BedandBreakfast.com Review Widget launched

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

What has been the general feedback as to best location on our websites? Without creating a new BUTTON, should it be on its own page or near the rooms page or?.

MIne is the 3 vertical because I think that's what I sent to the WM to put on there. I have it on the "About Us" page with the link to TA reviews. I don't have a separate "Kudos" , review, or testimonial page though. Not sure that I want one either. Thoughts?
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MIne is the 3 vertical because I think that's what I sent to the WM to put on there. I have it on the "About Us" page with the link to TA reviews. I don't have a separate "Kudos" , review, or testimonial page though. Not sure that I want one either. Thoughts?

PS You might ask your webmaster to make sure a new window populates when someone clicks on the review to read it, as it opens up BandB.com (Your page obv) but then your website is gone from the brower.
(I think Steve addressed this earlier in this thread)
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Her webmaster can't control it ... that's where John comes in. It should open in a new window after tomorrow (2/16)
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Her webmaster can't control it ... that's where John comes in. It should open in a new window after tomorrow (2/16)

THANK YOU! Will make a note of that before I continue adding mine.

 

[JBanczak]

John, I had my wonderful webmaster put it on my site and it's pretty cool. I don't know how to say this, but I guess you have to keep updating the widget to get the most current reviews? I was not a fan that it took folks away from my site either, but felt that most would look at the brief note & be satisfied. People are always in a rush! Thank YOU though for fixing it so that doesn't happen...I'll have it changed when the new widget goes live.
Dang, we are lucky we have the Grand Poobah Swirt here!!!.

John, I had my wonderful webmaster put it on my site and it's pretty cool. I don't know how to say this, but I guess you have to keep updating the widget to get the most current reviews? I was not a fan that it took folks away from my site either, but felt that most would look at the brief note & be satisfied. People are always in a rush! Thank YOU though for fixing it so that doesn't happen...I'll have it changed when the new widget goes live.
Dang, we are lucky we have the Grand Poobah Swirt here!!!

No problem - as far as updating it, it updates itself - so no worry about doing that. Once you have it live on your site it checks for new reviews. Just don't forget that if you see a review you do not like, you can go into IKA and check the box to make sure it does not show on your site.
Swirt has been an invaluable resource to us at BB.com as well - a number of our latest Rezo GT updates were based on his feedback, as was a good deal of the design of our availability calendar.
He also had a big part in convincing us a ways back to go to direct links from bb.com and get rid of any redirect tracking, among other things on the site.
Greatly appreciate it!
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Hmmm....nope, I have 2 new reviews. It's still showing the 3 most recent that were there when the widget was put on the site. I'll have my webmaster look into it when she makes sure that the right code is in place for the new fix
Thanks for all your valuable info as well....
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Hmmm....nope, I have 2 new reviews. It's still showing the 3 most recent that were there when the widget was put on the site. I'll have my webmaster look into it when she makes sure that the right code is in place for the new fix
Thanks for all your valuable info as well....

Samster, could you either email your code, or cut and paste it here? Did you put it up very quickly after we launched it? I heard back on this today - what I believe is happening is that the first edition of the code for the first few days didn't refresh the reviews. We changed it, but there were some properties that might have the original code out there.
From everything we can tell, the version since then is working fine. We are building in the functionality for the new window spawning today as well - might want to wait to change the code until tonight to get the latest.
JB

 

[JBanczak]

The new code went live yesterday - it should be spawning a new window. Let me know if for some reason it isn't working!
JB

 

[EmptyNest]

The new code went live yesterday - it should be spawning a new window. Let me know if for some reason it isn't working!
JB.

It's working on the one site I put in on
Thanks

 

[Samster]

The new code went live yesterday - it should be spawning a new window. Let me know if for some reason it isn't working!
JB.

New window is working. I'll have my webmaster check the code for the updating issue. Thanks!

 

[JBanczak]

Great - glad to hear it!!!! Thanks for pointing it out!

 

[JBanczak]

We pulled some numbers yesterday and found some pretty surprising information on this… We looked at all properties who have had the review widget live, and compared them to properties that do not use the review widget. Properties that have the review widget live have done four times as many new reviews per month/per property after launching the widget as properties that do not have it live over the same period of time. Pretty compelling evidence that the widget helps get reviews.
We understand that properties who embrace the widget are also more likely to embrace other methods of getting reviews like follow-up emails, BRC’s, etc., so I am guessing that this large difference cannot be attributed solely to the placement of this too, but it is such a large difference that one would think it has to have something to do with it.

We also compared the amount of traffic properties with the review widget GET BACK from BedandBreakfast.com. It only stands to reason that if a property is getting more reviews, then they probably should be getting more consumers to look at their website from BedandBreakfast.com. There wasn’t as big of a difference, and of course it is a little harder to measure since differences in property level and location play such a big part of it, but on average properties with the widget got 15% more traffic to their own web pages than properties that did not use the widget.

Thought you guys might like to see these stats,

JB

 

[swirt]

We pulled some numbers yesterday and found some pretty surprising information on this… We looked at all properties who have had the review widget live, and compared them to properties that do not use the review widget. Properties that have the review widget live have done four times as many new reviews per month/per property after launching the widget as properties that do not have it live over the same period of time. Pretty compelling evidence that the widget helps get reviews.
We understand that properties who embrace the widget are also more likely to embrace other methods of getting reviews like follow-up emails, BRC’s, etc., so I am guessing that this large difference cannot be attributed solely to the placement of this too, but it is such a large difference that one would think it has to have something to do with it.

We also compared the amount of traffic properties with the review widget GET BACK from BedandBreakfast.com. It only stands to reason that if a property is getting more reviews, then they probably should be getting more consumers to look at their website from BedandBreakfast.com. There wasn’t as big of a difference, and of course it is a little harder to measure since differences in property level and location play such a big part of it, but on average properties with the widget got 15% more traffic to their own web pages than properties that did not use the widget.

Thought you guys might like to see these stats,

JB.

Thanks John, Those are interesting stats. As you say though, it's a pretty self-selectingly skewed population, but it is certainly better than a negative correlation.

 

[Proud Texan]

We pulled some numbers yesterday and found some pretty surprising information on this… We looked at all properties who have had the review widget live, and compared them to properties that do not use the review widget. Properties that have the review widget live have done four times as many new reviews per month/per property after launching the widget as properties that do not have it live over the same period of time. Pretty compelling evidence that the widget helps get reviews.
We understand that properties who embrace the widget are also more likely to embrace other methods of getting reviews like follow-up emails, BRC’s, etc., so I am guessing that this large difference cannot be attributed solely to the placement of this too, but it is such a large difference that one would think it has to have something to do with it.

We also compared the amount of traffic properties with the review widget GET BACK from BedandBreakfast.com. It only stands to reason that if a property is getting more reviews, then they probably should be getting more consumers to look at their website from BedandBreakfast.com. There wasn’t as big of a difference, and of course it is a little harder to measure since differences in property level and location play such a big part of it, but on average properties with the widget got 15% more traffic to their own web pages than properties that did not use the widget.

Thought you guys might like to see these stats,

JB.

We pulled some numbers yesterday and found some pretty surprising information on this… We looked at all properties who have had the review widget live, and compared them to properties that do not use the review widget. Properties that have the review widget live have done four times as many new reviews per month/per property after launching the widget as properties that do not have it live over the same period of time. Pretty compelling evidence that the widget helps get reviews.
We understand that properties who embrace the widget are also more likely to embrace other methods of getting reviews like follow-up emails, BRC’s, etc., so I am guessing that this large difference cannot be attributed solely to the placement of this too, but it is such a large difference that one would think it has to have something to do with it.

We also compared the amount of traffic properties with the review widget GET BACK from BedandBreakfast.com. It only stands to reason that if a property is getting more reviews, then they probably should be getting more consumers to look at their website from BedandBreakfast.com. There wasn’t as big of a difference, and of course it is a little harder to measure since differences in property level and location play such a big part of it, but on average properties with the widget got 15% more traffic to their own web pages than properties that did not use the widget.

Thought you guys might like to see these stats,

JB

John,
I've been using the widget since it became available. I can't say that the increase has been overwhelming, but I have noticed slight increase to overall visits to our website and to online reservations. As far as reviews, I've been able to get a credit every month since implementation.

 

[JBanczak]

We pulled some numbers yesterday and found some pretty surprising information on this… We looked at all properties who have had the review widget live, and compared them to properties that do not use the review widget. Properties that have the review widget live have done four times as many new reviews per month/per property after launching the widget as properties that do not have it live over the same period of time. Pretty compelling evidence that the widget helps get reviews.
We understand that properties who embrace the widget are also more likely to embrace other methods of getting reviews like follow-up emails, BRC’s, etc., so I am guessing that this large difference cannot be attributed solely to the placement of this too, but it is such a large difference that one would think it has to have something to do with it.

We also compared the amount of traffic properties with the review widget GET BACK from BedandBreakfast.com. It only stands to reason that if a property is getting more reviews, then they probably should be getting more consumers to look at their website from BedandBreakfast.com. There wasn’t as big of a difference, and of course it is a little harder to measure since differences in property level and location play such a big part of it, but on average properties with the widget got 15% more traffic to their own web pages than properties that did not use the widget.

Thought you guys might like to see these stats,

JB.

We pulled some numbers yesterday and found some pretty surprising information on this… We looked at all properties who have had the review widget live, and compared them to properties that do not use the review widget. Properties that have the review widget live have done four times as many new reviews per month/per property after launching the widget as properties that do not have it live over the same period of time. Pretty compelling evidence that the widget helps get reviews.
We understand that properties who embrace the widget are also more likely to embrace other methods of getting reviews like follow-up emails, BRC’s, etc., so I am guessing that this large difference cannot be attributed solely to the placement of this too, but it is such a large difference that one would think it has to have something to do with it.

We also compared the amount of traffic properties with the review widget GET BACK from BedandBreakfast.com. It only stands to reason that if a property is getting more reviews, then they probably should be getting more consumers to look at their website from BedandBreakfast.com. There wasn’t as big of a difference, and of course it is a little harder to measure since differences in property level and location play such a big part of it, but on average properties with the widget got 15% more traffic to their own web pages than properties that did not use the widget.

Thought you guys might like to see these stats,

JB

John,
I've been using the widget since it became available. I can't say that the increase has been overwhelming, but I have noticed slight increase to overall visits to our website and to online reservations. As far as reviews, I've been able to get a credit every month since implementation.
.

We pulled some numbers yesterday and found some pretty surprising information on this… We looked at all properties who have had the review widget live, and compared them to properties that do not use the review widget. Properties that have the review widget live have done four times as many new reviews per month/per property after launching the widget as properties that do not have it live over the same period of time. Pretty compelling evidence that the widget helps get reviews.
We understand that properties who embrace the widget are also more likely to embrace other methods of getting reviews like follow-up emails, BRC’s, etc., so I am guessing that this large difference cannot be attributed solely to the placement of this too, but it is such a large difference that one would think it has to have something to do with it.

We also compared the amount of traffic properties with the review widget GET BACK from BedandBreakfast.com. It only stands to reason that if a property is getting more reviews, then they probably should be getting more consumers to look at their website from BedandBreakfast.com. There wasn’t as big of a difference, and of course it is a little harder to measure since differences in property level and location play such a big part of it, but on average properties with the widget got 15% more traffic to their own web pages than properties that did not use the widget.

Thought you guys might like to see these stats,

JB

John,
I've been using the widget since it became available. I can't say that the increase has been overwhelming, but I have noticed slight increase to overall visits to our website and to online reservations. As far as reviews, I've been able to get a credit every month since implementation.

Thanks - that is great to hear! Nothing would please us more than every property getting that credit every month.

 

[wendydk]

We have the full page widget on our site (has it's very own page), and that page gets looked at by nearly every visitor to the site. AND, I've had at least three guests ask me "When I post a review, how do I get it on your website?".
I like it.