The inestimable value of accolades

Over the years I’ve heard lots of hoteliers say that awards don’t matter very much; that they’d rather have happy customers than a Michelin star; that travel writers are just freeloaders; that they might stop working with the AA because it “doesn’t bring any customers”.  Some are equally dismissive of poor reviews on Tripadvisor, claiming these have no real effect on business.
Whilst you could make a strong argument either way, there’s no easy method of proving what impact our complex system of grading and reviews actually has on customer behaviour – most of us just feel we know in our guts that praise from an authoritative source is going to help and that criticism from almost any source can hinder our efforts to attract new business.