A TripAdvisor Page a Traveller Started for You

A page you never made

Searching for her own business, the owner of a small inn comes across a TripAdvisor page she did not create. The name is misspelled, the phone number is one she gave up years ago, and there are eleven reviews.

The most recent review mentions a slow breakfast last August and has no reply. The only photographs are a guest's, taken on a grey day, of the parking lot.

A traveller started the page, as TripAdvisor lets anyone do, and it has been speaking for the business, or against it, ever since.

How a traveller starts a listing

When a traveller wants to review a place TripAdvisor does not list, the site lets them add it: a name, an address, a category, sometimes a phone number. The details are whatever the traveller remembered.

Once the page exists, it appears in TripAdvisor's lists for the town and often in Google's results for the business's name. Other travellers find it, add reviews, and plan around the phone number shown.

Nobody at the business is told. Many owners discover their page only when a guest mentions a review, or when a search for their own name turns it up.

What to fix first

• The name, spelled exactly as on the sign and the website.
• The phone number and address, so calls and directions reach you.
• The category, so the page appears in the right list for the town.
• The website address, where TripAdvisor shows one for your type of business.
• Season and hours, especially for a business that closes in winter.
• Photographs, chosen by you, showing what a guest actually gets.

The name and phone number come first. A misspelled name makes the page hard to find and invites a duplicate; a dead number loses the guest who calls from the road.

How TripAdvisor orders a town's businesses

TripAdvisor ranks the businesses in each town and category by the number of reviews, how recent they are, and how good they are. It describes this as a popularity ranking.

Recency matters. A page whose newest review is nine months old gives the next traveller little to go on, however warm the older reviews were.

Many travellers browse the list of things to do or places to stay in a town before opening any single page, so the position in that list is often the first thing they see.

Registering as the owner

An owner can register for free and take charge of the page. TripAdvisor checks that the person registering really represents the business before giving access.

Once registered, you can correct details, add photographs and post a public reply to each review. You can also report reviews that break TripAdvisor's guidelines, and ask for duplicate pages to be merged.

TripAdvisor also sells paid extras to owners. None of them is needed for anything described here.

A worked example

A bear viewing tour company on the coast takes small groups out by boat from late spring to fall, from a harbour a ferry ride and a few hours' drive from the city.

Its TripAdvisor page had been started by a guest years before, under a shortened name and with a previous owner's booking line. Most reviews were warm; two were not, and neither had a reply.

The owner registered, corrected the name and number, added the season dates, and replaced the guest's photographs with clear ones of the boat, the guides and the inlet.

She then replied to the recent reviews, thanking guests for the details they described rather than with a stock phrase, and answered the two critical ones calmly, explaining what has changed since.

A small card handed out at the dock now invites guests to describe their trip on TripAdvisor, with no reward attached.

Replies the next traveller reads

Owner replies are written to one reviewer but read by every traveller who comes after. They show how the business handles a bad day, which is what a cautious traveller most wants to know.

Keep replies short, specific and in your own voice. Mention a detail from the review, so it is clear a person read it, and avoid pasting the same reply under every review.

Thank people for positive reviews briefly. A long reply to praise reads as advertising; a long reply to criticism reads as an argument.

Answering a complaint

Wait a day if a review stings, then read it again. Acknowledge the problem, explain briefly what happened or what has changed, and invite the guest to take it further by phone or email.

Never argue facts in public, never reveal anything private about a guest, and never suggest the reviewer is lying. The traveller reading later judges the reply more than the complaint.

If a review breaks TripAdvisor's guidelines, for instance by describing a different business, report it through the owner's tools instead of answering it.

Asking for reviews properly

Recent reviews come from asking. A card at the end of a stay or a tour, or a word from the guide on the way back, reminds happy guests while the trip is fresh.

Never offer a discount, a draw or a gift in exchange for a review, and never write reviews yourself or ask friends to. TripAdvisor forbids both and may post a warning on a page it catches doing either.

Ask every guest, not only the ones who seemed delighted. A steady run of honest reviews reads as more believable than a few perfect ones.

The counter-case

A business that fills almost entirely through repeat guests and word of mouth, or whose kind of business travellers rarely review, may find its TripAdvisor page makes little difference.

And a page with three old reviews is not urgent in the way a page with a wrong phone number is.

But the page exists either way, and claiming it takes an hour or so. Correcting the details protects the guests who find it, and a reply shows them someone is paying attention.

Taking charge of the page

1. Search TripAdvisor for your business and any duplicates.
2. Register as the owner of the page.
3. Correct the name, phone number and address.
4. Add the season, hours and website.
5. Replace the photographs with your own.
6. Reply to recent reviews, critical ones first.
7. Ask every guest for a review, without rewards.

Step three is the urgent one, because every other improvement depends on travellers being able to find and reach you. A handsome page with a dead phone number sends guests to the next business on the list.

Why your own Google listing has to be verified and complete, especially when an old listing at the same address competes with it, is covered in the last tenant still listed at your address.

Frequently asked questions

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