No way I'm going to stay at that hotel...the rating is only a 7.4!?

By: Sjof Raaijmakers

Back in August hordes of Dutch people are again enjoying family camping sites or baking on the beach on the Costa Brava. But how do you decide where to sleep and how to arrive at your final destination? If you are going to book a vacation, reviews are really a must, but how important are they really? While you were relaxing on the beach, MarketResponse researched this.

The importance of reviews

Before we zoom in on reviews and vacations, let’s take a look at the importance of reviews in general. We see that reviews are important in the consumer choice process, but certainly not the most important. We are Dutch people for a reason, so when we make a purchase, we look primarily at value for money. If that’s all right, we start looking at other things, including the company’s reputation and (online) reviews. Half of the Dutch (48%) place reviews in the top three and thus consider this one of the most important aspects when buying a product. Of these, young people find reviews even more important; among 18- to 24-year-olds, as many as 57% place online reviews in the top three.

What about specifically for vacations? The results show that reviews are especially important when we go out for a while, for example on vacation. No less than 73% of the Dutch find reviews important when booking a hotel or a restaurant. By comparison: when buying clothes, ‘only’ 52% attach importance to (online) reviews. When we go out for a day, we want to be sure that it is really nice.

So what are those reviews worth?

When Dutch people pick a hotel, we see that for the majority lower costs are still very important, but this is not true for everyone. We presented respondents with a choice task: do you go for a hotel with a lower rating that is cheaper, or do you choose the more expensive hotel that is better rated? The results show that the majority (64%) choose the accommodation that is 25% cheaper and rated a full point lower (a 7.4 versus an 8.4). It should be noted, however, that a 7.4 is still a nice rating. On the other hand, however, 36% still choose the more expensive hotel. For a substantial part of the Dutch population, good reviews are worth something!

Therefore, if you have a hotel or restaurant, make sure you are well featured on the map, because Dutch people know how to find you. But what does a good review all have to do with and should I as a company respond to reviews? Read more in part 2 of this series on online reviews.

And just to set a good example myself, what do you think of this article? Send me an e-mail.