Thursday, June 9, 2011

The Latest from the FlipKey Blog

The Latest from the FlipKey Blog

Link to The FlipKey Blog - Vacation Rental Market News, Travel Tips, and Big Ideas

Guest Reviews, the FlipKey Way

Posted: 09 Jun 2011 08:04 AM PDT

One of the most important components of creating a successful property listing on FlipKey is collecting guest reviews from past guests. Not only do reviews help describe your property to new guests, but they also influence FlipKey and TripAdvisor property rankings, so when you sign up with FlipKey we strongly encourage you to actively seek out reviews. Even just one review can move your vacation rental towards the top of the list of properties located in your area. Most importantly, travelers really like to hear what other guests have to say about the places they are interested in staying.

A five star review on flipkey

We place so much importance on reviews, in fact, that if you collect just ONE review in the month following the activation of your account, you will receive an additional 30 days of the free trial. Sounds easy, right? We make it easy for both you and your guests to leave a review on your listing, and the extra bit of effort can make all the difference in how much success you experience with FlipKey.com.

Since we do place so much emphasis on reviews, we take extra precautions to be sure that the content published by guests on our site is truthful and accurate. Before a review can be published, both the property owner or manager and FlipKey must confirm that the guest submitting a review actually stayed in that rental. Our review process results in a highly reputable, honest, guest-submitted review base – one of the best in the industry – that is exceedingly helpful for travelers.

One of the most important points regarding our review system is the fact that owners cannot submit their own reviews to their new listings.We find ourselves explaining over and over why a property owner can't copy the 10 years worth of positive reviews sitting in their personal guestbook, and why we can't just transfer preexisting reviews from one property listing site to another. Trust us, we see where you’re coming from. We can understand the frustration associated with "starting from scratch" when you build a FlipKey property listing, but we still stand behind our process 100%. We believe that if guests are free to say the best and the worst of every property they’ve visited personally, that honesty will be evident to fellow travelers, and will help rental properties get booked. At the end of the day, the bottom line is that trustworthy reviews lead to more bookings.

To break it down to the bare bones, here are the most important things to remember:

  • Content is 100% guest-submitted – only those who have stayed at a particular property themselves are able to review it
  • Guest reviews can be left by anyone who's stayed at your property in the past – not just those who've found you through FlipKey or TripAdvisor
  • Collecting ONE review in the first 30 days guarantees an extra 30 days free – it's a win-win for you: one review improves your ranking, and buys you more free time – how can you say no?!

Now get out there and collect some reviews! As always, I’m happy to answer any questions about guest reviews or and other aspect of FlipKey service.

Taryn Collins is a FlipKey owner services specialist and vacation rental marketing expert. Her bi-weekly blog, Ask FlipKey, aims to answer the difficult questions that vacation rental owners and managers ask every day. Submit your questions in the comments!
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