The travel guidance platform publishes top tips to aid travelers in writing the perfect review
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Have you visited a hotel, restaurant or booked a tour or experience in the last year that you haven’t yet shared feedback about?
If so, Tripadvisor is looking to its community of hundreds of millions of travelers to share their guidance with others!
Tripadvisor is today calling all travelers to brush up on their typing skills and get ready to turn their memories into invaluable guidance in the form of a review (or many!), ahead of its inaugural Write a Review Day, launching on May 3.
To kick off the summer travel season in the Northern Hemisphere, throughout the month of May, the platform is rallying the Tripadvisor community and encouraging travelers to write a review. Whether it’s a hotel stay, experience booked or culinary moment at a restaurant over the past 12-months, Tripadvisor is asking travelers to share their experiences – the good, the not so good and everything in between, with the intention of giving the still recovering tourism and hospitality industry helpful, constructive feedback.
This feedback is aimed at guiding travelers on their way as the world emerges from the pandemic and begins to take to the roads, seas and skies again. With over a billion reviews and opinions on the platform, Tripadvisor has learned a thing or two about what makes a great, helpful review. You’ve seen the not-so-helpful reviews on other platforms:Â
— “This place was great!” But why was it great?Â
— “I didn’t like the food?” What did this person order? What didn’t they like about the food?Â
Tripadvisor has proven not all reviews or review platforms are created equal, and as the recently released Power of Reviews study shows, the content of a review matters.
Tripadvisor’s reviews are 3x longer than the reviews found on leading online travel agent websites and search engines, and it’s that level of detail that helps travelers to make informed decisions. With this in mind, to arm travelers with the power to write a review that is as helpful as possible to both other travelers and the business it is about, Tripadvisor has published its Top Tips for Writing a Great Review.
1. Give Context
Be clear and specific in describing your memory. Sticking to facts and including as many details as possible allows other travelers like you to get an accurate picture of the business.
2. Create Helpful Change
Whether positive or negative, make sure your review is helpful and constructive. Recognize and value what you liked and offer options and solutions for this business to improve: this is an opportunity for them to learn.
3. Be Thankful and Empathetic
Keep a courteous and friendly tone in mind and use appropriate language: it’s worth considering that behind every business activity there are people who put commitment and passion into what they do.
4. Help future travelers
We want travelers to be inspired by real experiences: if you see a review that looks to be in violation of our guidelines, flag it to Tripadvisor and we’ll take a look at it.
May 3 marks the beginning of travelers recommitting and celebrating the act of giving feedback. A review has the ability to change lives, giving powerful guidance to those who read them in order to ensure others can unlock incredible experiences that create lifelong memories.
As a business, review contributions can help those who receive the feedback to get the recognition they deserve, or the insight needed to evolve and improve.
To take part in Write a Review Day, click here to post a review. Show your love of travel by sharing your review on your social media channels with the hashtag #WriteAReviewDay.
The Better Review InitiativeÂ
As part of the Write a Review Day campaign, in addition to rallying travelers to think about how they approach reviews, Tripadvisor is also turning its attention over the next year to partner with the tourism and hospitality industry to launch The Better Review Initiative, that aims to do three things over the next year:
1. Help hotel operators, restaurants and experience providers to understand the right way to ask customers to review their business.
2. Help travel and hospitality operators understand the benefits of responding to reviews written online in a constructive way, and the positive impact that can have on their brand reputation.
3. Support travelers with guidance on how to write better reviews that are helpful for businesses and other fellow travelers alikeÂ
More than 20 associations across the globe, including the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), the World Travel Organization (UNWTO), Fipe and HotellerieSuisse have endorsed the initiative aimed at improving travel and hospitality review content online.
Author: Falayn Ferrell
Managing Partner - Operations of Black Restaurant Week
