Nearby Rivals lists

Reporting > Reports > Rivals

Social Feedback creates uneditable Nearby rival lists based on geographic proximity and, except for automotive and other industries, a list of preselected rival brands.

The method Social Feedback uses to generate uneditable Nearby rival lists is slightly different for hospitality companies than for automotive and and other industries. For hospitality companies, the Nearby Rivals list only includes rivals that belong to certain rival brands. The overall list of hospitality rivals has not been updated since April of 2015.

This image shows an overview of the steps required to generate a Nearby list:

1. Assign rival brands (Hospitality only): Specify which rival brands to include in Nearby Rivals lists for hospitality companies. Every unit must have at least one rival brand assigned to it. When there are no rival brands assigned to a unit, the system does not generate an uneditable Nearby Rivals list for the unit. 2. Assign geographic coordinates: Verify that each unit has assigned geographic coordinates. These coordinates are necessary for determining where a unit is located in relation to rivals. 3. Generate uneditable Nearby Rivals: Press a button to create an editable Nearby Rivals list for each unit. For hospitality companies, the system only searches for rivals that are specified in the unit's rival brand list.

Nearby Rival selection for hospitality companies

The rivals in the uneditable Nearby Rivals lists for hospitality companies are chosen based on geographic proximity and a list of preselected rival brands:

  • Rival brands — The brands to include in Nearby Rivals lists.

    You should specify these brands during this step. You can create rival brand lists for different Unit groups, countries, or both. In this example, the Serenity USA list applies to Serenity hotels in the USA. This means that the unedited Nearby Rivals lists for these hotels only include rival hotels that belong to one of these hotel chains: Holiday Inn, Radisson, Crowne Plaza, Hilton, or Courtyard.

    For example, you could create a list for all Serenity brand hotels in the USA. Therefore, the Nearby Rivals list is composed of nearby hotels from these the brands in the MemberRivals property.

  • Geographic coordinates — The physical location of the unit. You should generate the geographic coordinates for each unit during this step.

For hospitality companies, Social Feedback attempts to find the closest 15 rivals within a 1-mile radius of the unit. If it finds less than 15 rivals from the selected rival brands, it expands its search to a 25-mile radius. If there are less than 3 rivals within a 25-mile radius, Social Feedback finds the nearest 3 hotels within 100 miles. During this process, it only searches for rivals that are specified in the unit's rival brand list.

Searches for rival units that belong to the specified rival brands and are located within a certain radius.

Nearby Rival selection for automotive and other industries

The rivals in the uneditable Nearby Rivals lists for automotive, retail, and other industries are chosen based on geographic proximity.

Social Feedback searches for the closest rivals within a 100-mile radius of the unit. At a minimum, it locates 15 rivals. However, when multiple rivals are the same distance from the unit, it includes them all and counts them as "one" towards the goal of 15. For example, if there are 3 rivals exactly 5 miles away from the unit, but the 14 other closest rivals are all at a unique distance from the unit, the list would include a total of 17 rivals:

If there are 3 rivals exactly 5 miles away from the unit, but the 14 other closest rivals are all at a unique distance from the unit, the list would include a total of 17 rivals.
Restriction: You cannot specify brands for automotive, retail, or other industries in Nearby Rivals lists.

Create and refresh Nearby Rivals lists

The process for creating and refreshing Nearby Rivals lists is the same. You must refresh the Nearby Rivals lists quarterly so Social Feedback can create Nearby Rivals lists for new units.

Additionally, if your company adds a new brand, you must create a list of rival brands for that new Unit group, then refresh the list. Otherwise, Social Feedback does not create any Nearby Rivals lists for the new brand's units.

To generate new Nearby Rivals lists, or refresh Nearby Rivals lists previously created:

  1. If your company is in the hospitality industry, verify that you have specified the rival brands for all units. For more information, see Assign rival brands for hospitality companies.
    Warning: If the company adds a new brand, you must create a list of rival brands for that new Unit group. Otherwise, Social Feedback does not create any Nearby Rivals lists for the new brand's units.

  2. Verify that all units have geographic coordinates assigned to them. For more information, see Assign geographic coordinates.

  3. Navigate to the Unit Rival Overviews screen.

  4. Create (or update) the Nearby Rivals lists for the company:

    • For hospitality companies:

      • Navigate to the Unit Rival Overviews screen.

      • Go to Updates for Hospitality Social Rivals section and click Create uneditable lists with rivals from Rival Tracker.

        For hospitality companies, create uneditable rival lists by clicking the Create uneditable lists, with rivals from Rival Tracker button.

    • For companies in the automotive, retail, or industries:

      • Navigate to the Unit Rival Overviews screen.

      • Go to Updates for Social Rivals for retail and other industries section and click Create uneditable lists based on Industry.

        For companies in the retail or other industries, create uneditable rivals lists by selecting the Create uneditable lists based on Industry button.

Assign rival brands for hospitality companies

If your company is in the hospitality industry, you must specify which rival brands to include in the uneditable Nearby Rivals lists.

Warning:

Every unit must have at least one rival brand assigned to it. When there are no rival brands assigned to a unit, Social Feedback does not generate a Nearby Rivals list for the unit.

There is often one brand list for each Unit group. If the company does not prefer certain rival brands over others, you should create a list for all properties and include all rival brands in the list.
Restriction: The MemberRivals list is not all-inclusive, so even if you add all the rival brands to the list, some rivals might still be excluded. The values in the MemberRivals field have not been updated since April of 2015.

For example, suppose there is a small hotel chain called Sunset Hotels. The Sunset Hotels brand is not listed in the MemberRivals field, so you can't add it to your rival brands list. Consequently, Social Feedback never add Sunset Hotel units to any uneditable Nearby Rivals list.

To create a brand list:

  1. Navigate to the Brand/Country Rivals screen.

  2. Click New to create a new list.

  3. Add a value for the Key and Priority fields. The Priority field is especially important — when multiple lists meet the same conditions, lists with lower numbers are prioritized over lists with higher numbers.

  4. Save the page.

  5. Complete rest of the fields on the screen. For more information,see Brand/Country Rival. The values set for the MemberCountries and MemberUnitGroups fields define the units to which the list applies. The brands added to the MemberRivals field are the list of rival brands the Experience Cloud looks for.

    For example, suppose you select USA and the brand Serenity. In this case, for each Serenity hotel in the USA, Experience cloud attempts to find rival units from the brands you added to the MemberRivals field.

    In this example, there is one brand list for each unit group:

    One option is to create a separate list for each unit group.

    In this example, the client doesn't have any rival preferences, so there is only one rival list for all units.

    One option is to have only one list selected for all properties.

    Restriction: The MemberRivals list is not all-inclusive, so even if you add all the rival brands to the list, some rivals might still be excluded. The values in the MemberRivals field have not been updated since April of 2015.

    For example, suppose there is a small hotel chain called Sunset Hotels. The Sunset Hotels brand is not listed in the MemberRivals field, so you can't add it to your rival brands list. Consequently, Social Feedback never add Sunset Hotel units to any uneditable Nearby Rivals list.

  6. Update the Nearby Rivals lists so that your changes take effect. For more information, see Create and refresh Nearby Rivals lists.

Brand/Country Rival

The Brand/Country Rival tab manages the rival brands for your Nearby Rivals list for the hospitality industry.

The MemberCountries and MemberUnitGroups properties specify the units to which the lists apply, and the MemberRivals property specifies the rival brands.

Every unit must have at least one rival brand assigned to it. When there are no rival brands assigned to a unit, Social Feedback does not generate a Nearby Rivals list for the unit.

Warning: If the company adds a new brand, you must create a list of rival brands for that new Unit group. Otherwise, Social Feedback does not create any Nearby Rivals lists for the new brand's units.
Key
Unique identifier for the list.
Name
Name of the list.
MemberCountries
The countries to which the list applies.
MemberUnitGroups
The Unit groups to which the list applies. If you choose All properties, it applies to all Unit groups.
MemberRivals
The rival brands to include in the list. Uneditable Nearby Rivals lists for hospitality companies only include rival brands that are specified in MemberRivals.
Restriction: The MemberRivals list is not all-inclusive, so even if you add all the rival brands to the list, some rivals might still be excluded. The values in the MemberRivals field have not been updated since April of 2015.

For example, suppose there is a small hotel chain called Sunset Hotels. The Sunset Hotels brand is not listed in the MemberRivals field, so you can't add it to your rival brands list. Consequently, Social Feedback never add Sunset Hotel units to any uneditable Nearby Rivals list.

Priority
The priority for the list. Give every list a different priority number in case multiple lists meet the same conditions.

Assign geographic coordinates

To find the geographic coordinates and assign them to new units:

  1. Find the geographic coordinates for the addresses of the new units.

    1. Navigate to Unit Rival Overviews

      Any properties that do not have geographic coordinates assigned are marked as Dirty.

      Note: New units are matched automatically to units in the Social media server (the matching process occurs automatically).

    2. For each new unit, make sure Dirty is selected:

      There is a Dirty checkbox for each unit.

    3. Click Confirm for Geocode all flagged units using social media server data.

      Social Feedback searches the Social media server for the geographic coordinates of each unit marked Dirty.

      Click 'Confirm', then click the 'Geocode all units using social media server data' button

      A message at the bottom of the page shows whether your request is successful:

      A message appears for each property that is associated with new geolocation coordinates.

    4. If Social Feedback is unable to find the geographic coordinates for one or more units, add the coordinates as follows:

      1. Go to a geocoding website and generate the geographic coordinates using the address of your unit.

      2. Navigate to Unit Rivals and select the unit from the side panel.

      3. Add the geographic coordinates in the Latitude x 1e6 (if not in RTDB) and Longitude x 1e6 (if not in RTDB) fields.
        Important: Do not include decimal points when you type the coordinates. For example, these fields show the coordinates for latitude 45.247369 and longitude -66.104770:

        In this example, 45247369 is in the Latitude field and -66104770 is in the Longitude field.

    5. Click Save.

  2. Update the Nearby Rivals lists so that your changes take effect. For more information, see Create and refresh Nearby Rivals lists.

Unit Rival Overviews

The Unit Rival Overviews tab helps you manage the rival lists for multiple units. For more information, see Create and refresh Nearby Rivals lists.

Dirty

Whether or not Social Feedback has assigned geographic coordinates to the unit.

Selected
Social Feedback has not assigned geographic coordinates to the unit.
Not Selected
Social Feedback has assigned geographic coordinates to the unit.
Geocode all units
Warning: This property is obsoleted. Do not use.
Geocode all flagged units
Warning: This property is obsoleted. Do not use.
Geocode all units using social media server data
Finds geocoordinates for all the units listed on the screen.
Geocode all flagged units using social media server data
Finds geocoordinates for all the units that have Dirty ckbox selected.
Preview changes to rivals
Lists the changes you have made to the Unit Rival Overviews screen.You must save your changes and then click Update rivals for selected units in order for your changes to take effect.
Important: This property only works for hospitality companies.
Update rivals for selected units
Creates an uneditable rival list for every unit that is listed.

For more information, see Nearby Rival selection for hospitality companies.

Important: This property only works for hospitality companies.
Create uneditable lists, with rivals from Rival Tracker
Creates an uneditable rival list for all units.

For more information, see Nearby Rival selection for hospitality companies.

Important: This property only works for hospitality companies.
Create editable lists, with rivals from Rival Tracker
Creates an editable rival list for all units. The editable rival list include the same rivals as the uneditable rival list, but users can add and remove rivals from the list.

For more information, see Nearby Rival selection for hospitality companies.

Restriction: This only works for hospitality companies. Users must create editable lists for automotive, retail, or other industries for each individual unit on a case-by-case basis.
Create uneditable lists based on Industry
Creates an uneditable rival list for all units. For more information, see Nearby Rival selection for automotive and other industries.
Restriction: This only works for automotive, retail, or other industries.

Unit Rivals

The Unit Rivals tab displays details about the uneditable rival list of the selected unit.

Name
Name of the unit.
RivalTracker Property
Warning: This property is obsoleted. Do not use.
Assigned Rival units
Total number of rivals assigned to the selected unit.
Rival units
This widget lists the rivals in the unit's uneditable rival list.
Restriction: You can only add rival units to the list that were removed previously.

To remove a rival from an uneditable rival list:

  1. Select the rival unit.
  2. Click Remove.
  3. Refresh your uneditable rival lists.
If you want to add a previously-removed rival unit back into the list:
  1. Select the rival unit.
  2. Click Add.
  3. Refresh your uneditable rival lists.
Latitude x 1e6 (if not in RTDB)

Latitude for the selected unit. If Social Feedback is unable to find the geographic coordinates for a unit, look up the coordinates and type the latitude into this field.

Important: Do not include decimal points when you type the coordinates. For example, these fields show the coordinates for latitude 45.247369 and longitude -66.104770:

In this example, 45247369 is in the Latitude field and -66104770 is in the Longitude field.

Longitude x 1e6 (if not in RTDB)

Longitude for the selected unit. If Social Feedback is unable to find the geographic coordinates for a unit, look up the coordinates and type the longitude into this field.

Important: Do not include decimal points when you type the coordinates. For example, these fields show the coordinates for latitude 45.247369 and longitude -66.104770:

In this example, 45247369 is in the Latitude field and -66104770 is in the Longitude field.

Preview changes to rivals
When clicking this, a message appears listing the changes you have made. The changes aren't preserved until you save the screen and then click Update rivals.
Update rivals
After clicking it, any saved changes are visible after you refresh your uneditable rival lists. To preserve your changes, save the screen before you click Update rivals.