71 – Why Post-Stay Guest Surveys Are Essential

Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast

In this episode of the Suite Spot, we explore the importance of post-stay surveys for hotels. Host Ryan Embree is joined by Product Director and head of Travel Media Group’s reputation solutions, Patrick O’Brien, to discuss why the feedback uncovered in these surveys is critical to a hotel’s success. Patrick and Ryan start the episode by explaining the difference between guest reviews and guest surveys. They walk through each question included in Travel Media Group’s post-stay survey and what insights the property can gain from the guest’s feedback. Finally, Patrick shares some creative ideas for other questions that our partners have included in their hotels' post-stay surveys. If you are interested in learning more about Travel Media Group’s post-stay survey solution, you can reach us by calling or texting us at 407-984-7455 or email us at [e-mail] Suite Spot Podcast · 71 - Why Post-Stay Guest Surveys Are Essential Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot where hoteliers check in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Suite Spot. This is your host Ryan Embree. We've got a jam packed episode for you today. I am very excited about it. I'm very excited about our guest. He is our Product Director at Travel Media Group and head of our reputation solutions, Patrick O'Brien. Patrick, welcome back to the Suite Spot. Patrick O'Brien: Well, thank you very much for having me. Ryan Embree: And this episode is going to be all about guest surveys - why they're critical and essential to your hotel's success, how we can leverage our guest's responses to these surveys, and we're even going to include some of the questions from our very own Travel Media Group post-stay survey that we provide for our hotel partners. So let's go ahead and get started Patrick. We know that guest surveys is a major part of Travel Media Group's reputation management solution, I want to start today's episode, because when I say guest surveys, there's a pretty distinct difference there between a guest survey and a guest review. Can you first explain that? And then we'll get into the guest surveys a little bit. Patrick O'Brien: Sure, so Ryan, a guest review really will be any feedback left publicly online on sites like Google, TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, etc, so while some could argue that not all public feedback is really fair or even sometimes legitimate, it is typically one of the most used resources that prospective travelers will turn to before making a booking decision, so it really kind of impacts the prospective traveler view of your hotel. And while the hotel can typically take part in that conversation via review responses, they don't have any influence necessarily on whether or not that conversation and feedback takes place. Surveys, on the other hand are typically feedback solicited directly from a hotel's guests, with the goal to provide the hotel insights into what is working and what is not, but really keeping that conversation one-to-one and offline. So you really can think of, you know, the online reviews being that tool that prospective guests are using to look at your hotel, and the online surveys, really being a tool kept internally to help the hotel understand what's going on at their business, but just because the surveys are kept offline, it doesn't mean that someone who fills out a survey can't then go back and leave a review as well. So that can be really good, if the feedback in the survey was positive, it may not be quite as good if the feedback was negative. Ryan Embree: Yeah, I feel like the hotel industry has gone through this love-hate relationship with any type o...