What’s with google asking everyone to leave a review?

[Anon Inn]

I haven’t asked for Yelp reviews in a few years. I still get them sometimes, but so many end up in their ‘not recommended at this time’ area. No clue as to why.

 

[Morticia]

I haven’t asked for Yelp reviews in a few years. I still get them sometimes, but so many end up in their ‘not recommended at this time’ area. No clue as to why.

If you don’t pay yelp, they bury your good reviews. They have consistently said this is not true, but so many businesses have experienced the same thing that if it’s not true, they need to work on their algorithm.

 

[GoodScout]

I stay out of Yelp's way for the reasons Mort enumerated. Once you get on their radar, they'll try and hit you up for paid advertising, and if you do it and then stop they'll cream you in the reviews section.

 

[Arks]

If you don’t pay yelp, they bury your good reviews.

Luckily, in my section of the continent, nobody ever heard of Yelp.

Also, I ask on my reservation form how the guest found me. I have not seen TA mentioned in about 2 years. It's mostly Google searches and word of mouth. And since (back to the original post) Google asks everybody to review...unless they have turned it off, which few have...Google reviews have become more important than TA reviews.

I'm still paying TA monthly for pay-for-click and it's a small but steady source, so I keep it up. But TA is definitely becoming yesterday.

 

[KenW]

Reviews are everything...we send out a post stay text requesting Google reviews with a link.

 

[FHI2426]

Luckily, in my section of the continent, nobody ever heard of Yelp.

Also, I ask on my reservation form how the guest found me. I have not seen TA mentioned in about 2 years. It's mostly Google searches and word of mouth. And since (back to the original post) Google asks everybody to review...unless they have turned it off, which few have...Google reviews have become more important than TA reviews.

I'm still paying TA monthly for pay-for-click and it's a small but steady source, so I keep it up. But TA is definitely becoming yesterday.

Unless you are looking at Google Analytics to know your traffic/source/assisted bookings, I would bet you are having people scope you out on TA, especially if you are getting good reviews. So many guests tell us they saw our reviews in TA, and once they read them, they knew they wanted to stay with us...

 

[Anon Inn]

.Google reviews have become more important than TA reviews.

I'm still paying TA monthly for pay-for-click and it's a small but steady source, so I keep it up. But TA is definitely becoming yesterday.

TripConnect is helpful here. Thank you forum members for how to use it beneficially. I ask how guests find us as part of the conversation. Especially now, when most have never been here before, and don’t know how to pronounce it. My demographic still uses TA, so if they do a search with my town name, we place top one or two, depending on search category used. Earlier in the year we got folks who wanted the quasi-restaurant experience, as so many were shut, but the food is still a top motivator. As restaurants re-open I’m doing fewer dinners. And that’s OK. End of season weariness. But guests are still booking weekends. I wonder if I’ll even get the usual two month nearly nothing this year. We used to look forward to it!

 

[Morticia]

I’m getting bookings for November that I never expected. I have to manage the number of rooms as we won’t be able to keep the windows open.

 

[Generic]

Interesting. We went out for lunch on Tuesday. We had to wait at the corner for the light to cross the street. Yup, Gomez got a request to review the place we stood in front of while waiting for the traffic to clear.

It gets things wrong, from time to time. We went to pick up Bubble Tea and it asked me to review the Japanese Cheesecake place, because we parked in front. But it missed the computer store we walked into. And added a gas station... even though I don't do gas anymore

I do try to fill in information to help others. And I have one picture that has well over 1M views.
In fact, my stats, over 43K views of my reviews, 1.3M photo views and 19K views to places that I have added.

 

[Roxanne Trees]

Too "Big Brother" for me.