A solid TripAdvisor business listing is a huge asset for any tour or activity operator these days.
In fact, let’s assume you’re winning 1 out of every 100 visitors to your TripAdvisor page. If you start converting 2 instead, that’s a 100% increase in your sales from this channel.
That’s why it’s important to pay attention to every last detail of your TripAdvisor business listing.
Even though a listing may seem less significant than your actual tour itself, you need to give it your time and attention because it’s essential for your business’ success.
So, how do you create the perfect TripAdvisor business listing?
We’ve prepared this guide to help you with that. We’ll go through everything including how to create a catchy title, writing an amazing description, what to include in “additional information”, and every other section of your product listing.
Let’s begin.
Why should you get your business listed on TripAdvisor?
Before we talk about your TripAdvisor business listing, let’s start by understanding the advantages of getting your business listed on this review site.
In this era of internet use, more and more travelers are turning to online platforms to book accommodation, travel, tours, and activities. More to that, many people depend on the reviews they read on various sites to help them decide which supplier to choose.
Now, TripAdvisor is the largest travel review website. There are over 830 million reviews on the platform and more than 8 million businesses listed. So here are some of the reasons why so many businesses use TripAdvisor and why you should list your tour there as well (if you haven’t already).
- It offers free marketing through word of mouth recommendations by customers. The hundreds of millions of reviews go to show that there is great potential for getting this kind of marketing on TripAdvisor.
- About 460 million travelers visit the site each month. Imagine the number that could potentially check out your listing. Tripadvisor allows your business to gain a global reach.
- It’s a free platform for you to interact with your customers. As they leave reviews, you get to know what your customers are thinking. And by responding to them, you are building new communication lines and increasing engagement.
- It provides a free opportunity to get customer feedback through their reviews so you can improve your business and become more relevant in meeting your customers’ needs.
Now that you know how beneficial it is for your business to be listed on TripAdvisor, let’s dive into our main focus today.
How to create an outstanding TripAdvisor business listing
Your product listing gives details about what you’re offering customers. It’s important to sell yourself in a good light without overpromising or limiting yourself. Creating that balance is what will produce a great listing.
Let’s look at how to tackle each section of your listing:
1.Composing a captivating product title
Your product title is probably the first thing most travelers browsing TripAdvisor will look at. And plenty of them may judge your tour based on this. It is what will determine whether they click to read the rest of your listing or scroll away to check out other suppliers.
To create a compelling title, here are some important things to keep in mind:
Include keywords: Think of what travelers are searching for when looking for activities and the words they are most likely to type into search engines. Add these words to your title to boost your TripAdvisor business listing’s ranking on search engines.
Include words like the type of tour you’re offering, where it takes place, and any major landmarks or attractions to be visited.
Keep it short: You may have heard that the ideal title should be at most 62 characters (including spaces). This is because most travelers nowadays use their mobile devices to research and book their travels and tours. Being brief ensures your title appears correctly on all devices.
Be unique: Include something that makes you stand out from other providers. Consider what makes your trip memorable for your customers.
2. Writing a compelling description
A good description is one that gives as many details about your tour as possible.
Tell potential customers where they will go, at what time, how they will get there, the specific activities they’ll engage in, what they will see, and what makes your business stand out from others.
The more details, the better your chances of winning more travelers.
But as you write your description or overview, avoid sounding ‘salesy’. You don’t want your listing to appear like a cliche advertisement. Make it natural but vivid.
This is also the section to include any awards earned by your tours or activities. Travelers may gain more confidence in an operator who’s been recognized for their good service. So don’t be shy, flaunt those medals if you have any.
3. Creating an appealing itinerary text
After your detailed description is the itinerary section. This is where you point out the exact places your trip will take travelers to, what they will do and at what time all these will be happening.
There’s a map here to assist travelers to identify the specific locations.
The section where you have the freedom to type out the itinerary text is the “What to Expect” field. Here, consider offering customizable schedules for your tours (if possible). A research carried out by Phocuswright found that 38% of tours and activities bookings are made on the same day or up to two days before the experience. This means flexibility is key for tour operators.
More and more travelers want to be able to pick and choose what to do and experience and at what time during their travels. By offering various options, your potential customers may appreciate the possibility of tailoring their adventures to suit their preferences. This may make them choose you over your competitors with fixed itineraries for similar tours.
Let your text clearly show what customers should expect and not expect as well.
4. Outlining your tour’s highlights
Just as the section says, this is where you highlight the relevant details concerning your tour. Zero in on specific factors included in your offering.
For example, if your itinerary includes a tour of an art museum, you can point out that an art expert will guide the tour. Or you can mention the ‘skip-the-line’ tickets your customers will have if they go with your tour. Another highlight can be the unique means of transportation travelers will use on your tour e.g. open bus tour or something more extravagant like horseback riding.
5. What to include in “Important Information”
In this field, include crucial information about your tour. Things like the departure point, departure time, duration of the trip, or return guidelines. These are vital details that directly affect your tour experience.
Another thing to include under important information is the “Inclusions” and “Exclusions” fields. This is the place to specify what is and isn’t being provided with the price of your activity or tour.
Here are some examples of things you can add to your Inclusions or Exclusions lists:
- Transportation (hotel pickup and drop-off, hop-on hop-off bus tour, on-board WiFi, etc)
- Equipment (snorkeling gear, bicycle, scuba gear, etc)
- Food and drinks (breakfast, lunch, dinner, wine, snacks, soft drinks, etc)
- Fees (admission, parking, fuel surcharge, gratuities, etc)
6. What to include in “Additional information”
After filling in all the sections of your TripAdvisor business listing so far, there is probably some information that you haven’t found a place to include. Write all that in the “Additional Information” field.
These can include rules and instructions for the sites being visited e.g rules on the use of mobile phones, or how infants should be handled on-site. You can also mention helpful features like wheelchair or stroller accessibility.
As a tour operator, you can also use this space to tell customers what to expect in case the tour is canceled for certain unavoidable reasons like poor weather.
7. Your cancellation policy
As we’ve mentioned above, one of the things many travelers like to have during their travels is flexibility. That includes having the option of changing their minds about attending a certain experience. This can be either based on their own personal reasons or due to factors out of their control. Implementing a 24-hour cancellation policy gives travelers this option.
For this reason, it’s important to highlight a cancellation policy in your listing. It may be one of the reasons a traveler chooses your tour over another.
8. Creating nice visuals
Optimize your TripAdvisor business listing even further by including visuals to showcase your tour or activity. So by having photos, you are able to “say” what the words on your listing cannot.
For now, TripAdvisor only allows video uploads for property owners subscribed to Business Advantage. So for your tour and activity listing, you can take maximum advantage of photos.
The photos you upload should be high-quality, authentic images.
So, how do you create these nice and enticing images to add to your listing? Here are a few tips:
- Use natural light whenever possible. It creates clearer images.
- Take candid photos of your staff and travelers. Avoid overly-staged photos.
- Take photos depicting your tour highlights. These help to show what customers are bound to experience.
- Avoid shots at extreme angles. Level shots give a more familiar composition.
- Avoid shots of people looking directly at the camera. They appear inauthentic.
The photos you upload should all be in line with TripAdvisor’s photo guidelines.
For more tips and tricks for taking professional-looking images, check out this video guide by TripAdvisor.
9. Generating positive reviews
Now that you’ve set up a perfect product listing and have begun getting bookings, the next important thing to do is generate positive reviews for your company.
But how do you convince more people to take their time to review your tour?
Ask: Sometimes customers may fail to leave reviews because no one asked them to. Simply requesting customer feedback may give your business a few good reviews. You can ask in person, send your customers emails, or use TripAdvisor Review Express.
Use promotional tools: TripAdvisor’s promo tools are great for reminding customers to leave reviews on your listing. You can order some from their website e.g stickers, flyers, and business cards, then customize them for collecting reviews.
Ensure customer satisfaction: Making your tour an amazing experience for your customers is essential for getting positive reviews and boosting referrals.
All in all, even if you get a negative review here and there (which is most likely going to happen at some point), that doesn’t necessarily mean your business is doomed. The key is to do all you can to turn it around. Respond positively, offer an apology, and learn from it.
Conclusion
So that’s our guide for creating the perfect TripAdvisor business listing.
We hope these small tweaks will make a big difference to the benefits you’re getting from TripAdvisor.
Pay attention to the details and make sure every part of your listing is selling for you 24/7. Once you’re up and running, turn your attention to providing a great service and consistently improve your ratings and reviews to get the most out of your TripAdvisor business listing.
You might also like:
- Tripadvisor Experiences and How to Make the Most of It
- How to Deal with Negative Customer Reviews
- How to Get More Positive Reviews and Boost Referrals
