The Art Series Hotel Group is no stranger to controversial PR campaigns. But in 2015 we went one step further. To keep people talking about Art Series, we decided it was time to take on the toughest critics: the critics.

From bad-mouthing restaurants to ranking the foam-art on your latte, everyone today has an opinion. So we decided to turn the tables and give the amateur critics a taste of their own medicine. By introducing Reverse Reviews, Art Series became the first hotel chain to review its guests.

How? We offered guests a chance to opt in and win a free night if they could score a perfect review. What they didn't know was our reviewer lay among them – hiding in plain sight; observing, judging. If anything happened, we heard about it. Every rude remark, blocked toilet or stolen item was recorded and revealed to the public. Each review, good or bad, was posted online for all to see. And see it they did – with nationwide TV and radio coverage. Online reviews of Reverse Reviews went berserk, Facebook activity was unprecedented and the blogs were abuzz, earning us incredible PR value.

And that PR turned into results. Bookings, revenue and web traffic all increased during the campaign. The staff loved it, as did the guests. Aware they were being watched, many guests went out of their way to impress and earn their free night. And what did we learn? It pays to behave at the Art Series Hotels.

We created Reverse Reviews by allowing any guest that stayed with the Art Series Hotel Group to opt in and have their performance as a guest reviewed by the hotel. If they received a perfect score (five stars) they won a free night. If they didn't they got nothing except the potential for public shaming as every review, good or bad, was posted on the Art Series website and Facebook page. We seeded the promotion to every travel, accommodation and lifestyle blogger we could find.

Soon, word had spread across social media, on radio and on television. When guests came to stay everything was seemingly normal. What we didn't tell them was that we had an undercover reviewer staying in our hotels. For six weeks they observed and judged the guest’s every move, awarding the best and punishing the worst.

As a promotional campaign, Reverse Reviews was an overwhelming success. Over 600 people took part in the promotion and sales spiked. People as far as Abu Dhabi engaged with the concept – Etihad Towers wanted to adopt our idea.

Direct booking revenue rose by 24% as a result of an incredible 188% increase in organic direct bookings online. Website visitation went up by 45%, with the time spent on site up by 9.98% and bounce rates down by the same percentage. Facebook visits rose 100%, post reach by 101%.

Most impressively we actually succeeded in changing customer behaviour, with140 free nights given away. Reports of bad behaviour in all our hotels dropped by 25% and there was no theft, saving the Art Series Group over $5000. So what did we learn? It pays to behave at the Art Series Hotels.