If you haven't already, please make sure to understand HTR's verification process which offers hoteliers several easy ways to verify that they are real users. These processes are in place to ensure that: (1) the content on HTR is valuable, helpful and trustworthy for buyers (2) vendor reputations are protected by ensuring accurate and legitimate product reviews from real users.
Most reviews are quickly and easily verified by users by clicking the verification link sent to their email address after completing their review but in some cases where hoteliers may forget to click the link or respond to each of HTR's several reminders, there is a 5th and final manual verification option available.
1. Manual Review Verification
How Premium Members can trigger a 5th and final manual verification oqption
Please note that a valid email is required for all reviews on Hotel Tech Report and no exceptions can be made. If a user's email bounced from our servers and was marked as a fake or invalid email or the review doesn't meet HTR's review guidelines, the following manual verifications will not be sufficient to verify and publish the review.
Please note that manual verification is only available to basic members participating in the HotelTechAwards during limited free access windows at the beginning and end of the awards period.
If there is a review with a valid email that is showing as rejected..navigate to Reviews --> Left a review in the Automated Review Manager:
Requirements for Uploading Manual Verifications
✅ Must follow all guidelines shown on the upload modal
✅ Must be a full unaltered screenshot or invoice
✅ Must show the user's name, email and hotel
✅ Email on the upload must match that of the reviewer
✅ Only single manual verification upload attempt is permitted
🚨 IMPORTANT: Please note that it is critical to follow the requirements when submitting a verification upload to avoid losing access to this feature. f your account gets more than 3-strikes for invalid verification uploads that do not meet the requirements above, this feature will be disabled on your account.
2. Reasons Reviews Can Get Rejected
If one of your reviews isn't published within 72-hours of being left, it means that it got rejected. We offer 5 forms of verification and multiple opportunities and only require one of them to be completed (along with a valid email) but if the hotelier fails to complete any of them, the review is rejected by HTR. Here are the potential verification failure/rejection scenarios.
REASON | DESCRIPTION |
✉️ Invalid hotel email domain | If the user opted for work email as their verification option but the email they used was not at a valid hotel or hotel company website domain |
🔗 User did not click verification link | If the user does not click the verification link |
🚫 Email bounced (or email not delivered) | Verification email that was sent to the user bounced and was not a valid email address |
📝 Does not meet the minimum content standards | In order to ensure that reviews are helpful and relevant for buyers and share enough context, HTR requires on the review form that users submit a minimum of 20 words per field (40 words total). In addition to length, if a review does not appear to be a review about the given product then it will not be published |
3. How to track review statuses and rejections
If a reviewer fails to pass any of HTR's several easy verification methods, their review will be rejected and cannot be published until verification is provided to ensure that the hotelier is a real user.
Basic/free members | Basic members don't have access to the automated review manager but you can (and should) setup your own open, click and conversion tracking in your review outreach whether you run it through your email account (eg. gmail), email marketing (eg. Mailchimp) or CRM (eg. Salesforce) tools to be able to track who has left reviews and cross reference to see if they have been completed and published. All users are provided 5 different easy verification options as well as 3-reminder emails automatically through HTR but no further emails will be sent after the 3rd reminder to verify. |
The automated review manager in your vendor dashboard has automatic open/click, followup and conversion tracking so you can launch campaigns with no setup and easily see who has left reviews, who hasn't and a detailed history of customer interactions right in your dashboard. You can also see any rejected reviews and have the added benefit of a 6th manual verification option to easily trigger an alternative verification method (more info below). |
4. Conditions in Which Manual Verification is Not Available
Please remember that all hoteliers who leave a review get multiple reminders and alternatives to easily verify and most just click the verification link and their review is verified. However, in the event that a user just forgets to click the verification link or reply to any of the verification reminders sent by HTR, the review is rejected. In most cases, manual verification is available; however, the 'submit verification' option will not be available for reviews that have the following attributes:
🚫 Invalid Email/Verification Email Bounced (shown here)
🚫 Review does not meet HTR's review guidelines
🚫 Company has already submitted a manual verification that did not meet requirements
🚫 Anonymous Reviews cannot be manually verified (since we cannot share user details)