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How would you change online apartment reviews?

How would you change online apartment reviews?

As most of you have probably noticed, the conversation around property ratings & reviews is at a fever pitch these days.  In general, these discussions center on ApartmentRatings.com, like the lively comments to Brent's post "Is Anyone Using ApartmentRatings.com Effectively."  While there is some utility to the "ratings sculpting" conversation, I feel the real discussion of value here is in brainstorming our ideal reviews model, benefiting both consumers and property owners/managers in mostly equal parts.

So, in service of that idea, I'd like to start a thread here dedicate to hearing your thoughts on the "killer app" in property ratings/reviews.  If you were building tomorrow's ApartmentRatings, knowing what we know today about the evolving state of the online social graph, what would you do?

Since I know it's always hard to start brainstorming against a clean slate, here are some questions to stimulate your thoughts:

  • Is a rating even necessary?  Can we pull data from our social graph (Facebook Likes, Tweets/Re-tweets, Diggs, emails to friends, Yelp ratings, Foursquare tips, etc.) to provide an aggregate picture of a property's appeal?
  • How important is review context?  Do you (as a consumer) need to know more attributes of the reviewer to make a judgment on it's relevance to you (i.e. current or recent resident, gender, age, interests, etc.)?
  • What's the mechanism for properties to join in the conversation?  Public vs. private?  Is the response mechanism just a strong online reputation management program?

Before posting your thoughts, please note: This is not a forum for product pitches.  I know Brent would appreciate keeping this to a ideation discussion, not one where we debate the relative merits of existing products.

Thanks,

TG

 
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Hey Tim,
I think that Ratings and Reviews would be much enhanced if user identification was required. Anonymous postings are impossible to manage.

I also don't think by nature that ratings and Reviews are a place for engagement, although there are wildly varying opinions on that,http://www.theurbaneway.com/2010/07/apartment-marketing-we-are-not.html.

Would Consumers Report have been as successful if every business said, Thank you for the comment. There are plenty of places for engagement, I just don't think that Ratings and reviews are one of them.

  Eric Brown
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Thanks for the feedback Eric. I fully agree that some sort of context around the reviewer is helpful for both other consumers and property managers. Are there specific pieces of info you'd want attached to the user to help ID them?

I think the thread on your blog definitely covers the various sides of the reviews engagement spectrum. Personally, I agree with the assumption that people are largely reviewing/commenting to vent but not totally sure that doesn't mean a response to that rant isn't effective. We've seen lots of folks vent about our site experience via our Get Satisfaction feedback forum and we've engaged with every commenter. Though the majority never re-engage with our comments, the few that do seem genuinely appreciative of our response. If those few people change their view of our brand at all, I view it as a win, as it ultimately doesn't take us much time to join that conversation.

TG

  Tim Grace
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I recently had an issue where we didn't let someone out of their lease and so they started posting negative reviews for a few weeks every other day. Most of those reviews were completely exagerated and very negative and was not indicative of how 97% of our residents felt. It would be great to definitely have the person be identified so they could not continuously post reviews that seem like they are coming from more than one resident. Also, for managers to be able to put in their comments to these reviews. Positive criticism is always good but to be negative just because you don't get your way, is very hurtful.

  Randi Donovan
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Eric is right. As long as the reviewer must identify him/herself, there's transparency. Preferably, there's also a way to respond through the site privately to the individual. There really isn't any rocket science to this. http://www.tripadvisors.com has been doing it well for years in the travel space. Just copy their model, and you have a fair and useful system as free as possible of the skulduggery and sometimes offensively vulgar flames that can appear of AR.

  Donald Davidoff
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Please allow me to inject an air of reality: ApartmentRatings.com and Yelp! and other complaint sites are here to stay. They are a fact of free speech that exist and will not disappear by wishing and hoping.

You offer to structure a hypothetical, future free market competition to such sites. This is good.

The nature of the internet is such that, even if you changed strategies and bought out the existing complaint site, more would pop up overnight to fill a demand by tenants to vet their feelings.

The answer as to "How I would change online apartment reviews?..." is the same answer to "How would I work to quell free speech online?...": I wouldn't. I would do what you suggest and offer an alternative to the complaint site; a compliment site that offers the opportunity to post good thing anonymously or otherwise.

  brassservices
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

You know I have strong feelings on this topic, and I've held back from chiming in. I think "aggregate" is the best way to describe what needs to be done to have a successful site that feature reviews.

  Mark Juleen
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

I also agree with Eric that identification of the reviewer is only fair. In response to what info would we want on the reviewer, in the very least it would be nice to know if they are indeed a resident and how long they've been with us. When you read a product review on retail pages, it's difficult to put a whole lot of credibility behind a user that has only owned the item for a few weeks vs. somebody who has been using it for years. Perhaps that should weigh into the actual rating.

As for apartmentratings.com, I find it very frustrating that the handful of rated terms automatically default to a C grade or less. Most of the reviewers are already angry and unlikely to give full positive credit to any of those terms. And when sending satisfied clients out to post a review, if they aren't careful to consider those items, their positive comments still weigh negatively based on that grading system.

  JRosseth
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

I have thought a lot about this myself, and I disagree that modifying the existing framework would be injurious to free speech (expecially when said speech is, in some cases, Libel which is NOT protected speech).

Having not used these sites as a consumer (I haven't lived in apartments for a while) this is hypothetical and I may err. However, some type of control regarding access seems to be lacking. Give each user a unique user name (it can still be anonymous) and password and tie it to an email account, and then block that account from creating additional users. Yes people will abuse this with additional email accounts, but how many times can they or will they do that?

Allow for cross referencing of reviews by user name, this will provide some context.

Make users include specific information relevant to the property prior to posting (manager name, office #, email, web address), and offer a notification /response system to apartment owners / operators. Possibly as a premium service?

My biggest complaint about these rating sites is that, in some cases, it is clearly someone upset about something that is their own fault (ie: early termination, charges against their deposit).

As owners and managers of properties we are always setup as the big and powerful bad guys, and the tenants as the victims, however anyone who has been in this business for awhile has learned all too well that "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished".

  Luke Scala
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Guys... "Reviews Done RIGHT" is here and in use by many management companies who have been asking for this system for years now. The problem exists on the AptRatings site due to the nature of it's inception. It's been a bashing board since day one. Your residents know it's there and that's where they'll go when they're pissed. The TripAdvisor strategy works because they're ASKING for reviews. That's exactly what the Reviews Done RIGHT system does.

Once it's turned on the process is very simple: 1. Come up with a simple/creative email to ask previous and existing residents to post a quick review about your property. The email personality is all YOU management. 2. Send it with a direct link to their property review page. 3. Watch the reviews come in and respond as you wish. NO, there is not an incentive to review the property. The resident reviews the property because they have something to say.

Turns out that 70% of the reviews are positive which is blowing the doors off of the other guys 80% negative reviews rate. The great news is that it's FREE to respond to reviews... FREE!!

W

  Steve Wiley
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

tim - a very interesting discussion group! thanks for getting it started. besides my obvious approval of opening up the doors of communication for feedback (when done the right way!), i wanted to just throw out a point for the poster who noted they have not looked for an apartment in a long time. as someone pointed out, think beyond our industry and about how such sites are helping consumers in other industries - like the mention of tripadvisor. what a helpful site! day by day more and more people are looking for this kind of info as it helps one make better, more informed decisons. and prospective renters are no different/have the same desire to make a good decision. the challenge, as this discussion is pointing out, is how to do it the right way, so that everyone wins (the resident, the prospect, the owner/manager, the ILS).

  Doug Miller
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