opinions. Notably, the other 1.1% was
neutral; hotels and fine dining restaurants were the only
categories for which zero respondents said they’d forgo
reading reviews before patronizing a business.
% of total
Likelihood of Using an Online Rating/Review Site to
Help Decide About Trying a Business According to US
Internet Users, by Industry, Spring 2012
Fine dining restaurants
Hotels
Spas & personal care
Automotive
Arts & entertainment
Event planning & services
Nightlife
Health & medical
professionals
Real estate
Active life
Financial services
Fitness professionals
Coffee & tea
Chain restaurants
Very
likely
79.3%
73.8%
57.4%
53.4%
52.9%
51.1%
46.3%
44.2%
38.6%
38.4%
33.3%
33.2%
28.6%
13.8%
Likely
17.6%
25.1%
28.4%
28.6%
31.7%
26.1%
32.1%
42.1%
27.5%
35.8%
34.9%
34.7%
27.0%
28.6%
Neutral
1.6%
1.1%
10.0%
12.7%
12.7%
14.4%
13.2%
7.4%
23.3%
18.9%
18.0%
16.8%
20.1%
23.8%
Not
likely
1.6%
0.0%
2.1%
2.1%
2.1%
4.8%
5.3%
4.2%
7.4%
3.7%
10.1%
8.9%
15.3%
22.8%
Wouldn't
use
0.0%
0.0%
2.1%
3.2%
0.5%
3.7%
3.2%
2.1%
3.2%
3.2%
3.7%
6.3%
9.0%
11.1%
Note: numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding
Source: ReviewInc and Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business
and Management, "Online Reviews Study"; eMarketer calculations,
March 11, 2013
Transparency is important to travelers who read reviews,
so when hotels respond, travelers take note.The
TripAdvisor study conducted by PhoCusWright found
that 57% of travelers would be more likely to book a
hotel whose management responded to reviews over
a comparable property whose management was silent
on the subject. In addition, 84% of respondents said
that appropriate management responses to bad reviews
improved their impression of the hotel.

As a result, one of the main purposes for hotels to
monitor and respond to reviews is managing customer
complaints. Accommodation owners worldwide take
negative reviews very seriously, with more than 60%
saying they both respond to reviews publicly and
address review content privately with staff, according to
TripAdvisor’sTripBarometer. Just 5% of respondents said
they ignored negative reviews altogether.
% of respondents
Actions Taken After Receiving Negative Online
Reviews According to Accommodation Businesses
Worldwide, Jan 2013
Respond to the review online
65%
Address the contents of the review with staff
62%
Increase staff training
45%
Respond to the review in private
43%
Review/change operations
41%
Offer the reviewer a goodwill gesture
30%
Change pricing structure
5%
Other
11%
Nothing
5%
2013
Positive online reviews were more often left to speak
for themselves, and accommodation businesses turned
more focus internally to encourage further positive
reviews; 55% congratulated and rewarded their staff, and
about three in 10 took those good reviews as a sign to
invest in further training that would lead to a better online
reputation. Half of the respondents replied to positive
reviews online, and 35% said they also highlighted good
reviews.Ten percent of respondents said they did nothing
when they received positive reviews.
% of respondents
Actions Taken After Receiving Positive Online
Reviews According to Accommodation Businesses
Worldwide, Jan 2013
Congratulate/reward staff
55%
Respond to the review online
50%
Respond to the review in private
37%
Highlight the positive review online
35%
Invest in further training to encourage further positive reviews
28%
Nothing
10%
Other
7%
2013
A strategy for responding to reviews treads a fine line.
Damage control is crucial, but reinforcing glowing reviews
may have a greater impact, considering that 81% of all
reviews are positive, according toTrustYou.
“Hotels and destinations can get it wrong spending
too much time focused on responding to bad reviews
vs. responding to good reviews as well,” saidTrustYou’s
Young. “A good analogy is if I were to walk up to the front
desk and tell the agent what a wonderful time I had at the
hotel, and that I’m definitely coming back, only to have
them immediately turn their back on me.”
Hotels have centered on reputation management as a
marketing tactic, taking steps to harness public chatter
about their properties.To manage—and respond to—
reviews of their properties, many hotel brands are
incorporating these directly into their websites. According
to USATODAY, Marriott International’s JW Marriott and
Starwood’s W Hotels brands started the trend to post
traveler reviews directly on their websites in 2011, and
hotel companies with midscale and economy properties
like Best Western International and Wyndham also rolled
out programs in 2012. According to L2ThinkTank and
SapientNitro’s “Digital IQ Index: Hotels” report based on
December 2012 research, 28% of the luxury brands they
studied worldwide incorporated ratings and reviews on
their own sites, jumping from 5% in the 2011 report and
17% from early 2012.

% of total
Customer Service Features on Brand Sites of
Upscale/Luxury Hotels Worldwide,
Dec 2012
Ratings and reviews 28%
Live chat 23%
Callback 19%
Contact concierge 16%
Note: n=57
Source: L2 Think Tank and SapientNitro, "Digital IQ Index: Hotels," Jan 31,
2013
MINING REVIEW CONTENTTO FUEL
PERSONALIZED MARKETING
Reviews are significant because consumers’ collective
voice—in real time and in massive volume—is shifting
the way travel businesses operate. Online reviews have
created complex challenges—like dealing with review
trolls and freeloaders—but also unprecedented marketing
opportunities to develop deeply personal relationships
with customers.
“Marketing has gone through evolutions that basically
have put consumers in charge, and we need to
acknowledge that we’re no longer 100% in charge of our
brand message,” said Wyndham’s Lugli. “If marketers
crowdsource anything, they have to be willing to respond
and implement the feedback in some way or form. When
consumers are asked for their opinion, their expectation is
that something will be done with it.”
Merging user-generated content and social media has
drawn the focus of travel startups like Gogobot, a social
travel network that “basically straddles the line between
the two extremes, the one being Facebook and the other
being theTripAdvisor,” according toTravis Katz, Gogobot’s
CEO and co-founder. Dedicated solely to talking about
and sharing travel information, these sites are building
communities of experienced (or at least passionate)
travelers tied to a social graph where users can also
access family and friend recommendations.
“Social media has changed what people expect from
the internet, and people no longer want just a bunch of
access to just any kind of content,” explained Katz. “They
want content that’s curated and personally relevant.”
According to Matt Laessig, director of business
development for Bazaarvoice, travelers tend to follow
clear patterns when writing reviews, which provides
readers—other travelers and marketers—with a better
sense of reviewers’ personalities. Bazaarvoice research
from 2012, based on an analysis of 275,000 reviews from
five online travel agency clients, found that positive hotel
reviews generally followed the same track, regardless of
whether travelers were staying for business or pleasure,
with family or friends, or as singles or couples.Typical
topics in positive reviews were both straightforward and
consistent: front desk and staff, breakfast, and location.
On the flipside, negative reviews tend to be much more
specific, with each of those six traveler types having
unique complaints. For example, business travelers noted
lack of convenience amenities like internet and fitness
centers. Families were concerned about cigarette smoke
and pool size. And couples were almost exclusively
concerned with noise levels.
TravelShark’s review system attempts to take
personalization to the next level, providing information
to travelers who engage in the review process as both
writers and readers. Eschewing star ratings,TravelShark’s
reviews collect what the company calls the “Essence”
of a place, culling keywords about hotels and restaurants
by frequency and uniqueness.The site then curates
information for users and serves them recommendations
based on their preferred “Essences.”
“Measuring performance of reviews across industries,
we don’t really see differences between review styles
for different product categories,” added Laessig.
“Instead, what we have found is that consumers are
consistent. People may spend more time thinking about
a multithousand-dollar purchase like travel, but sources of
influence are similar for different types of purchases.”
By engaging with travelers who create in-depth profiles
on travel-specific sites (as many already do on sites like
TripAdvisor andYelp), marketers can identify individuals as
their travel identity changes. Pinpointing these sources of
influence can help marketers target for different types of
trips—for example, what consumers’ preferences are like
for business, family vacations, boys’ and girls’ weekends,
and so forth—which can facilitate better, more open
communications with travelers.

EMARKETER INTERVIEWS
Tailoring Experiences for Social Media-SavvyTravelers
Christy Liu
Co-Founder and Director of Marketing
Wanderfly
Interview conducted on December 18, 2012
Verified User Reviews Pay Off forWyndham
Flo Lugli
Executive Vice President, Marketing
Wyndham Hotel Group
Interview conducted on May 28, 2013
TripAdvisor SharesTips on Keeping
ReviewsTrustworthy
Adam Medros
Vice President, Global Product
TripAdvisor
Interview conducted on January 9, 2013
Reputation Management Firm Lays Out Best Practices
for User Reviews
AlanYoung
Senior Vice President, Marketing and
Strategic Partnerships
TrustYou
Clay Cowan
Vice President, Global Digital
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
Adele Gutman
Vice President, Sales, Marketing and Revenue
Library Hotel Collection
Travis Katz
CEO and Co-Founder
Gogobot
Faraz Qureshi
Founder and General Manager
Cruiseline.com
Interview conducted on February 1, 2013
John Walton
Director of Data
Routehappy
Michelle Wohl
Vice President, Marketing
Revinate
Matt Laessig
Director, Business Development
Bazaarvoice
RELATED EMARKETER REPORTS
Online User Reviews: BuildingTrust and
Boosting Sales
Automotive Consumer Reviews: Social and Mobile
Change the Car-Buying Game
HowTravel Brands ManageTheir Online Reputation:
Making the Most of Owned, Earned and Paid Media

RELATED LINKS
Bazaarvoice
Cruiseline.com
Deloitte
Gogobot
Google/Ipsos MediaCT/Ipsos OTX
HotelMe
Intel
J.D. Power and Associates
L2ThinkTank
Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business
and Management/ReviewInc
PhoCusWright
Redshift Research/Text100
Revinate
Starwood Hotels & ResortsWorldwide
Tnooz
TravelShark
TravelWeekly
TripAdvisorTripBarometer
TrustYou
USATODAY
Wyndham Hotel Group
EDITORIAL AND
PRODUCTION CONTRIBUTORS
Cliff Annicelli Senior Editor
Kaitlin Carlin Copy Editor
Joanne DiCamillo Senior Production Artist
Stephanie Gehrsitz Senior Production Artist
Dana Hill Director of Production
Heather Price Copy Editor
Nicole Perrin Associate Editorial Director
Allie Smith Director of Charts

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