• USA Today, Tuesday, March 23, 2010 10:46 AM

Hotel managers have a new task added to their long list of to-do items, writes Roger Yu: Managing their business' online reputation. Customers are increasingly writing about their experiences and reviewing their treatment on numerous travel websites.

Smart managers respond quickly to complaints but there's a long way to go. Yu reports that despite a 203% increase in responses from hotels to negative reviews last year, less than 4% of the pans on TripAdvisor.com, for example, get a response. This is not some fledgling operation with a small user base, by the way. The site has more than 30 million reviews overall.

Although 70% of online customer feedback is "positive," according to Maureen Dime of Avalon Report, "if 30% is unhappy with you, that's still a large percentage. We call it a tidal wave of whispers." Chains are catching on, Yu reports, and are using various software tools to help them monitor and manage online comments.

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