A web of opportunity?

With a handful of hoteliers actively encouraging their guests to review their leisure experience via the web, it is not surprising that questions have been raised quizzing the impact online hotel review sites have on eventual consumer choice. Is this sort of personal viewpoint mechanism comparable to the accredited star grading system offered by the AA? And which more effectively satisfies the needs of the would-be holiday maker on the one hand or the hotelier wanting to market his facilities on the other?

To carry these issues to its members, the Tourism Society staged a panel discussion at the Bonnington Hotel in London, bringing together Peter Birnie MIH MTS, Chief Inspector for AA Hotel Services, Martin Verdon-Roe, Head of UK Sales for Trip Advisor, Peter Hancock FIH FTS, Chief Executive of Pride of Britain Hotels and Jan Chopping, Group Sales Manager for Torquay Leisure Hotels, to debate the question 'Stars or Stripes?'

Stars are representative of national ratings awarded by official inspection. Accolades won by business, through customer comment and feedback, were dubbed 'stripes' by the Tourism Society.

There are an increasing number of web-based feedback mechanisms which guests, past and potential, utilise in their search for a perfect-match accommodation scenario when planning a trip. It is no longer just about the price, but about identifying with personal experience.

TripAdvisor's Martin Verdon-Roe believes this surge in the popularity of hotel review sites is largely due to the speed of access via broadband, which has made surfing the internet an enjoyable experience. Sites like TripAdvisor - which now attracts more than 24 million visitors a month since its launch in 2000 - enable users to interact via consumer-generated content posted 24 hours a day.

Running under seven different domains and in five languages, TripAdvisor, amongst a sea of other online review sites, has captured the global consumer and has provided the mechanism for users to talk to each other en masse, in real time. "It's not about being a consumer activist," says Verdon-Roe, "it's about sharing pleasurable experiences."

Statistics by planetfeedback.com show that 85 per cent of consumers trust these user-rated reviews and the site now records over 4000 new reviews daily. "It's important to remember the scalability of reviews. If, for example, there are only three reviews for a hotel, the ratio of good to bad is likely to be troublesome," says Verdon-Roe. "I recommend that hoteliers and restaurateurs find out what is being said about their brand and respond openly to both the criticism and praise, encouraging feedback of every sort.

Confident in the value of strict independent assessment, Peter Birnie advised consumers to be wary of the danger of self-accreditation available via the web and urged consumers to take note of the long-established reputation held by official assessment organisations like the AA - which began conducting its first hotel inspections in 1908.

Although he is aware an official star rating and a personalised online review are not mutually exclusive in terms of their worth to the info-seeking traveller, Birnie is sure of the AA's ability to guarantee a level of trust in the service standard being offered by accredited hotels: "Star ratings are internationally recognised. They clearly indicate a hotel's position in the market and allow consumers to understand how a hotel fares in terms of its quality of service and range of facilities.

"We understand that the market is flooded with assessment mechanisms and consumers will inevitably consult a mixture of sources for their information, but the AA brand stands above the star rating and we are proud to be representing a vast majority of main hotel groups because of this."

Focusing on the marketing power of stars or 'stripes', Jan Chopping spoke of the gradual decline of completed customer comment cards traditionally used to assess whether guests felt they received value for money. "If you don't like our resort, you just won't return. Year on year we get less comment cards. This makes it crucial for us to take notice of online blogs."

With a tendency to attract a more mature clientele, Chopping believes that these older guests at Torquay Leisure Hotels are lead by their knowledge of the traditional values of star ratings and for that reason this marketing strategy is valuable. She is aware, however, that the aspirational, image-led qualities a hotel offers have become the key decision driver for younger generations. "The newer market cares less about the traditional values a star rating encompasses," says Jan.

"Percentage scores add little to the customers' understanding of what they can expect from a hotel," believes Peter Hancock FIH. "There's a degree of complexity that comes with pigeon-holing each hotel into bands, as you can't determine experience from a star rating. That said, the number of online comparison sites may eventually grow to such a huge amount that both the consumer and the hotelier lose interest. Influence is as likely as misguidance."

It was clear from panel discussions and the question and answer session that followed, that the real issue concerning stars or stripes is communication - methods of marketing to reach and positively influence consumers. With a younger demographic encouraging businesses and tourism advisories to adopt TripAdvisor, the legitimacy of online consumer feedback in comparison to the AA brand is debatable.

"The internet is the future of hotel promotion in this country," assured David Curtis-Brignell FIH FTS, Director of Marketing EMEA for Millennium and Copthorne Hotels, "and so, as hoteliers, we must embrace the most effective methods of communicating a lifestyle experience to our consumers. Although both demonstrating flaws in the level at which they can be trusted, stars and stripes are each important in their own right."

The future seemingly lies with hoteliers and their willingness to take some control of what is being said about their facility. "Marketing now means that you are bookable electronically, as well as by phone, so hoteliers must open their eyes to the power of the internet to persuade decision. In terms of feedback mechanisms, you can be an effective champion for the consumer or an effective consumer for the hotelier, but it's virtually impossible to be both," recommended Hancock.

Sophie Allcock, Publications Co-ordinator for the Institute of Hospitality