What is the difference between hotel guest survey responses and online hotel reviews?

Guest feedback comes in many ways and forms, but mainly we know online hotel reviews and guest survey responses. Both types of feedback complement each other nicely, but both give hoteliers different benefits.  

What Type of Feedback Do Online Hotel Reviews Offer You?

Online hotel reviews are very useful to understand what is going on in your department, but they are most important for your online reputation. These reviews are public for all to see on the internet and will influence the decisions of future bookers. That is why hoteliers give them a lot of importance.  

However, they often lack in detail, as they are usually not much more than a rating and an open comment box. They do not allow you to dig deeper into certain aspects, or let you direct the guest to the answer you are looking for. Therefore, this feedback needs to be complemented with survey responses.  

How Can Guest Survey Responses Complement Online Hotel Reviews?

Guest survey responses, on the contrary to online reviews, let you ask specific questions about the things that would like to know. This means that guest surveys offer you a platform to help you better understand your online reputation data further. Perhaps, you noticed an issue with breakfast from online reviews, but you do not have the details to understand, exactly what is wrong with breakfast. You can then add extra questions about breakfast into your survey, to understand what the issues are: is it the breakfast hours? Is it the offering? Is it the layout? Etc.  

Guest surveys help you to understand guest feedback on a much deeper level as the survey responses are directly linked to guest data. This means you can drill down into details like room type, room number, guest type, market, etc.  

In the end, it is not a matter of preferring one over the other but of leveraging both to get the most guest data possible. Both feedback types are essential for operational improvements, and understanding what improvements will benefit your online reputation the most.  

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