Best Western International today announced a new feature of its partnership with Medallia, the global leader in software-as-a service Customer Experience Management solutions, to offer hotel owners new capabilities to manage their property’s online travel reviews more accurately. Best Western worked with Medallia to create the Social Feedback for Hospitality tool and is the first hotel chain to offer this solution to its hoteliers to help them better monitor and respond to online guest reviews.

“As social media and online review sites continue to play a larger role in consumer booking decisions, we want to ensure that we are able to thoroughly monitor those sites and respond to guests in a timely and appropriate manner,” said Michael Morton, vice president, member services at Best Western. “Medallia’s platform gives us the tools to do this in a simple and effective way.”

The solution will provide each hotel with the ability to better manage customer feedback on various online channels. Medallia’s Social Feedback for Hospitality aggregates reviews from leading social networking and online travel review sites, such as TripAdvisor, Facebook and Twitter. It also allows hotel owners to respond to customer feedback. Individual hotels will use this data to better understand customer needs, resulting in improved customer experiences.

“Best Western is the perfect partner for us to work with and develop a solution that completely integrates unsolicited social media feedback with solicited feedback,” said Borge Hald, CEO and co-founder of Medallia, “They asked us to create a product that would complement their existing program, and we are proud of the industry-leading system that came about as a result. Working together will make it easier to provide Best Western guests the best hotel experience in the industry.”

This is Best Western’s latest initiative to expand its online efforts to further engage with consumers. The chain uses its six social media channels to gain feedback from guests, promote contests and promotions and share travel industry insight with its followers. The company will also be announcing additional advancements to its online initiatives later in the year. For more information on Best Western, please visit www.bestwestern.com.