Reviews. They can be wonderful, overly positive, and they can drive you crazy. But the truth is: your potential visitors care about them. Reviews can make or break your property. And that’s exactly why you should pay attention to them. Respond to every single one. And then: use them. Don’t just let your positive reviews ‘sit around’ TripAdvisor, Booking.com or wherever they are. Time to spread the word!

In this post I will show you 3 different ways on how you could utilize reviews in a social media post for practically any social media channel. You could use Facebook or Instagram, but you could also create vertical banners and post them on your Snapchat, Instagram Story, Pinterest or even your blog.

In this post I used “ZOKU”, a home-office hybrid place in Amsterdam as an example. This is basically a studio-apartment-stay-place with hotel kinda services. Looks like a great place to spend a couple nights so if you’re visiting Amsterdam, do check them out! All photos are from ZOKU or their TripAdvisor.

To get started: just share your visitor’s thoughts! What do they think about your hotel? What did they like about it? Share their positive opinion. Even better if their opinion says something about one of the unique selling points of your property. Like in this example: ZOKU is different from other hotels, and the review highlights this.

Another great idea might be to share the occasion of your hotel’s visitor. Why or when did they visit your hotel? This could very well inspire others. In this example, the visitor shares the fact that she visited this hotel during her honeymoon. Now that might trigger other people who are looking for a honeymoon-place to visit the property. Or it could trigger fans of ZOKU to tip the property to friends or family whom they know are going on their own honeymoon soon.

Vary your content and share a longer review every now and then. One that truly shows the value of your property to a visitor’s stay. You could even try to get in contact with the review writer to ask them for more background information. You could even conduct a little interview, which you could then turn into a series of posts. Take other people along on the journey of that one visitor. It makes the review even more credible. In this example we could ask Willie, who wrote the review, how come he travels so much. And what he looks for in a hotel. Et cetera.

5 tips for your hotel review post

1. First and foremost, ask the reviewer if you can share their opinion on social media. Trust me, they will appreciate it – and they will say yes. + Big chance they will share the post with their friends.
2. Use reviews that highlight the unique selling points of your property.
3. If possible, contact the review writer and get more background information so you can add some context to the post. You could place this extra information in the description. It just adds more value to the post and makes it more credible.
4. Use visuals that capture the attention, whether you use your own photos or photos taken by a visitor. If you decide to use photos taken by a visitor, always ask their permission.
5. Keep an eye out for personal and extraordinary stories: an example of the wonderful service your staff provided to a visitor, or how your hotel contributed to a specific stay (honeymoon, first time traveler, etc.). It’s all about stories. Find reviews you can share that have more depth than ‘spacious room’ or ‘good breakfast’.

Conclusion

Sharing reviews on social media is a great way to show potential customers your value. Go further and find the special ones. If you have somebody visiting your property that you know has a special story, stimulate them to leave a review so you can use it later. Keep your eyes and ears open for stories. They’ll make the greatest reviews! You can show off your pretty bathrooms and delicious breakfasts all the time – and you’ll have enough reviews talking about this. Dive deeper. Maybe someone had a very special birthday breakfast, maybe you gave that person champaign or a cake. Now that’s a review worth sharing.

Now what?

Try to create a review post for your own property and implement the tips given. Done? Please share your result! Either by posting a picture in the comments or a link to your social media page. I check every single comment left and will leave my feedback if you’d like me to.

> I try to post a Social Media for Hotel post twice a month. If you want to stay updated, make sure to become part of the Tremento Tribe.

All photos in these examples were gathered from the social media channels and website of ZOKU. These examples were made out of my own interest, not upon request. However, if you are interested in posts like these for your own social media channels then please get in touch.