Hand-written reviews to online?

[sarahacramer]

Is it OK to turn written responses from a guest book, to a online review entered by the innkeeper?
Thanks.

 

[notAgrandma]

I have a page on my website called "guest reviews". My guests often write beautiful reviews in the in-room journals, but I would be the only one who sees them if I didn't share them online. I'm woefully behind in updating my review page on our website. I've typed up over 230 reviews that my guests wrote in our journals, dating back to our very first guests in 2012.

 

[sarahacramer]

Very true and make SO much sense! We want the world to see them! I just wanted to make sure there weren't any liabilities. We are a newly opened B&B. Thanks so much!

 

[gillumhouse]

On your web page - great. DO NOT enter them on TA. You will be punished if you do.

 

[Highlands John]

I have a page on my website called "guest reviews". My guests often write beautiful reviews in the in-room journals, but I would be the only one who sees them if I didn't share them online. I'm woefully behind in updating my review page on our website. I've typed up over 230 reviews that my guests wrote in our journals, dating back to our very first guests in 2012..

I have a visitors book on the landing and I copy some of the reviews to a page on my web site, I hate doing it but it looks good and gives my website updates to help SEO, but like you I'm always behind with it.

 

[Momma Smurf]

I have a page on my website called "guest reviews". My guests often write beautiful reviews in the in-room journals, but I would be the only one who sees them if I didn't share them online. I'm woefully behind in updating my review page on our website. I've typed up over 230 reviews that my guests wrote in our journals, dating back to our very first guests in 2012..

We also have a Web page called Guest Quotes! I have hand typed thousands of journal book notes there. Helps with SEO also, cause so many different terms are used.

 

[EmptyNest]

I have a page on my website called "guest reviews". My guests often write beautiful reviews in the in-room journals, but I would be the only one who sees them if I didn't share them online. I'm woefully behind in updating my review page on our website. I've typed up over 230 reviews that my guests wrote in our journals, dating back to our very first guests in 2012..

NO ONE and I mean NO ONE is going to read 250 reviews you post on your website! Of course you will only post good ones and people know that. That is why they look to TA.
I just like to intersperse nice reviews throughout my client's sites. This way it is randomly placed and seen. I would never read anyone's testimonial page Sorry.

 

[EmptyNest]

On your web page - great. DO NOT enter them on TA. You will be punished if you do..

There is some special feature on TRIP ADVISOR..I can't remember the name now...but innkeepers can enter comments from guests. A former client of mine uses it all the time.

 

[notAgrandma]

I have a page on my website called "guest reviews". My guests often write beautiful reviews in the in-room journals, but I would be the only one who sees them if I didn't share them online. I'm woefully behind in updating my review page on our website. I've typed up over 230 reviews that my guests wrote in our journals, dating back to our very first guests in 2012..

NO ONE and I mean NO ONE is going to read 250 reviews you post on your website! Of course you will only post good ones and people know that. That is why they look to TA.
I just like to intersperse nice reviews throughout my client's sites. This way it is randomly placed and seen. I would never read anyone's testimonial page Sorry.
.

I write *every* review from my journals on my site. Every. Single. One. I know no one is going to read 250 reviews. I'm not a dolt. It makes me feel better to read them as I type them in. As for negative reviews, Guess what? Guests don't write negative things in the journals !! The PITA guests are the ones who post the negative stuff online on TA!!

 

[notAgrandma]

On your web page - great. DO NOT enter them on TA. You will be punished if you do..

There is some special feature on TRIP ADVISOR..I can't remember the name now...but innkeepers can enter comments from guests. A former client of mine uses it all the time.
.

To my knowledge, innkeepers can't enter comments from guests. It's against TRIP ADVISOR's rules. Only an individual TA user can post a review. We can comment on reviews, but we cannot create reviews. That would be padding our ratings. If you find this mythical feature, please share!

 

[notAgrandma]

Btw, to limit liability, you might want to limit the signature to just your guests' initials or first names. I like to include the city &/or state they're visiting from to show the breadth of where our guests come from.

 

[Momma Smurf]

I have a page on my website called "guest reviews". My guests often write beautiful reviews in the in-room journals, but I would be the only one who sees them if I didn't share them online. I'm woefully behind in updating my review page on our website. I've typed up over 230 reviews that my guests wrote in our journals, dating back to our very first guests in 2012..

NO ONE and I mean NO ONE is going to read 250 reviews you post on your website! Of course you will only post good ones and people know that. That is why they look to TA.
I just like to intersperse nice reviews throughout my client's sites. This way it is randomly placed and seen. I would never read anyone's testimonial page Sorry.
.

I write *every* review from my journals on my site. Every. Single. One. I know no one is going to read 250 reviews. I'm not a dolt. It makes me feel better to read them as I type them in. As for negative reviews, Guess what? Guests don't write negative things in the journals !! The PITA guests are the ones who post the negative stuff online on TA!!
.

TOTALLY AGREE! I do the same. And only use first names and location. And if I need a jolt of feel-goodness, I re-read them. Have been doing this since 2006!!

 

[Highlands John]

I have a page on my website called "guest reviews". My guests often write beautiful reviews in the in-room journals, but I would be the only one who sees them if I didn't share them online. I'm woefully behind in updating my review page on our website. I've typed up over 230 reviews that my guests wrote in our journals, dating back to our very first guests in 2012..

NO ONE and I mean NO ONE is going to read 250 reviews you post on your website! Of course you will only post good ones and people know that. That is why they look to TA.
I just like to intersperse nice reviews throughout my client's sites. This way it is randomly placed and seen. I would never read anyone's testimonial page Sorry.
.

No one is going to read 250 reviews on TA either but the number adds legitimacy to their authenticity. They'll look at the most recent (and that needs to be recent) and the overall rating, maybe a bad one or two. That's why it's important to keep updating the reviews page on your site.
I can also post reviews which comment on specific hi-lights of my business which I think will catch peoples eye and I try to put a mix from people from around the world.
I also have a "If you don't believe us click here to TA" link, which opens TA in a tab hopefully reduce the risk of people disappearing into the TA booking system and not finding their way back to us.

 

[OnTheShore]

We will type in hand-written reviews, but we often will also photograph the review and post the picture of the review together with the text -- this helps authenticate that the review is genuine. Sometimes our guests will draw little pictures, or make other "annotations" that don't translate to typed text very well, but look great in the picture. We do crop or edit the pictures so as not to reveal any personally identifying information beyond the guest's first name.

 

[EmptyNest]

On your web page - great. DO NOT enter them on TA. You will be punished if you do..

There is some special feature on TRIP ADVISOR..I can't remember the name now...but innkeepers can enter comments from guests. A former client of mine uses it all the time.
.

To my knowledge, innkeepers can't enter comments from guests. It's against TRIP ADVISOR's rules. Only an individual TA user can post a review. We can comment on reviews, but we cannot create reviews. That would be padding our ratings. If you find this mythical feature, please share!
.

There is a section called REVIEW EXPRESS on TA. I have not worked with it but clients have.

 

[Generic]

On your web page - great. DO NOT enter them on TA. You will be punished if you do..

There is some special feature on TRIP ADVISOR..I can't remember the name now...but innkeepers can enter comments from guests. A former client of mine uses it all the time.
.

To my knowledge, innkeepers can't enter comments from guests. It's against TRIP ADVISOR's rules. Only an individual TA user can post a review. We can comment on reviews, but we cannot create reviews. That would be padding our ratings. If you find this mythical feature, please share!
.

There is a section called REVIEW EXPRESS on TA. I have not worked with it but clients have.
.

I can't legally use it. TA tells people that they can, but in many places (like mine) giving a guest's email to a 3rd party is a violation of law.

 

[notAgrandma]

On your web page - great. DO NOT enter them on TA. You will be punished if you do..

There is some special feature on TRIP ADVISOR..I can't remember the name now...but innkeepers can enter comments from guests. A former client of mine uses it all the time.
.

To my knowledge, innkeepers can't enter comments from guests. It's against TRIP ADVISOR's rules. Only an individual TA user can post a review. We can comment on reviews, but we cannot create reviews. That would be padding our ratings. If you find this mythical feature, please share!
.

There is a section called REVIEW EXPRESS on TA. I have not worked with it but clients have.
.

REVIEW EXPRESS = TA sends emails to your guests hassling them for reviews. It is NOT a tool for innkeepers to submit reviews on behalf of guests