TripAdvisor Business Listing: What It Is and Why Your Hotel Should Have One.
By Kim Leveque
Monday, 11th June 2012 | |
 First: What is a Business Listing?
TripAdvisor boasts 40 million monthly visitors, knowing people consult TripAdvisor for recommendations from friends and strangers makes managing your hotel’s listing on the site a top priority.
So when looking to make the most out of your TripAdvisor listing you may want to consider investing in a TripAdvisor Business Listing. The Business Listings are enhanced listings promoted on several pages within the review site. They offer more information to a searcher and ultimately make the booking process easier for the consumer.
The new components of a TripAdvisor Business Listing consist of:
- Link to your website
- Email address
- Phone number
- Link to special offers
- Special offer tag
- Custom photo slideshow
The enhanced listing is also featured on TripAdvisor’s mobile site. Mobile searchers looking to book a hotel room are much more likely to make a same day booking than a customer who visits the non-mobile site.
Having a Business Listing would be even more beneficial for this market to make it easy for people to connect with your hotel with the click-to-call feature, which allows the user to call the hotel by touching the phone number in their mobile browser.
Why should my hotel upgrade?
Purchasing the upgraded TripAdvisor listing will not affect your ranking on the site. Your hotel’s rank will still be determined by the standard TripAdvisor algorithm, which considers (among other things) the number of positive reviews, the recency of comments being made and the frequency of reviews left on your listing.
The cost of the TripAdvisor Business Listing varies by hotel and is determined by location of the hotel and the number of rooms on property.
Already ranking well? Convert those lookers to bookers!
If your hotel is ranking near the top of the page you may find many benefits by upgrading to the Business Listing. Hotels near the top of the page receive the most visits and, in effect, convert the most bookings.
Instead of referring all the traffic from your TripAdvisor Listing to an OTA like Expedia or Travelocity, direct all your traffic to your brand site instead. Lead people to book on your brand site and avoid paying the third party sites' commissions for your bookings.
Not ranking well? Get better exposure!
 For hotels not ranking on the first page of results in their area, a Business Listing exposes the hotel on other pages of the site. TripAdvisor displays the hotels with Business Listings and their special offers at the top of the results page.
So even if you aren’t ranking on the first page, you will at times appear at the top of the page along with your special offer.
In addition, hotels will also receive more exposure through TripAdvisors Special Offers emails. TripAdvisor emails members who are interested in travel to certain regions and includes special offers from hotels with Business Listings.
The additional exposure via email and placement at top of page will drive more traffic to your listing that people wouldn’t have seen on the first page of search results. More traffic to your listing will result in more direct bookings, and your TripAdvisor audience will be all the more likely to leave a review after staying at your hotel.
The more (hopefully positive) reviews will, in turn, help raise your ranking on TripAdvisor so your hotel will eventually rank on the first page of results organically.
Upgrading To A Business Listing
If you are looking for more results from TripAdvisor and have the budget to upgrade, then visit here to begin the process of creating your Business Listing. Then, continue to improve your listing on the site by following TripAdvisor best practices.
With a little attention and some time your hotel will start ranking well in your city organically and your TripAdvisor Business Listing will have paid for itself!
Blue Magnet Interactive is an agency devoted to helping the hospitality industry realize the amazing potential of online marketing.
www.bluemagnetinteractive.com
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