Pinoy business travelers more likely to read hotel reviews

MANILA, Philippines — While their foreign counterparts rely the least on hotel reviews before booking, Filipino business travelers give more value to online recommendations in choosing their accommodations.

Agoda.com, a leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaw-listed Priceline Group, revealed to Philstar.com findings of its Travel Smarts survey on Thursday, saying business travelers spend the least amount of time comparing hotels before making their booking.

In planning business trips, Filipinos, however, are the most likely to rely on reviews, with 80 percent saying reviews are important. They are followed by Indians (68 percent), Chinese (66 percent), Malaysians (64 percent) and Vietnamese (62 percent) business travelers.

The survey, carried out in March 2014, asked 65,000 Agoda.com customers how important hotel reviews are to them, how many hotel reviews they generally read before they book, and if they would book at a hotel that had no reviews.

"Choosing a hotel is influenced heavily by word of mouth, so it’s not surprising that reviews from fellow travelers play a huge role in the decision process," said Timothy Hughes, Agoda.com vice president for marketing.

"With over 7 million verified customer reviews to rely on, Agoda.com customers can get a great idea of what people just like them—or unlike them—think of the hotel they're looking at," he added.

When it came to researching hotels, the majority of travelers— over 63 percent—looked at ten or fewer properties before making their choice.

Twenty-six percent looked at between 11 and 25, and just over 10 percent looked at 25 or more.

About 74 percent of respondents categorized as business travelers, on the other hand, looked at 10 or fewer hotels before booking—a full 10 percent more than the average.

Business travelers also happen to place the least importance on hotel reviews, with 43 percent saying they did not play a significant part in determining their hotel choice. This could be compared to the 38 percent of all other traveler types that shruff off reviews.

What was clear from the results is that customer reviews play a large part in helping most travelers determine which hotel they will be staying at.

Though business travelers were the exception, the vast majority of non-business travelers—77 percent—said that they would not book a hotel that did not have any reviews