An oft-used ratings platform is Holidaycheck

The Holidaycheck company lays claim to running “the largest German-speaking travel and holiday portal on the web.”

What’s the first thing to strike you positively when you gather information via this site? You get different possibilities for finding a suitable hotel. You can search by region, city or directly by the name of the hotel. The range of languages offered has meanwhile increased to eight and thereby reaches many potential customers. A further recommendation score is shown and guests’ opinions displayed in the form of a trend scale. A refined search can likewise be made, and photos and videos are available for viewing.

 The site’s ratings system consists of suns and ranges from 1 sun = very poor to 6 suns = very good.

 I looked at various hotels and naturally found different ratings. See our Schick Hotels for example.

With an average score of 5.6 suns and a further recommendation ratio of 94%, one hotel looks to be thoroughly interesting. But what happens if there are “only” 4.8 suns and a further recommendation score of 71%? Should we book the hotel anyway or does the rating scare us off?

From experience, it’s always important for me to read the corresponding reviews attentively, keeping in mind that some of them go back a long time and thus no longer reflect the current state of affairs. Guests are able to submit a review for one year after their stay and their rating is incorporated into the statistics up to 25 months retroactively!

As a guest, you want to obtain as much information as possible prior to your trip in order to start your vacation optimally prepared.

In contrast, as a hotelier, you’re somewhat powerless in part to overcome the flood of information that over time is simply no longer up-to-date. Such information misleads guests, yet it can’t be deleted.  A tip to colleagues: The Holidaycheck team is easily reachable and can help in complementing reviews already answered. You can thus point out renovations and measures already undertaken, for instance.

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to adapt the evaluation form that guests receive to fill out or the questions it lists to your own hotel. Guests are thus bothered to proclaim their opinion on services that aren’t even offered, such as a swimming pool or beach (in the city?), restaurant, etc. Most guests skip over these points and don’t bother rating them, yet some guests take this opportunity to find fault with the hotel due to these missing services.

When we receive poor ratings in the recreation category (sauna, tennis court, animation, etc.), that indeed hurts, since these ratings influence the overall average rating and as a result the hotel’s rating as well!

Of course, we’re always happy to receive praise, yet receiving constructive criticism is equally important and allows us to improve our offering.

It would be difficult for us to offer a swimming pool or tennis courts. Yet we’re happy to provide our guests with good tips and information on pursuing such athletic activities!