Online Reputation Management (ORM) is the discipline of monitoring, shaping and protecting a hotel brand's perception across review sites, social media, search results and news, going beyond individual review responses to govern overall reputation.
Online Reputation Management, abbreviated ORM, is the practice of actively monitoring and influencing how a hotel brand is perceived across the open web. Where guest reviews management focuses on the workflow around individual reviews, ORM operates at the brand layer: it covers TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Google, social platforms, news mentions, blogs and search engine results. ORM combines listening, sentiment analysis, content strategy and crisis response into a single discipline that defends and grows brand equity over time.
Hotel ORM teams typically run continuous listening across review platforms and social channels, classifying mentions by sentiment, theme and platform. They benchmark against the competitive set and feed insights back to operations so that recurring complaints can be solved at the source. ORM also covers proactive efforts: encouraging satisfied guests to leave reviews, optimising property pages on online travel agencies, managing search engine results pages, and coordinating crisis communication when negative coverage emerges. Modern programmes pull in predictive analytics and guest feedback data to identify reputation risks before they hit public channels.
ORM is a leading indicator of revenue. Sustained improvements in review scores correlate with both higher conversion on direct and OTA channels and stronger pricing power. Conversely, an unresolved reputation issue depresses bookings long after the underlying operational problem has been fixed, because review platforms surface historical content for months or years.
Viqal feeds ORM by intervening upstream of the review. Through real-time guest messaging on WhatsApp, email and SMS, the AI Operator captures complaints in-stay, resolves them with staff while the guest is still on property, and reduces the share of negative experiences that turn into public reviews. Hotels using journey campaigns and team inbox consistently see review volume rise alongside average rating, because more happy guests are prompted to share their experience.
Review management focuses on the workflow around individual guest reviews on platforms like TripAdvisor or Booking.com, including responding and resolving issues. ORM is broader: it covers the brand's entire online footprint, including social media, news mentions, search results and influencer content, and aligns those signals with overall brand strategy.
A complete programme covers TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Google reviews and Google Business Profile, Expedia, Trustpilot where applicable, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, news outlets and travel blogs. The exact mix depends on guest demographics and source markets, but Google and the dominant OTA in each market are non-negotiable.
Industry best practice is to respond to all negative reviews within twenty-four to forty-eight hours and to respond to a meaningful sample of positive reviews to demonstrate engagement. Consistency matters more than chasing one hundred per cent coverage; future guests value a visible, professional response cadence.
Yes. Google factors review volume, recency and rating into local search results, and a strong, well-managed Google Business Profile drives both visibility and direct conversion. ORM activities such as fresh photography, structured data and consistent NAP details across the web also support local SEO performance.
Common metrics include average review score across major platforms, share of voice versus the competitive set, response rate and response time, sentiment trend over time, and the volume of new reviews generated each month. Many operators also track the correlation between reputation and direct conversion rate.
Viqal resolves guest issues during the stay rather than after, which lowers the volume of negative public reviews. The AI Operator also follows up post-stay through the right channel to invite happy guests to share feedback, increasing both the rating and the freshness of reviews on key platforms.
.avif){kind=spacer}
