Dear ladies and gentlemen nowadays people rely more and more on reviews before going to a restaurant or booking a hotel. You may have used tripadvisor, 大众点评 or ctrip to help you. But what if you want to start writing your own, do you know how to do it? What you should write about? I invite you to learn some tips.
Five Ws
Start your review by giving a little introduction about yourself, you don’t need to go too much in details, you can follow the five Ws:
Who: who went to the hotel, was it only you? Were you with your family, your partner, your friends or your colleagues? Also, add the frequency of your travels, it will give to your hotel review more credibility.
Where: give the city and the name of the hotel you stayed in.
When: tell your readers the dates of your trip, if it was during a particular holiday, during the week or during a weekend.
Why: give the reason for your trip (business trip, pleasure…) and why you would recommend or not the place to others.
What: let the readers know about what you did there if you only went there to sleep if you went to the hotel restaurant, the type of room you booked, your first impression of the place, everything related to what you have experienced during your trip.
Set evaluation criteria
If you are a person who travels often to different places, for many reasons and you write review wherever you go, you should set standard criteria you will use to evaluate the tested places and will always use the same for all places you are going to.
Tip: take some notes throughout your stay so you will not forget anything when it’s time to write the review.
Location
People like to know the distance between the hotel and the airport or the station, so you can write about that and also give the amount of money you spent on transportation or taxi to get there. You can be more useful and let the people know about the major attractions near the hotel (shopping, restaurants, dining, nightlife, tourist activities).
Pictures
A picture is worth a thousand words. If the website allows you to, give as many pictures as you can to support your review whether you are talking about the wonderful sunset in Greece or the dusty desk when you arrived. Posting pictures will help the readers understand your experience with ease.
Amenities
You can talk about the room you had, the feeling sleeping on the bed, about the pool if it was clean, or you can also discuss the different services provided by the hotel (spa, massage, room service…). You may think they are small details but they can be useful for the people reading you to make their choice.
Staff
And of course don’t forget about the staff in your review, they are also part of your experience. Discuss how courteous and friendly or unhelpful and rude the staff was. Maybe you had a special request and you are satisfied with the way they handled it.
Details
Share your experience of what stood out. Include details of your stay, why you liked or disliked your visit. Give a balanced view, but you don’t need to list every little flaw: the readers want you to focus on facts and give valuable details, they don’t want to read about a list of complaints.
Tone
Write with clarity, confidence and honesty: be objective and fair. Keep in mind that the other traveller may not have been to the hotel, so your review can persuade them to either go or choose another option.
Be careful about the tone you use. If you are angry or upset, you are still writing a review, not a rant.
Tip: when you are done writing your review, take some time to read it back or ask someone to check it. It should be professional, engaging, detailed and free of errors.
Dear ladies and gentlemen, writing a review is not an easy task, just set your own criteria and you will soon find your way of writing. Do you have any other tips to write a nice review? Please share with us.
