Hotel companies might have a hard time keeping track of all the comments plastered on the Web about their properties, but with the help of Sabre Travel Network--the most recent addition to the emerging business of monitoring consumer-generated reviews for hotels--they can have these comments sent directly to them.
Using an RSS-type reader, Sabre plans to help hotel companies keep track of user-generated commentaries posted on Web sites like TripAdvisor, YouTube, flickr and possibly even Google (since Google is allegedly getting into the user review realm).
“We have started to put together something called reputation management services to pull in all that content that is being generated about a property based on key terms like property name and other things,” said Scott Alvis, Sabre Travel Network senior vice president for hospitality, during a panel discussion last week at the annual New York University International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference.
Sabre isn't the first with such a service. Standing Dog Interactive in 2007 launched ReviewAnalyst, which essentially performs the same task for $99 a month. ReviewAnalyst currently works with Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Omni Hotels, Rydges Hotels and Resorts and Ocean Properties. Other options include ChatterGuard and Google's Alerts service.
Hotel companies are generally given the opportunity to respond to comments posted by consumers, and Alvis said Sabre will be able to translate comments made in multiple languages, as well.