NEEDHAM, MA—Tripadvisor has launched two new technology solutions for hotels—Spotlight and Reputation Pro—to help hospitality businesses rebuild traveler confidence, attract new customers and make smart, data-driven decisions to increase profitability during these unprecedented times.
Combining the latest technology and software with Tripadvisor’s reach and scale, both Spotlight and Reputation Pro offer something new to the market, empowering hospitality businesses with the tools they need to increase customer confidence in their brand, forecast demand and set the most profitable nightly rates, according to the company.
The combined launch signals Tripadvisor’s increased focus on delivering best-in-class technology solutions that will help the hospitality industry recover in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, following the launch of free tools such as Travel Safe and Contactless Menus, and the global rollout of Menu Connect earlier this year.
“Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve increased our focus on making the business of hospitality easier for hoteliers. Now more than ever, they need actionable insights and easy-to-use tools that help build their brand and maximize their profitability, all while saving them time,” said Martin Verdon-Roe, general manager of hospitality solutions at Tripadvisor. “The launch of Spotlight and Reputation Pro, alongside our existing Business Advantage and Sponsored Placements solutions, marks a huge step forward in our efforts to help hoteliers navigate the pandemic in the short term and position their business for a return to profitable growth in the long term.”
With travel trends and market demand changing rapidly as the world adjusts to COVID-19, hoteliers can no longer rely only on historical data to forecast demand and set competitive nightly rates.
Built in partnership with OTA Insight, Spotlight combines Tripadvisor’s reach and insight into where travelers are searching for rooms with other important travel data to provide forward-looking, actionable data, enabling hoteliers to anticipate future demand, ensure their property is priced competitively and monitor parity issues across their distribution channels.
Spotlight subscribers will benefit from two brand new Tripadvisor capabilities—Rate Spotlight and Market Spotlight—aimed at ensuring they stay one step ahead of the competition.
With Rate Spotlight, hoteliers can:
- Compare nightly rates to the competition on one dashboard across room types and length of stay
- Adjust rates based on the most accurate, real-time intelligence
- Drill into nightly rates by market and channel to identify parity issues, and monitor whether
- distribution partners are undercutting them on price
With Market Spotlight, hoteliers can:
- Anticipate future demand by utilizing the scale of Tripadvisor, combined with other important travel data such as flights, alternative accommodation and others,
- Maximize RevPAR by taking precise action based on expected demand for future stay dates
“OTA Insight and Tripadvisor are both industry leaders in data intelligence with a shared culture of disruptive innovation,” said Sean Fitzpatrick, CEO at OTA Insight. “Our partnership with Tripadvisor will provide hoteliers with access to unique traveler demand insights to navigate challenging market conditions and find new revenue opportunities.”
Rebuild Traveler Confidence
With traveler confidence severely impacted by COVID-19, a hotel’s online reputation matters now more than ever. That is why guest reviews are so important—positive reviews and ratings from recent guests are key to rebuilding traveler confidence and have a direct impact on a property’s ranking and bubble score on Tripadvisor. In fact, 86% of Tripadvisor users say that reviews help them feel more confident in their decisions.
With Reputation Pro, hoteliers can leverage Tripadvisor’s heritage as a review platform to greatly increase traveler confidence to book. Reputation Pro enables hoteliers to:
- Lean on the Tripadvisor brand to accelerate their collection of high quality reviews via email, text message and mobile app
- Receive real-time review notifications so they never miss a new review
- Respond to reviews across multiple platforms—including Tripadvisor, Google and Facebook—all from one dashboard
- Access Tripadvisor’s industry-leading review insights, including sentiment analysis, to identify specific aspects of the guest experience that are driving positive or negative feedback and make adjustments to the customer offering that improve the hotel’s brand reputation
Spotlight and Reputation Pro will be available alongside Tripadvisor’s popular Sponsored Placements and Business Advantage solutions, and owners can try both new solutions for free when they sign up online.
