User-generated feedback, aka reviews, promise honest consumer comments and first-hand experience about the places travelers frequent. Although initially a leisure travel phenomenon, they have become as important for business travelers and travel programs, and can have a significant impact on compliance and supplier relationships. Travel providers rely on people sharing their feedback and advice, but as with many things online, it’s sometimes hard to determine what and who to trust.
According to recent research into the digital habits of travelers, value is the most important consideration when making both business and leisure travel decisions. A survey of 23,000 travelers published in Travelport’s Global Digital Traveler Research revealed value is a top priority for over four out of five (86 percent), compared to just one in five (18 percent) who book solely on cost.
To find offers of value, the travelers surveyed say they ‘nearly always’ use a combination of travel review sites, price comparison sites, recommendation sites and conversations with travel advisors and other travelers. But half of the respondents say they are frustrated by not knowing whether online reviews are genuine (50 percent).
In response to the skepticism, leading travel review site TripAdvisor has published its first Review Transparency Report, revealing details about its review moderation processes, as well as statistical data on the volume of fake review attempts targeted at the platform in 2018.
The report, which analyzed a year’s worth of data on 66 million reviews submitted by the global travel community. All were analyzed using fraud detection algorithms; of those, 2.7 million were further assessed manually by content moderators.
Out of the total 66 million reviews submitted, TripAdvisor says 4.7 percent were rejected or removed for various reasons ranging from guideline violations to instances of review fraud. However only 2.1 percent of the total, or just over a million reviews, were determined to be fraudulent, and most of those were blocked before they were posted.
TripAdvisor also reports that 34,643 businesses were subject to a ranking penalty, which is a reduction of a property’s position within the popularity or traveler ranking. Ranking penalties, the company says, are applied when a business is caught attempting to post fake reviews.
Adjectives Are Subjective
“Consumer reviews have become essential to millions of tourism activities around the world. It is progress, provided that, as recently recommended by the World Committee on Tourism Ethics, these reviews are reliable and unbiased,” said Pascal Lamy, chairman of the World Committee on Tourism Ethics at the UNWTO (World Tourism Organization). “It is therefore encouraging to see that platforms such as TripAdvisor are committed to transparency on how they monitor, control and manage the reviews they receive in order to avoid abuses and frauds.”
Although major review sites seem to be taking the matter of fake reviews seriously, user-generated content is still just that – user-generated. In the end, it’s still just an opinion, and perhaps not a very well-informed one at that. The question remains, how are travelers supposed to determine what they can trust online? Exercising judgment when reading the commentary of strangers could go a long way in managing expectations.
It’s always good advice to take online reviews with a grain of salt. Since it is not clear what the standards are for the reviewer or their personal perspective, you, the reader, should search for specific details to help you draw your own conclusion.
In a way, the reader must “review” the reviewer before accepting their comments as gospel truth. Since there is little information on the personal interests and experiences of each reviewer, it’s good advice to focus less on matters of opinion, and instead search for details within each review that is rooted in fact.
Much can be learned from online reviews, such as which side of the hotel gets more sunshine or if there is construction taking place currently. Often, even greater detail comes in the business’ response to a review where information can be clarified or explained from a member of the management team.
When all else fails, head for the middle. Discard the most glowing reviews and the harshest and study the ones that fall in between. That’s where the most value lies. And where truth may be found.
