After hearing so much about the city and being bombarded with loads of content from travel influencers, we planned a group trip to Albania 🇦🇱. As part of the logistics, a friend booked an apartment via booking.com — the main criteria were that it should accommodate everyone conveniently and be accessible to key locations in the city. Everything was good and we were excited to enjoy a bit of the sun in November.

A few weeks before the travel date, I decided to check the reviews of the apartment to be sure of what we were getting into. It had a couple of reviews, some of which were negative about the state of the apartment and the amenities available. Just from those reviews we cancelled the booking and booked another that had a 10/10 rating from all guests.

Our stay at the new booking was totally delightful and when the host asked for a review we joined others that had nothing but good things to say about the accommodation.

I also have the habit of checking the reviews of any product on Amazon before making any purchase, the comments I find are usually very influential to the decision I make and you probably do the same or you should.

This experience reminded me of how important it is for businesses to prioritise their review collection efforts.

As the saying goes;

“Free publicity and word of mouth is probably the best and cheapest form of advertising. Learn to use it to your advantage.”

— Richard Branson

I believe that reviews are equivalent to word-of-mouth advertising in today’s world for B2B companies, especially those that happen on independent platforms such as G2, Trust Pilot, and