Can you really trust TripAdvisor reviews?
From humble beginnings in 2000, TripAdvisor has changed the way we travel. Hotels live or die on its rankings and bad customer reviews can sink even the most venerable establishment. But can it be trusted?
Properties have been accused of writing their own positive reviews, incentivising customers to write positive reviews or writing negative reviews of competitors. There are stories of great “review factories” in China or the Philippines where thousands of workers are paid to input reviews constantly, having a major effect on the rankings system. Some people even like to play with the system for fun, like the group of mischievous web users who managed to put a fictional restaurant in Brixham in the UK at the top of the TripAdvisor ranking for the region. And the potential for corruption goes much higher than people may realise. The Australian PR boss of one of the world’s largest hotel groups was caught out posting negative reviews of rival chains and was summarily fired after a hugely embarrassing publicity scandal. But the damage was done and people began to seriously question the legitimacy of the site.
That’s not to say that the site doesn’t have its uses. The majority of the millions of reviews are genuine, written by travellers just like yourself who want to reward good service (or warn other travellers of potential disasters). As with anything you find on the internet, just don’t believe everything you read.
So how can you avoid the scams?
- Compare multiple sites. Sure TripAdvisor is (by a large margin) the most popular, but sites like Hotels.com, Expedia and Wotif also have customer reviews. If you like the sound of a property then it pays to do a quick search for other reviews on different websites.
- Ask around. Remember what we did before TripAdvisor? We asked our friends, family, neighbours and colleagues where they stayed and what they thought of it. Social media is also a great outlet for this – ask a travel related question and you’ll be inundated with responses.
- Use your common sense. Don’t just look at the numbers, read the reviews and use your best judgment. It’s often easier to spot a fake than you might think, so keep an eye out for poor spelling and grammar, repetitive reviews or anything that just doesn’t make sense. And take everything with a grain of salt.
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