Can TripAdvisor hotel reviews be trusted?

I used to wax lyrical about TripAdvisor. It represented citizen journalism at its best. Instead of glossy brochures and toned-down guidebook reviews, travellers suddenly had access to real warts'n'all accounts, from real people, paying real money. It certainly shook up the hotel industry. Hoteliers no longer had only to impress the undercover columnist, AA inspector or health and safety officer that would come knocking once or twice a year, but everyday visitors, every day. It worked – it really did.

But TripAdvisor is in real danger of becoming a victim of its own success. With some 25 million-plus users a month, it wields enormous power and the hotel industry knows it. Many within the industry are now doing all they can to manipulate its anonymous reviews. And who can blame them? A series of bad TripAdvisor reviews can ruin a hotel's business. No wonder then that European hoteliers are seeking to persuade the EU Commission to overhaul the rules governing website reviews to ensure that they have been posted by genuine guests.

A report by the travel website, Travolution, this month, confirmed my suspicions that hoteliers are being approached by companies promising to post positive reviews on websites in return for monthly fees. The report claims that such companies can avoid the protection measures that websites have put in place, by posting the reviews from different locations around the world. The report even claimed that one hotel had received a number of reviews before it had even opened.

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Source - Sydney Morning Herald

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