How User-Generated Consumer Reviews are Changing Business

I’ve been inspired.  And not in a good way.  As much as I travel, I have never actually left a consumer review for any of the hotels that I’ve stayed at.  With an experience so bad, I decided that not only will I write a review, it also has triggered a book idea.  My book will teach businesses how to leverage reviews, to teach them how to proactively handle bad reviews, and how to get your evangelists to write good reviews for you.  The title is up in limbo, but I’m trucking on it.

Reviews by consumers are having a huge impact on local businesses specifically.  When I was in Dallas, I used my Motorola Droid to find places to eat.  I used a few apps, like Where, Yelp and Google Maps to help me locate the ideal places to eat.  If they were less than 4 stars, I avoided them completely.  However, I didn’t do this when I chose my hotel, the Hilton Anatole, located at 2201 Stemmons Freeway, Dallas, TX 75207.

Bazaarvoice claims 77 percent of all customers read user-generated reviews and treat them as a valuable source of research. Of those who shop online more often, and spend over $500 every month, 81 percent consult user-generated product reviews.

“Reviews are critical [to online success],” said Bryan Eisenberg, co-founder of Future Now, a New York-based e-commerce consultancy. “Most sites do a pretty poor job of giving enough information to the customer to make a purchase. Less and less people are trusting organizations for their product information — the BS levels are a little higher.”

And with that, I wrote up a little review on the Hilton Anatole in Dallas. I then posted it on Yelp, Google Maps, Trip Advisor and PissedConsumer.com.

If you run a business, I sincerely doubt that you would be pleased to have this type of writeup about your business. Thus, this type of thing will actually inspire businesses to do a better job in the long run.

I travel a lot and stay in many hotels. Never before have I been so inspired by a hotel to leave either a negative or positive review. This was so bad that I had to take a stand. In fact, this place was so bad, it has inspired me to write a book on bad company practices in the social media era. First of all, they bamboozled me into a “third night free” option via Hotwire.com

The location is where I needed it to be, and the price of $250 for three nights sounded reasonable-ish. As soon as I got to the hotel, I noticed there was no free parking on the premises. They requested $17 a dollars a day to park on one of their lots, or $27 a day for valet parking. On the second day of my trip, they had the two “cheaper” 17 dollar parking lots green-coned off, due to an event at the location later. So, I had to park several football fields away from where my room was actually located.

The room was absolutely beautiful. The bed was very comfortable and you can tell the staff takes pride in keeping up a nice hotel. Nice isn’t the problem. It’s quality. But, for a company to nickel and dime you to death, is unbelievable. Next, I make it into my room. Almost EVERY hotel that I have stayed in for the last 10 years has some kind of complimentary internet access in the room, with the exception of some hotels in San Francisco. The Hilton Anatole thinks that $14-$17 a day for $24 hours of non-wifi / ethernet-tethered-to-the-wall is a good value. I don’t pay $40 a month for internet at home, why should I pay over $50 for THREE DAYS?

So, I decide to go into the atrium and get some food at their little open market deli stand. Aside from being extremely overpriced, apparently the cashier took the card that allowed customers to actually pay for their meals. So, I had to wait for about 15 minutes to even pay for my food. They couldn’t take cash, credit OR charge to my room.

After my meal, I decide to go to the gym… world class leisure and workout facility, a sign says… check out the Veranda! Great, after a long stressful trip… a workout would be ideal. I get over there… and the nice elderly lady tells me all about how great this place is, then commences to tell me that it is only $16 a day, unless I’m an ultra uber gold rewards member or something. I sarcastically ask if it is okay to walk on the sidewalk or do I need to pay a $5 incidental fee of some sort?

So, I sat at the bar and decided to relax with a drink since I wasn’t going to be working out… I’ll take a screwdriver from The Gossip Bar. Sweet. Only $10. It’s a freaking bargain in this money trap. Stay far away from this place. It is ridiculous the greed from this place. It’s like Paris Hilton herself is running the place and is trying to get enough cash to get her dog an new diamond encrusted doggie bag or something. To be honest, I shook my head in amazement that their wasn’ta fee for ice on the floor. I half expected it to be a dollar bill vending machine.

Unreal. Boooo! Whoever manages this place should be fired.