Profiles of Top Forums

Profiles of Top Forums

FlyerTalk (www.flyertalk.com)
With almost 500,000 monthly unique views in May, 2010, FlyerTalk is a travel forum where frequent travelers
discuss all aspects of travel with their peers. The majority of the forums deal with hotel and airline points and
rewards programs. The community is self-moderated and rules of the forums are taken seriously. New
members are encouraged to read other posts and the FAQ prior to posting. Because airline and hotel status
is part of a member’s profile, FlyerTalk is a great place for hoteliers to see what their most influential and
frequent guests are saying.
Traveler Reviews
While FlyerTalk isn’t a review site, travelers do post their opinions about hotels within the different forums.
Many people will ask for recommendations in cities they are traveling to so hotels get mentioned all the time.
In addition, there are forums for both luxury travel and budget travel where travelers comment on hotels.
Hotel Responses
Unlike online review sites and OTAs, Hoteliers stick out like sore thumbs on TravelTalk, since the community
is really about sharing travel tips with like-minded people – frequent travelers. While hoteliers can sign up for
a Flyer Talk account and monitor what is said about their brand, responses about guest’s hotel stays should
be minimal and natural. Salesy notes from someone unfamiliar with the site will get flamed. However, in the
forums about points programs, if a hotel representative can add value or clear up confusion, a post would be
welcomed by members.

BetterBidding (www.betterbidding.com)
With 70,000 monthly unique visitors in May 2010, Better Bidding is much smaller than the other sites
covered, but it is included because of the volume of reviews it captures. In addition to providing tips for
bidding on Hotwire.com and Priceline.com, the site provides a very straight forward and easy to use forum
for reading and submitting hotel reviews.
Traveler Reviews
Unlike other review sites where users post scores, users on BetterBidding only provide written reviews.
Hotel Responses
Like most forums, any registered user can review and comment on any post. Hotel representatives aren’t
offered an official “hotel” account, but hoteliers can respond to any review as a representative of the hotel.


Fodor’s (www.fodors.com)
Best known for it’s printed travel guides, Fodor’s
also operates a feature-rich Web site for travelers
that about 474k people visited in May, 2010.
Traveler Reviews
In addition to professional Fodor’s reviews, the
site also allows anyone to submit a review in the
reviews section or discuss a hotel in the forum.
Traveler reviews are shown beneath the professional review and include a free-form review and ratings for
room, atmosphere, service and value, on a 5 point scale.
The forum allows any registered user to submit a topic or contribute to a topic. Hotels are often discussed as
travelers seek advice on itineraries and trip details.
Hotel Responses
Hotels can not respond to hotel reviews in the review section.
Like most forums, any registered user can review and comment on any post. Hotel representatives aren’t
offered an official “hotel” account, but hoteliers can respond to threads in forums. The site doesn’t allow
commercial content so make sure your response is helpful and authentic rather than salesy and forced. (For
example, if you see someone asking for advice on a romantic hotel for an anniversary, don’t suggest your
airport hotel.)


Credit To:
Hoteliers Guide to Review Sites and Forums
http://www.Revinate.com/