[Spain] I like writing about startups coming out of Spain that clearly have international competition, and not just in the US. It’s a very good sign. Clearly, if more than one company in different parts of the world sees the need for a solution, then they’re probably onto something. It also makes it really interesting to see which ones will succeed and which ones will fail and why. Hotel reputation management service ReviewPro, based in Barcelona, Spain, is one such startup.
Like US-based Review Analysist and Brand Karma, Germany’s TrustYou, and Escuchatucliente (also from Spain), ReviewPro provides hotels and chains with a platform for business intelligence, analyzing what customers are saying about them and helping then to react strategically. ReviewPro believes that both the number and the type of hotel reviews directly impact revenues. The company’s technology aims to dissect this data for hotel management and marketers in such a way that they can effectively manage their reputation and sales derived from it.
ReviewPro claims to aggregate, analyze and interpret over 11.000.000 reviews, videos and images from over 50 relevant sources, which aren’t just the most recognized hotel reservation and review sites, such as Venere, Tripadvisor, Expedia and the like, but also the more horizontal social networks and platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, blogs and forums, among others.
The business model is currently quite simple. Two monthly rates, depending on what’s required based on whether you’re a small individual hotel or larger hotel chain.
Incidentally, ReviewPro’s core team aren’t originally from Spain but they’ve been involved in the local tech scene for quite some time. RJ Friedlander (US), and his partners, Tim Towle (England) and Dimitry Lvovsky (US), have worked for companies such as Grupo Planeta, Microsoft, Edreams and Telefonica. Their international background fits well with the international focus that they’re giving the company. ReviewPro is already available in English, Spanish and German, and plans on rolling out versions in France, Germany, Portugal, Italy and the US by the end of next quarter, which should be something that will quickly differentiate them from the competition.
Recently ReviewPro released what they call the Global Review Index in order to properly benchmark reviews and ratings so that hotels can determine where they stand relative to their competitors. “The Global Review Index is a weighted-average that is calculated against key variables such as the number of reviews, the degree of customer satisfaction and the quality of the review source.”
The ReviewPro dashboard is especially cool for hotel chains, since it has a number of useful features. For example, you can either compare hotel results individually or group themed hotels and compare them e.g. Coastal hotels, Urban hotels, or by City. The Tracking tab helps organize all collected reviews from all sources and segment them based on type of review. Users can filter their establishments’ reviews by rating classification and quickly identify negative reviews across all sources and languages. They can also tag specific reviews and therefore organize them on their own accord, as well as track competitor data for proper benchmarking and comparisons.
ReviewPro sounds promising; they’ve quickly gained over 200 clients and are currently operating and developing on 1 million euro funding from private investors (Friedlander being one of them) and the ever popular CDTI, a Spanish public initiative for soft 10 year, no interest loans awarded to innovative projects.
It’s a big market–hotels, especially as the big chains become more aware of social media and the importance of managing their operations based on their online reputation. Let’s see how ReviewPro fares and which of the many hotel reputation management solutions will ultimately succeed.