Tripadvisor reviews are essential for any hotel, restaurant or tourist attraction. Learn how to get tripadvisor reviews and optimize your listing.
Why TripAdvisor is important to your business
Tripadvisor is listed as the number one travel site for a reason. As of 2019, tripadvisor:
- Has generated 795 million reviews and opinions
- Receives 490 million unique visitors per month
- Has an aggregate 8.4 million listings on their site
Even more significant than these numbers is the fact that customers spend a tremendous amount of time on the site. According to a recent webinar, influencing the traveler path to purchase with tripadvisor, travelers:
- Tripadvisor reaches 60% of all worldwide travelers purchasers
- 74% of all travelers use tripadvisor in some fashion to plan their trip
- 73% of travelers use photos from other travelers to help them make decisions
- 25% of all shopping time is spent on tripadvisor
- 67% of travelers check tripadvisor a few times a month or more
- 53% of travelers refuse to commit to booking until they read reviews
Who visits TripAdvisor?
Who are these travelers that frequent tripadvisor? What are the demographics of an ideal tripadvisor user?
- 42% male, 58% female
- 76% of their visitors are 25 to 64 years of age
- 43% have a household income of $100,000 or more
- 32% have finished college
- 43% are married
- 40% have children in their household
- Their users have taken 3 to 4 domestic trips in the last 12 months
- Their users stayed one week at a hotel during a domestic vacation in the last 12 months
- Tripadvisor users spent $2500 – $4999 an online travel spending in the last six months
- 12.9% of users visited a national park in the last six months
- Tripadvisor users are in 45 countries and speak 28 languages
When you look at the data, this makes sense.
Of course, travelers have a significant amount of disposable income! It also makes sense that the majority of tripadvisor users are women. Research states that women make the majority of purchasing decisions in the home..
Then there’s income.
The majority of tripadvisor users have some form of disposable income; most aren’t married, and they don’t have children, so it makes sense that a portion of that disposable income is used on restaurants, hotels, vacation rentals and attractions.
How TripAdvisor compares to other sites
Tripadvisor may be the world’s most popular travel website, but that doesn’t tell us a whole lot about how it compares to the big three (e.G., yelp, facebook and google). We’ll need to turn to similarweb for that.
Tripadvisor, even when compared to the big three, is still an 800-pound gorilla.
Take a category like restaurants.
Imagine you’re a customer. You’re looking for a nice restaurant for date night next week. Which resource would you use? A recent survey suggests diners would ask tripadvisor for the answer first, before the big three (google, facebook and yelp). If you’re focused on any of the following segments – restaurants, hotels, vacation rentals or attractions – your ideal customers are already using tripadvisor.
That’s compelling enough, isn’t it?
This is exactly why your local business needs to be on tripadvisor. As a review, rating and local listing platform, tripadvisor is simply too powerful, too big to ignore. Let’s say you’re convinced and ready to use tripadvisor in your business.
Where do you start?
Can you drive real business goals – revenue, growth, conversions – from tripadvisor?
Absolutely.
Determining your tripadvisor business goals
Here’s a shortlist of the business goals other brands have achieved using tripadvisor’s platform.
These conversion goals are pretty straightforward.
If you’re already a sophisticated marketer or business owner, you understand the importance of these goals. These goals drive outcomes. But you need a tripadvisor account for that.
Don’t have one?
If not, you’re in luck. I’m going to show you how to claim/create, optimize and improve your tripadvisor account.
Let’s get started.
How to create/claim your TripAdvisor listing
The registration process is straightforward. I’ve embedded a video below that will guide you through the process of creating your own tripadvisor listing.
If you already have a listing you’d like to claim you can visit tripadvisor.Com/owners to search for your listing. Once you’ve found your listing you’ll want to click the green “claim your free listing” button.
You’ll be asked to create an account. Then you’ll be taken through a series of prompts similar to the ones below. Let’s go through the steps you’ll need to follow if you’re creating a new listing.
- Select your business type. Tripadvisor provides you with four options: hotels, restaurants, attractions and vacation rentals.
Enter your name, corporate email address and role at your business. You’ll want to make sure this information is correct as tripadvisor will send a message to the email address you’ve listed once your listing is published.
Enter listing information for your business: official business name, country, city, state, street address, map location.
Click next, then enter your: phone, fax, email, website address, facebook page.
Choose your category and price range.
Enter a description – do your best to be concise as there’s a 400 character limit.
Upload a photo to represent your listing.
Next, you’ll need to certify that you are the official representative of the property and that you have permission to use the photo you submitted.
Submit your listing.
A confirmation page comes up, informing you that most requests are processed within five days.
At this point, the basic details of your listing are set up. Tripadvisor will ask you to state that you’re an authorized representative of your business. They’ll also ask you agree to their terms of use and privacy policies – all standard stuff. Finally, you’ll be asked to complete the verification process before you’re taken to tripadvisor’s management center.
There are three ways to verify your identity:
Verify by phone: here’s how tripadvisor describes the phone verification process.
Verify with a credit card: if phone verification doesn’t work, you can also use a credit card. The card you provide is for verification purposes only. A $1 hold will be placed on the card to validate the card and verify your identity, but no charges will actually be processed. Here are some additional requirements you’ll need to follow if you’re using this verification method.
- Your country (the country in which the card was issued)
- Type of card (visa, american express, etc.)
- Credit card number
- Cardholder name
- Expiration date
- Security code from the back of the card
- Billing information (includes your name, address and postal code, along with your country’s phone dialing code and phone number)
Verify via email: in select cases, verification via email may be an option. Here’s what tripadvisor has to say about this verification method:
What if you wanted to add more?
If you’d like to add amenities, tripadvisor will also ask some detailed questions about your property. If your listing is an accommodation, tripadvisor will request information on the following topics.
- Total number of rooms
- Price range
- Minimum stay requirements
- If you have on-site staff and security
- If room cleaning is included
- Front desk staffing details
Complimentary breakfast, suites, tennis/golf, beach/pool access, a fitness center, internet access, etc. Tripadvisor will add these amenities to the “amenities” section of your listing.
Optimizing your TripAdvisor listing
There are several ways to attract more customers with your tripadvisor listing. The first strategy is simply following best practices.
- Following fundamentals that are proven to win leads, customers and sales
- Optimizing your listing to boost leads, customers and sales
- Perpetual review management and marketing
What are the fundamentals you need to boost your listings performance?