The Guest Experience Software fo...How Paradores Hotels Uses Online Reputation Management to Win Spain’s Best Reputation
Paradores is an iconic collection of hotels located in historic buildings and natural parks across Spain. The company motto has been “Quality, Friendliness, Legendary” since 1928. It is fully committed to customer centricity, a position that has been a key driver to success, even during the 2020 pandemic.
For two consecutive years (2019-2020), the company have won best brand in Spain. Here’s how they did it.
Access the full case study here: How Paradores Won Spain’s Best Reputation Two Years in a Row by Prioritizing Guest Experience
Online Reputation Management
The brand took on ReviewPro’s Online Reputation Management (ORM) in 2017, and quickly incorporated the solution into its processes. The group also took on Guest Satisfaction Surveys (GSS), in order to get the detailed results that are sometimes issues in freeform online reviews. To get the most out of the combined solutions, the quality team created:
- A handbook of good practices to guide hotel managers on online reputation management and how to monitor and identify areas to improve on
- A comprehensive management response strategy guideline
- Response templates for positive, neutral and negative reviews
Best Practices for Responding to Reviews
Through this handbook, Paradores created and applied the following best practices:
- Every response should be written in an appropriate tone, apologizing if needed, while giving further details on what the guest has mentioned and should end on a positive note.
- Speed is key and ideally, reviews are responded to within 72 hours.
- Use templates to facilitate and increase efficiency, but make sure you personalize the responses!
- Use the responses as an opportunity to highlight any new measures you’ve implemented recently, for example cleanliness.
- Respond to al portals and all reviews categories.
Engaging the Entire Business
Guest experience needs to be at the heart of a business for it to truly work and this is something Paradores are well aware of. To act on different guest touchpoints during the stay and “make “wow moments,” staff must be fully engaged and have guest experience “in their DNA.”
- Staff KPIs are based on guest experience criteria.
- Head office provides support on specific cases.
- Corporate set annual objectives on a regional level and on a hotel level for GRI(TM), questionnaires, response time and response rate for each category of reviews.
Monitoring to Drive Success
Monitoring their KPIs consistently was key to their success:
- Monthly KPIs reports focusing on the Global Review Index (TM) scores compared to same period previous year.
- Any property with a drop of more than 1.5 points must draw up a monthly improvement plan with actions the property will implement to increase score and reverse situations.
- Departments a that negatively affect scores are identified and assisted.
- Yearly reports are filed to pinpoint repetitive errors that affect quality of the service, action is then taken on a company level for continuous improvement.
Since 2017 the group have shown a steady increase in all KPIs – GRI(TM), NPS(R) and Guest Satisfaction Survey scores, even during the 2020 pandemic.
Good Practices Make Great Results
According to Ramon Adillon, Online Reputation and Guest Satisfaction Management, Paradores, “What we are trying to achieve is to attract new customers through a good management response as well as maintain and increase the high level of satisfaction that we enjoy today. To do so we first listen to the voice of the customer and act accordingly, implementing the necessary improvement plans and actions to meet and exceed customer expectations.”
We at ReviewPro are here to support you across the entire guest journey. Whether that is during the pre-stay phase to help you understand your new guests through Online Reputation Management and by offering automated guests communication with Guest Experience Automation™. Or during the in-stay phase to follow up on your guests with in-stay surveys, guest messaging and Automated Case Management or once you guest have left, to collect and analyze guest feedback through online reputation and Guest Satisfaction Surveys.