Domestic review platform Fast Review signs partnership with TripAdvisor
– The collaboration between Fast Review and TripAdvisor came about when a large renowned hotel chain contacted TripAdvisor and asked if they were collaborating with us, as it was incredible to them that we had made such a breakthrough in the United Arab Emirates without being official partners with TripAdvisor and Google.
After that, we were contacted by TripAdvisor to hold a meeting and explain who we are and what we do. At that meeting, both TripAdvisor and we discovered that over 350,000 reviews were left on the TripAdvisor platform through our platform last year,” said Petar Aračić, CEO and co-founder of Fast Review.
‘The biggest advertisement we could get’
The seriousness of the platform created by a domestic entrepreneur is also evidenced by their client list, which includes Hilton, Conrad, Mandarin Oriental, Accor, Movenpick, DoubleTree, Rotana, and other hotel brands. Because of this, Aračić says, the negotiations with TripAdvisor also began to accelerate.
– About a month ago, we signed a global partnership agreement, the details of which I cannot disclose, but among the biggest benefits for us is that starting next month, every review that comes through our platform on TripAdvisor will be marked as ‘collected by Fast Review’. This is the biggest advertisement we could get for the quality and persistent work of all these years.
TripAdvisor will have insight into everything clients do regarding reviews through our platform, as we have connected via API (Application Programming Interface). Our clients who choose to use this additional tool will have various options and benefits, including faster publication of their reviews, greater control through our software, along with numerous other advantages,” explained Aračić, whose platform has enabled over 2,500 companies to improve their online reputation and customer relations and significantly increase their revenues in less than three years of operation in the global market.
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Fast Review is, Aračić adds, an innovation born out of necessity. After more than a decade of working in tourism and hospitality, he noticed that only 12 percent of satisfied guests leave positive reviews.
Started in Croatia, active worldwide
– In other words, not every positive experience with your business will turn into a positive online recommendation. Only the most persistent will seek out your profiles on networks, leave a Google review, or post a fresh photo of the ambiance they just experienced with you.
On the other hand, those who had a negative experience will certainly make an effort to share that ‘fiasco’ with others in front of the entire online community. This creates an unrealistic and significantly worse image of the quality of someone’s business. There is too much disproportion, and thus you lose unimaginable amounts of revenue,” believes Aračić, who created the platform for these reasons.
Otherwise, Fast Review was conceived over five years ago as an idea, and the first version of the software was launched four years ago. In some markets, they currently operate independently, while some markets have been sold as franchises. Globally, over 70 people work on the platform, and last year they generated approximately 254,000 euros in revenue just in Croatia. In the Croatian market, they also collaborate with domestic companies such as Liburnia Hotels, Sunčani Hvar, Kempinski, Museum of Illusions, and CarWiz.
– We are one of those companies that do not sleep. I often find myself talking to the IT team at two in the morning because they came up with an idea, and then at seven in the morning the same day, we are all on a video call. There are many ideas, but we cannot achieve everything because we do not have enough people, and we do not want to rush too much. Currently, we are focused on America and gathering the team there. That is going great for now, and everyone is very excited about it, and immediately after that, we will open the UK market,” concluded Aračić.
