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1. At June 14, 2007 10:56 AM, Martin Kellett wrote:

Review sites are great for any business interested in making a real effort to provide a good honest customer service or product. Businesses which shy away from review sites are not prepared to react or cannot react with a positive course of action to improve their services or product even further.

It really does matter what your customers think and nowadays it is even more important with the power of shared communications that they have at their disposal.

Artemisia Holiday Rentals are a BT Tradespace member who regularly review the travel and holiday review sites for new client postings, as they do not always advise they have posted a review. Where ever possible we post comment replies thanking clients for their frank appraisals or addressing the topics raised. Nearly 95% of postings relating to the brand are good to excellent in comment. Are Artemisia Holiday Rentals happy with that? ... not for minute! There is always room for improvement and monitoring your customer thoughts help implement changes that will help keep your business development ahead of future customer requirements.

These review sites are not written by industry experts who ponder over subjects and probe into the complexities of the industry. They are written by your customers interacting with a community of customers who are just simply trying to "see through the forest" of companies and offerings out there, so that they get an un-biased appraisal of a product or service. Review sites are a community that you can either engage with or choose to ignore with consequences.

2. At June 14, 2007 12:45 PM, Gary Rowswell wrote:

Review sites, like many things on the internet are a great idea but can be manipulated, and therefore many people are cynical of their validity.

Many people ignore customer reviews as they can't be sure they are valid comments and not just a competitors false derogatory remarks or the hotel themselves pretending to be a customer praising.

3. At June 14, 2007 1:29 PM, Peter Thompson wrote:

If there are significant numbers to give a fair reflection of the services on offer that can only be good but all too often a disgruntled customer can do significant damage with sometimes over-zealous reviews. Trip Advisor, for example, have been threatened with a libel suit because of possibly unsubstantiated and libelous reviews. It cuts both ways with accusation of hotels sending in bogus reports of high praise. In the end, how is the average punter supposed to know what to believe, especially where review numbers are small?