COVID-19’s Impacts on BGW

Register or Login to Hide This Ad for Free!
Connor said:
They know they are breaking the state capacity limits (to our knowledge)
Click to expand...

Although I know we're hearing various numbers and the like, I really don't think they're actively breaking the law as it stands: there is no reason to believe that there is so much of a financial crunch that they would risk that level of violation. Whatever they're doing capacity wise, in my view, is being done within the specific conversations they have had with VDH regarding the interpretation of the guidelines in place.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alf33, CastleOSullivan and Zachary
So I did a little calculation on Google reviews for the past week. BGW'S average score for this last week looks to be about a 2.3 stars. Just for comparison SFA the closest operating competing park which was open this week is average over 4 stars so pretty close to double the customer satisfaction score. That is an extremely bad thing for the park and something that might very well have moderate to long term effects on their bottom line.
 
  • Sad
  • Wow
  • Like
Reactions: ludmarco, Diamond Dave, Alf33 and 7 others
horsesboy said:
So I did a little calculation on Google reviews for the past week. BGW'S average score for this last week looks to be about a 2.3 stars. Just for comparison SFA the closest operating competing park which was open this week is average over 4 stars so pretty close to double the customer satisfaction score. That is an extremely bad thing for the park and something that might very well have moderate to long term effects on their bottom line.
Click to expand...

You piqued my interest so I did something similar for the TripAdvisor reviews so far this month. BGW's adverage score across the 17 TripAdvisor reviews published so far this April has been a truly flabbergasting 1.6 out of 5 stars.

It's also worth noting that BGW customer relations seems to have recently stopped responding to TripAdvisor reviews all together.

On the Yelp front, BGW has gotten 5 reviews so far in April—all of which have been 1 out of 5.

In any competent organization, shouldn't this be like a five alarm fire? The damage this is doing to the park's reputation and brand is legitimately horrifying. How BGW isn't out there trying to make this better each and every day, I legitimately do not understand. These people aren't a bunch of locals you can piss off constantly and count on them to come back anyway—these are tourists vacationing to this park—often for the first (and likely in many cases last) time.
 
Last edited:
  • Sad
  • Like
Reactions: Alf33, pizzathieff, Murphy and 5 others
Zachary said:
You piqued my interest so I did something similar for the TripAdvisor reviews so far this month.
Click to expand...

I had to stop myself from continuing to read, because I do need to sleep eventually, but YIKES. I’m sure the park feels like once they get some reviews from the summer people will just write these off as COVID issues (when that’s not REALLY the core problem in any way), but long-term trip planning is going to take a big hit.
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Quist
panopticon31 said:
the issue isnt necessarily that the pandemic is still ongoing. the problem is BGW is trying to slowly ramp up allowable attendance while still not having appropriate levels of staffing or properly trained staff
Click to expand...

well said. I'm fine with the crowd level. But their staffing level is poop.
 
Memles said:
I had to stop myself from continuing to read, because I do need to sleep eventually, but YIKES. I’m sure the park feels like once they get some reviews from the summer people will just write these off as COVID issues (when that’s not REALLY the core problem in any way), but long-term trip planning is going to take a big hit.
Click to expand...

The issue is that it's not going to show that way. Google keeps a running average of all reviews and as soon you look that the first thing you see followed by the count of each number of reviews in each star level. The park is getting so hammered with negative reviews that it's hurting that total count how many ate just going to see that total count and not scroll down to get details?
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Quist
Since I deal with measuring satisfaction for work, I'm more curious if they're doing a more robust program than online reviews.

My employer gets lit up all the time on Facebook and other social channels, yet the response to those comments get handled by PR with occasional input by the rest of us as needed - we don't ignore specific complaints but can tell when people are just venting... Which then gets seen by anyone else.

What we really pay attention to is long-term studies that show fluctuation of participation/purchase habits and a different resource that directly measures satisfaction.

Website reviews are not the total truth usually, it's what the more robust reporting reveals. On occasion they do line up though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Quist
Jonesta6 said:
Since I deal with measuring satisfaction for work, I'm more curious if they're doing a more robust program than online reviews.

My employer gets lit up all the time on Facebook and other social channels, yet the response to those comments get handled by PR with occasional input by the rest of us as needed - we don't ignore specific complaints but can tell when people are just venting... Which then gets seen by anyone else.

What we really pay attention to is long-term studies that show fluctuation of participation/purchase habits and a different resource that directly measures satisfaction.

Website reviews are not the total truth usually, it's what the more robust reporting reveals. On occasion they do line up though.
Click to expand...
That is true to a point but when you are in the hospitality business and there are dozens of people screaming on social media for people to "stay away" or that you are "ripping them off" you have a major issue. I been looking across all forms of social media and this level of outrage should never be accepted as simple venting.

Another effect on this is that this image of outraged guest will only hurt them in the hiring front. A few years ago when U knew that my employer was in a bad Place and that it was time to start looking before I didn't have a choice I actively read all I could about places I was considering applying to if I was reading these kind of reviews I go um that is a huge no cause I don't want to deal with that crap. looking at Glassdoor and other employee review sites it looks like Busch is taking a big hit there too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alf33, The Quist, rswashdc and 1 other person
I'm not saying the social reviews are wrong in this case, but usually it's the folks that want to vent with the rare folks that either rate everything or always want to give positive reviews where they feel is warranted that post anything.

A much larger chunk of the audience doesn't participate, which inherently makes the results incredibly biased and thus not particularly reliable for most business operations.

Again, not saying in this case they aren't true, but unless it's a very specific example that can be replicated it's hard to do much about negative reviews and thus further research data is much more useful and less biased.
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Quist
I generally assume the reviews are mostly written by people with strong feelings one way or another, and take them with a grain of salt. That said, in my opinion what is important here is that we are seeing a significant change across several sites. That may indicate that a lot more people are having really bad experiences. In other words, it is the delta that is concerning me, not the instantaneous score.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alf33, Ziva, The Quist and 4 others
I agree that there should be much better data available to the park, but a huge change in online reviews is a totally reasonable barometer for us to use IMO.

I do wonder what BGW's internal satisfaction numbers look like... Or if BGW is even conducting any surveys at this point.

Early on, after BGW shut down their in-park survey program and moved everything online last year, I had been getting emailed surveys following BGW visits. That said, those post-visit surveys were clearly being run out of corporate and included a bunch of questions that simply weren't applicable to BGW at all. I haven't seen one of those emailed corporate surveys for months now though. Has anyone else been getting them?
 
  • Like
Reactions: wombat96, Jonesta6, horsesboy and 1 other person
Zachary said:
I agree that there should be much better data available to the park, but a huge change in online reviews is a totally reasonable barometer for us to use IMO.

I do wonder what BGW's internal satisfaction numbers look like... Or if BGW is even conducting any surveys at this point.

Early on, after BGW shut down their in-park survey program and moved everything online last year, I had been getting emailed surveys following BGW visits. That said, those post-visit surveys were clearly being run out of corporate and included a bunch of questions that simply weren't applicable to BGW at all. I haven't seen one of those emailed corporate surveys for months now though. Has anyone else been getting them?
Click to expand...

The last one that I received was for Member day, and that Sunday (the day we were ejected from line at FF for trying to maintain physical distance from others).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zachary
Online today is listed as SOLD Out for all resveration but there a line waiting to buy day passes. What the heck.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20210409-124142_Chrome.jpg
    Screenshot_20210409-124142_Chrome.jpg
    371 KB · Views: 0
  • 20210409_124159.jpg
    20210409_124159.jpg
    3.3 MB · Views: 0
  • Angry
Reactions: SLC Headache and Zachary
horsesboy said:
Online today is listed as SOLD Out for all resveration but there a line waiting to buy day passes. What the heck.
Click to expand...

I would imagine that they are accounting for the likelihood of walk-ups being Spring Break. (Again, not to be a broken record, but I really don’t think they’re breaking the law. There’s no reason they wouldn’t leave themselves wiggle room.)
 
Memles said:
I would imagine that they are accounting for the likelihood of walk-ups being Spring Break. (Again, not to be a broken record, but I really don’t think they’re breaking the law. There’s no reason they wouldn’t leave themselves wiggle room.)
Click to expand...
This would be the smarter tactic to avoid turning away what would become really upset customers who may have driven hours to get there.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alf33
rswashdc said:
This would be the smarter tactic to avoid turning away what would become really upset customers who may have driven hours to get there.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think it was one thing when it was predominantly locals in 2020, but they knew there would be people who would be traveling to Hampton Roads for Spring Break and spontaneously decide to go to Busch Gardens and only bother to check if it was open, not any other details. Leaving space for, say, 500 walk-ups wouldn’t be hard.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alf33
You must log in or register to reply here.
Consider Donating to Hide This Ad