NEWS

TripAdvisor.com, one of the most trusted brands for user-generated travel reviews, recently offered some tips for small businesses on how to recover from a storm-related slump in sales. Customers from out of the area are wondering what Savannah’s situation is, and these suggestions will help to inform visitors that your business is open and to receive customers.

• Savannah & Tybee Island Forums Pages – Have someone from your business’ social media team monitor these pages for the coming days, and create a TripAdvisor user account to respond to posts. There are several posts on these pages by travelers who seem to have already booked, but are considering cancelling due to concerns about the conditions. An expert reply from someone in your office could help keep that money coming in.
• Update Photos – Even though you don’t sponsor either page, you can still upload photos into the general photo banks for Savannah and Tybee Island. You can upload recent photos of key visitor destinations in town to show potential visitors what it really looks like. Just scroll to the bottom of the destination page, and click on “add photo.” It is recommended to add a caption to the photo with the date it was taken (example: “Downtown Savannah – September 15, 2017”).
• Encourage Other Businesses to Do the Same – Every TripAdvisor listing has a main photo that the management of that property can control. Even if a business has a great photo, it is recommended to replace it with a recent one so it will have a date stamp of September 2017 or later.
• Encourage Reviews – Most local businesses probably do this already, but it’s even more important that their listings have recent reviews. Become reviewers yourselves – if you go out to eat lunch somewhere, take a photo and review it! Everyone benefits when potential visitors make the decision to come to town.