Hotel Review Response Rate

Every year, Revinate publishes a Hotel Reputation Benchmark Report to provide the industry with actionable and comparative insights from hotels around the world. We analyzed over 147,000 hotels in 200+ countries from Revinate Guest Feedback customers so we can provide a unique review on a unique year.

Below is a snapshot of the Section 5, Hotel Review Response

You can download the full 2020 Reputation Report for free here.

Most hoteliers today actively respond to online feedback to learn what guests care about and to better improve the guest experience. Experts have been advising hoteliers to respond to review for more than a decade now, given data that shows how responding to reviews drives loyalty and encourages new guests to visit your hotel.

In 2020, hotels saw a 10.6% decline in review response compared to 2019. This is no surprise of course given fewer staff and limited resources.

Comparing the two years, there was also a notable shift in which reviews were responded to. In 2019, the highest response rate was for 1 and 2 star reviews. In 2020, Revinate Guest Feedback customers saw an even distribution of review responses, but the highest response rate was for 2-star reviews (36%) and 5-star reviews (35%). Hoteliers responded to 30% of 4-star reviews, 32% of 3-star reviews and 34% of 1-star reviews.

When considering regional differences, APAC, LATAM, and EMEA had the highest response rate, while hotels in the Benelux region responded the least. The USA and Canada were about on par with the global average of 33%

Response Rate by Class

Class of hotel can also have an impact on review response rate. In 2020, luxury hotels overwhelmingly responded to the most reviews at 57%. Meanwhile, economy hotels only responded to 11.8% of reviews.

In addition to typically offering a higher level of service throughout the guest journey, we also know that luxury hotels are better staffed, which could explain this difference.

Compared to our last Reputation Benchmark Report, most categories saw up to a 54.8% decline in review response. Luxury hotels, going against the trend, actually saw an increase in review response and upscale remained about the same.

Response Rate by Region

All regions saw a decline in review response in 2020, coming in at 10.6% lower from the year prior.

Hotels in APAC had the highest decline at 14.5%, followed by Europe at 10.3%. LATAM was the least affected, with only a 4.9% decline in review responsiveness.

Hotels should continue to focus efforts to respond to reviews to reap the benefits of online reputation. While staffing may have been difficult during the pandemic, it only further emphasises the importance of a reputation management tool. Revinate can help your hotel quickly and easily respond to both negative and positive hotel reviews from within the platform.

Response Rate by Rating

Review response rate by star rating was fairly distributed in 2020–much more than in previous years. Hoteliers responded to 2 and 5 start reviews the most, and 4 star reviews the least.

When advising our clients, we suggest that hoteliers respond to all 1 and 2 star reviews, assuming there is actionable feedback. In our previous benchmark report these were also the highest responded to. In addition to 1 and 2 star review, it can also be advantageous to respond to 5 star review in expanding the guest experience online.

3 and 4 star reviews should be responded to as needed to address any bad experience and to ensure the reviewer that management is serious about improvement.

Response Rate by Review Rating

While 2020 represented a shift in review response by star rating, it can also be insightful to see how each rating changed year over year.

During the pandemic, hotels responded to far fewer 1-star reviews than in 2019. We also know it’s much easier to respond to a positive reviews, so we’re not surprised that the smallest change was for 5-star.

Despite these findings, we still highly recommend hoteliers to respond to all 1 and 2 star reviews during the pandemic to reap the benefits of healthy reputation management. This can help provide accurate and consistent communication online while helping to fuel your hotel’s recovery.

Download the full Marketing Reputation Report today to get the actionable insights you need to improve your hotel’s online reputation and benchmark your success. We cover 5 topics including year in review, review volume, site distribution, review ratings, and response rate.