The first thing travelers do when they’re looking for a place to stay is saunter over to the reviews. And even on the highest reviewed properties, you know what they do? They click “Lowest Rating”. Just to see. 

The internet is forever, and a bad review about moldy towels from 2015 will still get eyes on it from potential guests today. That’s why it should really be a high priority to prevent bad reviews as much as possible. 

The most effective way to do this is to streamline communication between guests and front desks. That’s where hotel guest messaging comes in. Yes, a simple text can mitigate mishaps. Just check out these less-than-stellar reviews to see how text accessibility could have soothed the situation before the problem became a review.

“I am not having a great experience here. The hotel itself seems ok enough for the money and location. The service is horrible. I visited the front desk to request housekeeping and 1.25 hours later, no one appeared. I called down to the front desk for an update, and despite a polite apology, I am still waiting for service after the passage of another 0.5 hours. Not happy…” - J. A. 

With hotel guest messaging, this request for housekeeping could have been done from the comfort of the guest’s room with no need to travel down to the front desk. After the text is received, the front desk can create a ticket and immediately send it through to the proper department and get that housekeeping dispatched. 

‍“Front desk staff very distracted. I had to wait to be checked in while they answered the phone. Went to pick up my dry cleaning and they started helping me and then I had to wait for 2 different people who walked up after me to be served plus a phone call….I gave up and went back to my room. Not worth the money.” - Luce D. 

This sounds like an inundated front desk trying to do it all. Text messaging would likely have freed up some of those phone calls they felt ushered to take, leaving the front desk with more time and attention for the guest in front of them. 

“Oof this was not a pleasant stay. Unprofessional back and forth between the front desk and housekeeping over walkie talkie. We never received housekeeping services so trashes were overflowing and we had to get fresh towels from the front desk (at 9pm) where they seemed unconcerned that housekeeping had not come to our room that day.” - Jessica M. 

The walkie talkies are a nice vintage throwback but certainly not text-message-efficient. If guest texting had been available, the front desk would have a clear open ticket for this guest on their devices, and housekeeping and towels could have been sent promptly. 

‍“Ran out of toilet paper with no service after 4 days. Front desk wants 24 hour notice to provide more. Service is dead at this place.” 
- David B. 

Alright, lots to unpack here. With hotel guest messaging, text requests are viewable by front desk and managers on staff, so there’s a bigger system of checks and balances at play. It’s likely that this was a mistake by a newer employee — easily mitigated by having more eyes on the situation.

‍“Dirty.” - Tina S.  

Tina knew what she had to say and didn’t need to mince words to say it. And her making it to the review page means the issue was not communicated or rectified. With hotel texting best practices, front desk follows up via text with new guests shortly after their check ins. This gives the front desk the opportunity to ask if the guest has any needs or concerns, and can catch issues like dirty rooms right away. 

Reviews like these can be damaging to not only your hotel’s reputation, but they can impact your potential revenue stream. It takes around 40 positive interactions to “cancel out” one negative review, which means it will require a lot of effort on your property’s part to recoup that average star rating you’re looking for. And, since every star increase in ratings can lead to a 5-9% increase in revenue, a negative review can directly impact your bottom line. The good news is, they’re easy to