81 – How Social Media and Online Reviews Impact Conversion

Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast

In this episode of the Suite Spot, we take a trip down the traveler’s booking path and explore what role social media and reputation play in a guest's decision-making. Host Ryan Embree and VP of Product & Technology, Jason Lee share how to improve your hotel’s chances of guest conversion. Jason and Ryan start in the research stage, where they discuss what travelers are looking for on social media and online reputation sites. They continue to the booking phase, where travelers start to get excited and form an idea of what to expect on their trip. Finally, they discuss post-stay, where travelers determine if those expectations fell short, were met, or exceeded, sharing their feedback on review sites that impact other travelers in different stages of the booking process. If you are interested in finding out how your hotel’s online presence is impacting traveler conversion or to submit a question for future episodes, call or text 407-984-7455. Suite Spot Podcast · 81 - How Social Media And Online Reviews Impact Conversion Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot where hoteliers check-in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot. This is your host Ryan Embree, Director of Marketing at Travel Media Group. Thank you for joining me today on this very exciting episode. And with me today, a familiar face, we haven't heard from him in a while, but he's back on the Suite Spot that is Mr. Jason Lee, Vice President of Product Development and Technology at Travel Media Group. Jason, it's great to hear from you. Jason Lee: All right. It's great to be back on, Ryan. Ryan Embree: Yeah. We've got a really exciting episode today, you know, as I was kind of looking at what is going on right now in the industry. You know, on the Suite Spot, we're always trying to be at the forefront of trends, patterns, and what's going on. You know, one of the topics that I just could not believe that we hadn't covered yet – the traveler's journey, but the way that social media reviews and review response are having an impact on booking conversion. And I think the interesting part was, is if we did this episode, when we started the Suite Spot years ago, I think this conversation today would be completely different because that social media and reputation side of things have really started to blend over the past couple years, but it's having some real big impacts on purchasing decisions. And obviously you throw COVID-19 and the pandemic, it just complicates things even more because travelers are now looking at this stuff closer than ever. So, Jason, I'm glad you're here with me on this episode. We'll kind of bounce some ideas, but I think the best way to kind of go through this traveler's booking journey is just to go step-by-step because most often than not as guests and as travelers do, we have one particular purchase path. Now that purchase path might be over the course of six months, or it could be over the course of six days, but typically it's going to follow this path. So you, the listener follow along, we're going to go through this purchasing path and figure out how social media and reviews impact booking conversion. Jason, let's start with research. So obviously this is a huge place for reputation. Jason Lee: Yeah, I think, you know, I think there is the, I mean, whether you call it research or consideration, I think this is past the point of where you are considering, should I take a vacation or should I travel now? You're in a spot where it's like, you're going to travel and now you're really trying to find the best accommodation. And I think that's where a lot of stuff starts to really take ef...