On December 15th, the 2021 HotelTechAwards period comes to an end and all companies will have had a full 14-weeks (Sept 1-Dec 15) to earn as many points as possible per the competition scoring rubric.  Please note that to ensure a fair competition for all participants, the December 15th deadline is firm and final with NO EXCEPTIONS.  

Upcoming Dates to Keep in Mind

1. ✅  December 9-10 Review Inbox Access Period
2. 🏁  December 15: Competition Deadline
3. 🧮  December 16-18: Analysis and Data Audit
4. 🌚  December 21-31: Winner Determination + Go Dark Period
5. 🤫  First week of January: Winners Notified
6. 🥇  Tuesday January 12, 2020: Public Announcement of Winners
   

Learn more about what happens on December 15th after the cutoff deadline

HotelTechAwards Home Stretch FAQs

• (Q1) Will the review manager be unlocked again to submit last minute verifications for reviews where the user didn't click the verification link?
• (Q2) What should I be focused on leading into the final stretch of the awards?
• (Q3) If I'm showing in 1st place in the leaderboard on December 15th @ 5pm when data is frozen does that mean I've won my category?

Check out the answers to the FAQs

Have you run into any of these issues when listing your integrations on Hotel Tech Report before?

1. "We have a lot of integrations but listing lots of integrations at once takes forever"
2. "I want to list all of our integrations to get them verified but some of our partners aren't listed on HTR"
3. "How can I tell how many verified integrations I have and how many I need to meet the category average or most integrated in the category for the HotelTechAwards?"

   ---

   
   

Well, thanks to Laura @ protel and Thomas @ Revinate--you can sleep easy tonight with the all new redesigned integrations experience 🙌

Now you can...

• Add dozens of integrations in seconds without leaving the search bar...
• Easily add integrations even if the partner isn't listed with the new fast add flow...
• Check your relative integrations counts within your category for the HotelTechAwards
• Sort by integration status to quickly find unverified integrations and get them verified to get get verified credit
• (BONUS) 🎸 Watch Jimmy Melt Faces @ Woodstock

I. Add dozens of integrations in seconds without leaving the search bar...

II. Easily add integrations even if the partner isn't listed with the new fast add flow...

III. Check your relative integrations counts within your category for the HotelTechAwards

IV. Sort by integration status to quickly find unverified integrations and get them verified

V. (BONUS) 🎸 Watch Jimmy Melt Faces @ Woodstock

What Are the Credit Types?

• Post Credits: Self service DIY content that can be posted by members right from the vendor dashboard which include: press releases (1 post credit), hosted reports (1 post credit) and guest posting (5 post credits)
• Content Credits: Content that is produced by HTR in collaboration with the vendor requiring additional communications, processes and planning which include: Ghost Written Articles (2 content credits), Sponsored Articles - Short Form (2 content credits), Sponsored Articles - Long Form (4 content credits) and Buyers Guides (3 content credits)

What's Changing?

• The Media Shop now had post and content credits separated
• What is changing for members? Members still receive the same exact benefits from their membership plans but when checking and using balances, you will do so for post credits and content credits separately

Will My Balances Be Impacted?

No, your balances will not be impacted.  Companies will maintain the same dollar value balance, the only difference is that content credits now have a base price of $1000 instead of $250 previously.  Here's an example of why this doesn't impact your balance in terms of dollar value: 

Example: If your company had a previous content credit balance of 10 credits this had a dollar value of $2500 (10 x $250).  Since content credits are now valued at $1,000, your company would still have $2500 worth of content credit on your account, but it would now be 1.5 credits instead of 10 credits ($2500/ $1000=1.5 credits).

Do Premium Members Still Receive Discounted Preferred Pricing?

Premium Members still do receive the same discounted pricing on all items as they did previously as well as all of the benefits included with your membership which can be found in your membership portal.

Why is this changing?

Over the course of 2020 tons of new benefits have been added to membership including: lead credit, post credit, content credit, advertising credit, awards credit and more.  As these credit types have grown, so has the complexity in managing, tracking and using credits.  Therefore, in Q1 '21 HTR is rolling out a new dashboard home page and ledger system (sneak peek) to make this process more seamless, easy to utilize and transparent for members.  This update is in preparation of the upcoming improvements to the dashboard and credit management system.

While the review manager has always had in app messaging pop up with tips and tutorials and the help center has had best practices and templates, they now sit from and center in the campaign flow and review manager to make sure everyone on your team is able to optimize your campaign to follow best practices, save time and increase conversion.

New Campaign Daily Sending Limits to Improve Deliverability

With the rebuilt review manager and improved performance more companies have been sending more campaigns and larger campaigns.  To ensure strong deliverability new daily sending limits have been implemented which include (1) 250 users/campaign (2) 500 requests sent/day

New Pre-Written Base STARTER Templates

If its your first time sending a review campaign it might take you some brain racking to figure out what the heck to write to get users to leave reviews.  The review manager now has new pre-written base STARTER templates to save you to time.

Its important to remember these are STARTER templates and are meant to serve as a starting point but you ABSOLUTELY SHOULD CUSTOMIZE AND MAKE THEM YOUR OWN.  Remember, your goal is to follow all of the best practices but most importantly: 

1. Make sure you are sending your campaigns from someone users have rapport with and will recognize in their inbox
2. Make sure you customize your templates to sound like a personal 1-to-1 email to each user (not a generic mass marketing email!) 

You can also check out more pre-written starter templates in the help center and

In some areas of China where Google is blocked, the review form was blocking users from leaving reviews.  Therefore, HTR recently released a patch that will detect Chinese IP addresses and offer a workaround when Google Places won't load because it is blocked.

Followup with users who have been sent review requests but never left a review all at once to save time.

Learn more →

Please note that in order to access the Member Bot you must: (a) be logged in (b) have an active membership plan (check your member portal)

Here are a few of the topics that Member Bot can assist with: 

Collect richer feedback and reviews from customers with the new built in review grader to nudge customers along to sharing more of their expertise, insight and feedback.

1. Vendor verifications
2. Link Pre-Filling
3. Mass Followup
4. See Anonymous Reviews
5. Filter Reviews by Product
6. Filter Reviews by Status
7. Improved Template Formatting
8. Send Test Campaigns
9. Review Exports & Suppression List
10. New copy/paste templates library

Vendor Verifications

Get unverified reviews verified faster with self-verifications. Premium members can now utilize a new type of verifications, self verification.  Self verifications mean you have to reach out to hoteliers fewer times while getting more reviews approved and verified.

Link Pre-Filling

Pre-fill links to run targeted campaigns to users and pre-select the products they use to reduce fields and increase conversion.

⏯Pre-filling links (in the review manager)

⏯Pre-fill links (outside of the review manager)

Mass Followup

Followup with users who didn't leave a review after campaigns are complete without going 1-by-1. Once users complete a campaign, then what? Instead of going one by one you can now bulk select and send a mass outreach template to lots of users at once.

See Anonymous Reviews

Feature request shout out: Michelle @ HelloShift

Filter Reviews by Product

Filter reviews by product to save time flipping between profiles. Save time flipping between profiles to read reviews and see which products each reviewer chose to review right from the review manager and filter your reviews by product to more easily find specific reviews.

Feature request shout out: Michelle @ HelloShift

Filter Reviews by Status

Easily sort reviews by status to see when reviews are pending, which reviews you need to respond to or to hunt down rejected reviews and get them verified.

Improved Template Formatting

If you have tried pasting text into the custom templates in the automated review manager previously you may have noticed that the formatting carries over and can lead to inconsistencies if you don't reformat the styles from within the review manager.  Now the templates feature will automatically strip out excess formatting to ensure consistency in your templates.

Feature request shout out: Marvin and Ari @ RoomPriceGenie

Send Test Campaigns

Preview your campaigns before you press send.

Export Reviews

Members can now request an export of review data for internal analysis to share with product, customer success and marketing teams right from the review manager. (Note: Only company admins can access this feature). You can also download a suppression list right from the review manager.

👏 Feature request inspiration shout out: Saahil @ Oaky

Copy/Paste Templates Library

We recently added a new templates library section to the help center that includes inspiration for copy/paste templates for your team to use and to add to the review manager to help you save time and increase conversion.  Be sure to check out our latest high converting templates for collecting reviews during COVID times.

See when you have new leads without going to your vendor dashboard, check your membership status and access the HotelTechAwards live leaderboard without having to leave the main site and go to your vendor dashboard. 

👏 Feature request inspiration shout out: Flora @ GuestJoy