How To Reply To A Bad Review On Trip Advisor

Trip Advisor, the online travel and restaurant review site, is enormously influential on the success or failure of many businesses.

As someone who manages the Trip Advisor accounts for clients, I see the full range of reviews and act on behalf of my clients to manage the influence of Trip Advisor.

Sometimes things go bad.

And when they do, a horrible review on Trip Advisor can be the result – it’s important to know how to react to a review.

Top 7 Tips On Responding to A Bad Review

Here’s my top 7 tips for responding to a bad review on Trip Advisor:

1. Don’t reply angry. Keep calm and approach the complaint in a calm and rationale manner.
2. Don’t abuse or give any negativity to the reviewer.
3. If you suspect it’s a fake review, feel free to complain to Trip Advisor.  Unless it’s an obviously fake review, the review isn’t going anywhere – Trip Advisor will not take down bad reviews.  They’re there forever.
4. Respond positively – the first thing I do is thank the complainer for providing us with the feedback to help make the business better.
   “Thanks for the feedback Bob.  We’re committed to providing the best possible accommodation and service and your comments help us to achieve this.”
5. I always address each specific issue – never ignore an issue or be evasive about something. Address it and move on.
6. Don’t waffle – keep it short, sharp and friendly.
7. Let the complainer know what is being done about the issue(s) they raised.

No-one likes a bad review, but in hospitality and accommodation businesses it’s inevitable that someone is going to have a bad experience.

When they do, they may well tell others about it via sites like Trip Advisor.

If you address the issue with humility, thought and education then you’ll almost certainly undo the damage caused and, in many cases, positively build the brand of your business.

Some Phrases You Might Like To Use

Here are a few phrases that might come in handy for your next review response:

I apologise that we did not meet your expectations on this occasion.

Thanks again for your feedback – we’ve certainly learned from it and it will help us to provide the very best to future customers.

It’s only with feedback such as yours that we can get better and better. So we appreciate you helping us improve.

I certainly regret that we didn’t meet your expectations ….

One of the challenges is ensuring the ….

Thanks for taking the time to write your review – we do appreciate all feedback here, good or bad, as we strive to provide the best value for our guests.