Guests are the ones under review at Australian Art Series Hotels
Art Series Hotel Group offers boutique luxury accommodation in Melbourne, Adelaide and Bendigo. Considering their “boutique luxury” billing, the group is as competitive as all the rest when it comes to online reviews. But this month, they’re turning reviews on their heads to reward guests on their best behaviour.
Each Art Series Hotel is designed to embody the spirit and legacy of an influential Australian artist. The hotel group has earned more than 40 million reviews on TripAdvisor alone, across its six locations across Australia. Since hotels of a certain caliber go so far out of their way to earn positive reviews from guests who’ve enjoyed an outstanding stay, why not flip the system?
With Reverse Reviews, it pays to behave.
According to Art Series Hotel Group, 60% of stays in their penthouse rooms are booked through upgrades and comp favours, not direct bookings. Reverse Reviews formalises the perks system by rewarding guests for taking the tiny steps that make the biggest difference in hotel staff’s day.
Do you put the right sign outside your door as soon as your room is ready for a tidy? Are you happy to have your linens and towels changed less frequently? Do you just make a big bad mess?
Reverse Reviews runs from 17 April through 31 May. Guests will have to opt-in to participate, so if you’re a bit of a hotel nightmare and you have no intention of changing your ways, don’t worry, you won’t be reviewed (at least not by any official measure). Opt-in to the program and your behaviour will be assessed and ranked on a point system.
Final guests rankings will be published online, and those who score a rating of either four or five stars will win complimentary hotel stays as a reward. Ryan Tuckerman is the Marketing Director of Art Series Hotel Group, and he sees Reverse Reviews as a positive way to encourage better manners.
“Reverse Reviews flips the process on its head and provides a way for us to recognise and reward good behaviour in a fun and light-hearted way.”
The idea behind Reverse Reviews isn’t just a laugh, either. The hotel group commissioned Galaxy Research to conduct an independent study on hotel behaviour.
Their findings concluded that women are (slightly) better behaved than men, that 30 per cent of people surveyed have engaged in some form of anti-social (read: naughty) hotel behaviour, and that the wealthier you are, the more likely you are to be rude to hotel staff.
The six week trial is something of a social experiment. Unpleasant guests influence the stays of those who are more mild-mannered and well-behaved, but most of all they impact the lives of the hard-working hotel staff who bear the brunt of their rudeness.
As someone who has worked in hotel housekeeping, and has also stayed at an Art Series Hotel – Reverse Reviews makes perfect sense to me. A sophisticated, creative hotel environment encouraging people to behave better and booking stays for those who do? Yes please!
