What does TripAdvisor’s “Best Value” ranking mean for your property?

TripAdvisor boasts an average of 390 million unique monthly visitors and many of those travelers are looking for inspiration, planning a trip, or reviewing your property. As they look for their accommodations, many travelers are taking note of your price. In fact, accommodation prices came in as the #3 influencer for travelers. TripAdvisor took note and at the end of May, rolled out some updates and changes to its site an app to make it easier for travelers to sort search results. Luckily, this has some benefits for your property as well.

One of the changes was the new “Best Value” filter that TripAdvisor says uses “traveler ratings, prices, booking popularity, location, and personal user preferences” as the data points to rank the results. One of the personal user preferences could mean the dates the user puts into their search bar, which could affect your property’s ability to show up if you’re booked up. On the other hand, this change was also implemented to help send more qualified traffic to your listing and booking engine.

TripAdvisor shared with Reknown that hotels can adapt to this new algorithm and increase their visibility in the search results using the “Best Value” filter.

“Make sure to offer competitive rates, share all availability with TripAdvisor, and continue to deliver and amazing experience for guests.”

You’ll need a connectivity partner (RezStream is one) to participate in Instant Booking and TripConnect (TripAdvisor’s CPC program) to provide your availability and most up-to-date rates to TripAdvisor’s users.

Ratings and reviews are still an important part of this algorithm so it’s smart to continue to encourage your guests to write reviews and respond to them. You’ll also want to ensure your listing is updated with the right amenities, new photos, and highlighting any special offers.

Some of the other changes from the May 30 update include:

• A new home page and streamlined design. Amenities are more prominently displayed in the results and on your property’s listing. Your property’s listing also got a new overview page with a summary of your reviews, common themes or words from your reviews, promotion items, amenities, and a map.
• An enhanced photo gallery with a carousel design and easier navigation within the gallery.
• Business Advantage members now have the opportunity to see unique visits as a performance metric. On the page, members can create a “storyboard” or slideshow of top photos and reviews to keep travelers engaged with the property and more inclined to book.