Tourism News South Africa

TripAdvisor and NightsBridge sign partnership

An innovative partnership between NightsBridge, Africa's leading online distributor of rooms for B&Bs, guest houses, boutique hotels and lodges, and TripAdvisor, the world's largest travel site, was announced in Cape Town recently. The partnership will encourage guest reviews and integrate TripAdvisor content into the NightsBridge real-time accommodation booking and front-desk reservation system used by nearly 3 000 independent property owners in 13 countries.
TripAdvisor and NightsBridge sign partnership

According to a commissioned survey conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of TripAdvisor, 81% of travellers said reviews were important when deciding what hotel to stay at, and 49% of travellers won't book a property unless it has reviews. "NightsBridge's implementation of the TripAdvisor review collection solution demonstrates their commitment to helping travellers plan a great trip with the help of fresh traveller reviews and opinions," said Maud Larpent, senior partnerships manager at TripAdvisor.

More informed decisions

"Through this partnership, guests who make their booking via NightsBridge will receive a post-stay e-mail encouraging them to write a review about their experience, which may then be displayed on the relevant property's TripAdvisor listing. Partnerships of this kind empower hospitality professionals to collect more reviews and potential customers to make better informed decisions based on the insights and comments of TripAdvisor's international community of travellers."

Neil Emerick, co-owner and technical force behind NightsBridge said TripAdvisor is a very positive tool for the travel industry. "The ability for NightsBridge to now display TripAdvisor reviews on our guest houses' booking forms becomes an important element to the conversion process. Automating the guest review emails that go out to clients is just another administrative headache that our customers won't have to worry about."

The CEO of Cape Town Tourism, Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, commented from Africa's largest online travel and tourism event, the E-Tourism Africa Summit, currently taking place at the Cape Town Convention Bureau: "Online reviews have become an essential part of the leisure traveller customer journey. We are very pleased that NightsBridge customers will have the option to incorporate TripAdvisor reviews into their online booking form and follow-up e-mails to guests. We support the continued innovation by this creative and capable Cape Town-based company and Cape Town Tourism partner."

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