Hotels should offer reviews on their sites - Forrester

Eva Reyero in Bookassist's Madrid office noted that Bookassist's Travel 2.0 approach has been endorsed by Forrester Research.

Bookassist's approach of offering Travel 2.0 technologies such as reviews directly embedded in hotel websites as part of the booking engine suite has been endorsed by recent comments from Forrester Research.

Sarah Rotman Epps writing on forrester.com in an article headed "It's Time For Hotels To Offer Traveler-Written Reviews On Their Web Sites" comments that "...hotels can offer something that most third-party sites don't: validation that the reviewer actually stayed in the hotel....Give travelers the content and tools they need to distinguish the right hotel for their needs for a particular trip so that they can complete their booking on your Web site. Reviews are one element that influences a traveler's booking decision, but they're not the only — or even the primary — influencer. Hotel Web sites need a robust offering of content and tools that may include, but should not be limited to, traveler-written reviews."

Bookassist has long advocated the drive towards Web 2.0 technologies in the travel industry and released its Travel 2.0 booking engine upgrade in March 2008, as well as a comprehensive Travel 2.0 offering for hotel groups. The Bookassist approach allows customer reviews to be embedded in the hotel website along with booking facilities, vouchers, Google maps and other technologies.

Eva Reyero is a co-founder of Bookassist and heads marketing and research at Bookassist's Madrid Office