Imagine owning a business and finding a one star review on a major travel site. Well, this hotel manager fired back with, what some are calling, an epic response.
Read the initial negative review:
I’ve summarized the owner’s retort in tip form so you can emulate his response. You’re welcome.
Best Practices for Responding to a Negative Review
- Begin your response by indicating how grateful you were for their business.
Dear Lovinhawaii,
Thank you for staying with us at Hotel Doolin on your recent trip to Ireland and for posting your feedback.
- Show your efforts to research and rectify the issues presented in the review.
However, after investigating the particulars of your stay in detail with all team members I was even more disappointed to learn that the content of the review was not an accurate reflection of what actually happened.
- Show empathy for the catalyst behind the review.
I’m sensing a lot of anger in the review above and I know that you probably didn’t mean to let loose all that anger on us. Hey, sometimes people just need to vent. Sometimes at night when I come home from a long day’s work at the hotel, I check to see if everyone is in bed and then I go out into the field at the back of my house and scream into the darkness. I let it all out, like a wolf on a moonlit mountain.
- Invite them back for a second opportunity to make a first impression.
You see, even though you hurt us deeply with your review, we’d still like to be friends, we’d love if you afforded us the opportunity to change your opinion of us and hope that you will return to Doolin someday.
In fact, each year on the 30th February we have a party for our valued past customers who think we are liars, we all hold hands and dance around a campfire and sing songs that help us forget about the past and look with hope towards the future.
Has this inspired you as a business owner? Do you disagree with how the owner handled the issue?
