As a tour or activity operator, your business probably has an on-going relationship with online travel agents to gain more business in a highly competitive space.
But, with many guests booking tour and activity experiences through TripAdvisor, Expedia or other OTAs instead of directly with you, businesses need to do everything in their power to rank higher and stand out from their competition.
In this blog, we take a look at how TripAdvisor rankings are calculated, why they are so important for your business and how you can improve reviews through photo marketing to increase your number of bookings.
How is your TripAdvisor ranking calculated?
The TripAvisor ranking formula looks at three elements to determine where your business will land on the list in comparison to your competitors - the quality of your reviews, the recency of your reviews and the quantity of your reviews.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these three elements:
Review quality
One of the elements on which TripAdvisor will rank your brand is on the quality of your reviews. This is primarily based on how a customer rates your business, the more four or five stars you receive, the more likely you are to move up in the TripAdvisor rankings.
However, TripAdvisor also takes into consideration the quality of the review itself, including factors such as how much useful information is provided, if there are photos in the review, and whether the review helps future guests. The more passionate your customers are about your brand and the better the review they leave, the more chance you have of moving up those rankings.
Review recency
TripAdvisor’s ranking algorithm values more recent reviews higher than reviews that were posted in the past. Recent reviews are more valuable to the algorithm, even if they give your brand a lower score.
There’s a strong link between review recency and review quality. New, high-quality reviews will have more weight when it comes to your ranking when compared with the reviews that were left, say, six months ago. That’s because these new reviews are representative of your brand’s experience right now.
Review quantity
The quantity of TripAdvisor reviews is also a ranking factor, although just because a business has more reviews doesn’t necessarily mean it will rank higher. TripAdvisor’s ranking algorithm uses each review to get an accurate representation of the current experience.
It’s believed that each listing needs to have a minimum number of reviews in order for the algorithm to compare the experience at your brand to local competitors. However, there’s no current information on how many reviews you need for the algorithm.
Why is your TripAdvisor ranking important for your business?
With consumers having more information at their fingertips than ever before, the online reviews that your tour or activity business receives are crucial - and so is being found online before your competitors.
In fact, 96 percent of Tripadvisor users consider reading reviews important when planning trips and booking hotels. Some 81 percent of TripAdvisor users said that reviews are important when booking “attractions”.
Millions of people use TripAdvisor to book accommodation and experiential activities each month. Ranking highly on TripAdvisor is a crucial component in your brand’s strategy to drive up new bookings.
The higher quality reviews you have on TripAdvisor, the more profits your company stands to gain.
Improving your TripAdvisor rank through successful photo marketing
To start building a strategy that helps your tour or activity business climb the ranks on TripAdvisor, you need to think about ways in which you can promote your business using your past (happy) customers. That includes delivering a superior guest experience, remarketing to your top advocates and sharing memories with your past customers.
Did you know that you can do all of this through a simple, and automated, photo marketing solution? Fotaflo is here to help!
Providing free photos to your guests through a photo marketing platform is a great way to improve the customer experience. You can remind your guests of the amazing experience they had with your band, as well as prompt customers to review your business at the right time, simply by providing them with the opportunity to view their incredible photos online.
By encouraging your past customers to leave positive reviews of your brand through the help of photo marketing, your business can improve both the quality, quantity and recency of your TripAdvisor reviews.
Not only does this push you higher in TripAdvisor’s rankings, but you're also creating more opportunities for future customers to book with your brand after reading online reviews that promote your business.
Other ways to improve your Tripadvisor ranking includes:
- Providing a remarkable service from the moment you begin talking to a customer to follow-up emails. This increases the likelihood they’ll leave positive reviews of your brand.
- Listen to guest feedback and use that to drive future improvements.
- Provide instant communication to customers with questions or issues.
- Do your best to avoid negative reviews.
- Respond to both positive and negative reviews - de-escalating negative reviews and thanking those who leave positive reviews.
- Ensure that your brand is encouraging guests to leave a review after their experience.
Interested in learning more about how you can improve your TripAdvisor ranking, and how photo marketing can help? Get in touch with Fotaflo today. We’d love to show you a demo of our innovative photo and video marketing platform.
