Reviews Rack (or Raise) Rates

While a number of us in the Destination Marketing field certainly assumed that there is a correlation between Online Reviews of hotels and the rates that can be commanded, a new study from Cornell assigns a value for each review point.

According to the story on TravelWeekly.com, the study found a direct connection between the rise or fall of revenue per available room and the online reputation of a hotel, driven by ratings on sites such as TripAdvisor.

Specifically, a one-point swing on Travelocity’s five-point rating scale sways room rates by an average of 11%. And, like you'd expect, the swing is greatest for economy and limited service hotels.

Still thinking you don't have to monitor the review sites? You were wrong then...and really wrong now.