Can You Trust TripAdvisor?
How far can you trust 25 million (and counting) user-generated hotel reviews on TripAdvisor? This issue has plagued the popular travel site for some time. In June the controversy heated up along with the temperature.
The problem is this: the way TripAdvisor's system is set up, reviewers can be anonymous. This means that any innkeeper can ask friends, relatives - even every guest - to go online and give their hotel a rave review, boosting their visibility and popularity. In fact, the way the system stands, they'd be foolish not to. Arthur Frommer weighed in on the logic of the system:
Why wouldn't a hotel submit a flurry of positive comments penned by employees or friends? If you were a hotel owner, wouldn't you take steps to make sure that TripAdvisor contained numerous favorable write-ups of your property? Who would fail to do this? And because of such inescapable logic, doesn't TripAdvisor contain within itself the germs of its own undoing?Christopher Elliott has some good common-sense advice for those relying on TripAdvisor reviews:
I ignore the best and worst reviews (those are typically the fake ones) and whenever I read phrases like "best hotel ever" or "incomparable service" I roll my eyes...Good advice. I'll add my own: beware of properties - especially smaller inns and B&Bs - which have a flurry of positive comments from reviewers who have only one review to their name. That smacks of guests being encouraged, even pressured, into venturing onto TripAdvisor for the first time, solely to boost the inn's numbers. Put more stock in reviewers who have given balanced comments on a larger number of properties.
I'd also caution you to read negative reviews critically. Why did the reviewer give such a low rating to the hotel? They are often complaining about something that wasn't even the fault of the hotel (like a reservation mix-up from a third party booking site), or something that wouldn't bother you at all (like the quality of the restaurant if you aren't going to dine there).
Related:
- "Does TripAdvisor hotel manipulation scandal render the site completely useless?" - Christopher Elliott
- "TripAdvisor is now warning you that numerous hotels are submitting phony recommendations for themselves" - Arthur Frommer
- "TripAdvisor tries to respond to fake hotel reviews" - Sean O'Neill at Budget Travel
Hallo everybody,
I’am reading this good article from Italy where this scandal it’s growing day by day.
There are two parties damaged by Tripadvisor, as it’s working:
1) the travellers who belive that they are reading a trustable information source, and
2) the touristic accommodations reviewed with fake defamatory reviews.
Tripadvisor’s slogan “Get the Trhuth. Then go” it’s compleately FAKE.
Tripadvisor cannot certify and guarantee the content of what it’s published and this because they are keep on letting the writer be anonimous and at the same time they do not certify that the writer it’s a real traveller who have confirmed a paid a real booking and so that he or she has spent a real holiday in the accomodation reviewed: anybody can write a review…even without having seen on a postacard the accomodation reviewed!
They claimed and keep on claiming to the world, to have a Super Sophisticated Algoritm which it’s capable of detecting fake reviews…but why it’s not working?
The biggest point of weakness it’s Tripadvisor’policy to keep the writer-traveller anonimous.
This choice offers a “rules’ land free” where anybody can say everything without being identified, to certify the authenticity and the responsability of what it’s claimed.
But let’s go to straight to the interpretation’ key of this big “show”.
Who is going to gain money from this?…the owner of Tripadvisor….who is?…guess…yes! it’s Expedia!
Tripadvisor, draws milions of travellers promising true and genuine information ( which it’s impossible !) and then, in the same page where you can read the reviews, it “gives as a gift” the chance to know availability of the accomodation reviewed and ALL competitors sorted by distance in meters!
The availability offered it’s “kindly” shown by Expedia and all the booking engines owned, controlled or partnered with Expedia.
Obviously, Tripadvisor list ALL accomodations, not only the ones who are bookable through Expedia: this because they are exploiting good names and fame of all accommodations with a good presence on searching engines, with the”excuse” to be the “voice of thruth”, without being, and at the same time sales the accomodations througt Expedia & co’ booking engines.
This is unfair competition for all accommodations which do not sale their rooms through Expedia & co. ….even because Expedia could claim as a fee on the overall value of confirmed booking more then 30%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A black dangerous shadow it’s growing from Tripadvisor, because “managing” this public image of the accomodations and tourism related businesses, actually they could boost some of them and penalize some other, always in the view to squize the top possible income from this business.
We hope that this doubt will be soon erased by Expedia and Tripadvisor so to let the free market keep on being free and fair.
We have invited hundred times Tripadvisor to reply to those lawful questions, but nobody has never replied:
1) How can you certify that the review’s writer has stayed in the accommodation reviewed?
2) How can you guarantee that the writer it’s not a fake one, an unfair competitor, or a joker?
3) How can you ensure that what it’s written in the review, from the “potential” guest’s accomodation, it’s what really happened?
4) How can you guarantee the thruth, the genuineness, originality and source of the review?
5) In what consit the checks and controls you claimd to do on the reviews? How many checks have been made on all the reviews you claimd to have published?
6) In Italy we have a law which protect privacy of individuals and companies: why you list identifying details ( e.g: names, address, pictures, details od personnels ) of properties whitout asking a permission to the owner/manager/header?
7) Why on http://www.tripadvisor.it you don’t show your legal address, the addresses of your offices, telephone numbers and responsible manager of the sensitive data?
8 ) In order to protect our good name from public defamatory fake reviews, we ask to know writer details : why you don’t supply this information ?
9) How many of the published reviews on Tripadvisor are true and linked to a real booking confirmed and paid by a real identifiable user?
10) Why you keep on using the slogn “Get the Truth then go” which dresses Tripadvisor’s contents as truthful, when you are NOT able to certify the source and truthfulness of what it’s stated in the reviews?
We kindly invite who is in charge for Expedia and Tripadvisor, to reply to those questions to clarify this situation as soon as possible.
Kind regards
Alla Dolce Vita
The more serious issue is whether tripadvisor is itself manipulating reviews to benefit certain hotels & restaurants.
My wife & I are avid travelers. We like to consider ourselves retired though I’m 39 & she’s 30 because our love for travel is so great that it is all that we want to do for the rest of our lives.
One of the most important tools that aid us in our journeys is (was) Tripadvisor.com. It did happen a couple of times that we read rave reviews about certain hotels & decided to stay there only to find the place terrible. Whatever might have been the case I, being a loyal tripadvisor follower felt it my duty & obligation to post my own reviews to help my fellow travelers in their choice of hotels.
We stayed at one such highly recommended hotel in Rome called Welrome based on the amazing tripadvisor reviews & recommendations. When we actually checked in this property was so terrible that there are no words that I can use that would be strong enough to elucidate our horror. We promptly checked out & moved in to a better & cheaper property across the road.
Upon returning home I felt duly obliged to post our review on this terrible hotel on tripadvisor so as to warn other unsuspecting travelers about this hellhole. I received the confirmation of my damning review having been posted by tripadvisor.com.
When we had a similar experience at Tongsai Bay in Koh Samui (Thailand) last week where I found the reviews much more glorifying of a non-deserving hotel I had a niggling and worrying doubt, was tripadvisor manipulating reviews to suit their interests? It was out of this curiosity that I accessed the reviews of Welrome Hotel & to my horror I found that my review had been deleted. Why?
I could understand if certain cronies of Welrome had posted fake reviews to unjustifiably glorify this sad & disgusting property. What baffles me is that why would tripadvisor delete a genuine review from a regular patron of their website like myself.
This episode has shattered my faith in Tripadvisor & I would like to share my increased suspicion with everyone that reviews on Tripadvisor might need to be taken with a sackful of salt.