Hotels: If you have negative reviews, low rates won't help you.

Hotels: what are potential guests reading about your hotel? You need more than low rates to capture attention - good reviews are essential.

A new study shows dropping price won’t overcome bad online reviews at Trip Advisor, Yelp and other review sites; If your online reviews are negative - guests won’t even consider you. Period. 

New research from SAS and The Pennsylvania State University, shows that reviews trump price. In fact, negative reviews will eliminate hotels from consideration - regardless of any low prices.

The Top Observations:
Reviews and price are most influential
Hotel reviews contributed the most to consumer decisions, followed by price.

Negative reviews remove hotels from the running
Consumers will trade a lower price for a hotel with better reviews.

Dropping the price won't help
WIth negative reviews, your hotel is removed from the consumer's considerations, period

All other things equal, consumers still prefer a low price
Hotels need to pay attention to their reviews compared to competitors when setting rates.

Consumers only notice high ratings and rankings
The content and language of reviews doesn't matter – only that reviews are negative or positive.

In a nutshell, getting getting hotel guests is no longer just a matter of low prices. With the advent of social media, hotel reviews travel as fast as they're formed. Guest opinions are broadcast on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, websites and message boards for the whole world to see and share.

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