How to Read TripAdvisor
What I have written in the past, many times, about how to safely navigate TripAdvisor just does not work anymore. That is because – unless my eyes deceive me – I am seeing an unprecedented avalanche of false positive reviews written by hotel sales managers, GMs, even cooks (excuse me, chefs) – or their friends and co-conspirators.
Which has prompted my rethink of how a savvy consumer needs read TripAdvisor.
My guess: we are seeing a perverse outcome of the old management saw, what gets measured gets done. Tell a cook that he will hit the bricks if his TripAdvisor rating stays in the gutter and, guess what, it gets lifted. How? The fastest way is to cheat.
Ditto a sales manager or GM who is taking guff from asset managers. The latter should be peeved when a hotel that, say, has claimed to be “world class” cannot even manage to hold the top spot in a small tertiary market that is unpopulated by the perennial all stars (Aman, Four Seasons, etc). If you cannot beat nobody, you aren’t word class, QED, thus the screaming – threats probably of bonuses withheld or firings – and then along come the fake reviews.
How? That’s easy. A struggling cook might form a mutual defense alliance with cooking school classmates. All sworn to secrecy. But as need arises – to counter a few bad reviews – they weigh in with glowing comments and the deed is done. The negative reviews are buried under the weight of fake positives.
Sales managers and GMs can do likewise in their circles.
Other GMs probably are just posting their own fakes, using the many Internet appliances we all have and accessing TripAdvisor via any of the many public WiFi networks at coffee shops, stores, restaurants and, yes, hotels of course.
Set up a handful of email addresses at the free services and you are halfway to a bank of bogus TripAdvisor accounts.
TripAdvisor of course says its armies of machines are ever alert for fakes and will track them down. Punishments range up to placement of “A large red penalty notice, explaining that the property’s reviews are suspicious may appear on the listing page.” I believe I have seen that only once.
I believe I should see it a lot more often.
Mind you, I still insist: TripAdvisor is the best place to get credible commentary about hotels. It is vastly better than professional travel writing – just about all those reviews result from typically undisclosed “comped” (free) trips. As for bloggers, forget about it. The FTC is looking to crack down on undisclosed blogger compensation, including freebies, but so far the blogosphere is a wild west of corruption and mendacity when it comes to hotel write ups.
That is why you need to know how to carefully – smartly – read TripAdvisor reviews.
First: discard the outliers. Some reviews are just too positive or too negative. When I see “Chef XYZ should have his own restaurant in Manhattan” – and said cook would struggle for acclaim in Manhattan, Kansas – I know it was written by his mom.
Ditto for a review of a hotel – one that fares well overall – that finds no good whatsoever and insists there are bedbugs, mold, theft, and a cavalcade of bad things. Is this reviewer lying? Maybe, maybe not. But even if it’s the truth, perhaps the establishment just had an epicly bad day that won’t likely be repeated.
Look for patterns. When the same things – positive or negatives – are said many times they probably are true.
Which leads to the next precaution: if there are under 100 reviews – or perhaps you want a higher number; 1000 is reasonable – stop right there. The data set is too small to be reliable. There is truth in numbers when it comes to online reviews.
Now for the new advice: ignore all reviews written by posters with under 10 reviews. Just don’t read them.
In looking at a particular hotel that has been climbing in its ranking, I noticed that of the most recent 10 reviews, four were written by posters with 5, 4, 1, and 5 total reviews. They also had not posted photos.
All fakes? I do not know of course. But were I spending my money on a hotel room, I’d bet they are fakes – and would ignore them accordingly.
My hope of course is that TripAdvisor wakes up its algorithms, puts its machines on high alert, and begins a search and destroy mission for hotels that are stuffing the ballot box.
As travelers we need TripAdvisor – but we need a TripAdvisor that we can count on.
I am an avid user and reviewer on TripAdvisor…have had great experiences booking B&Bs and boutique hotels I have found on there..some have only had a few reviews as they are not well traveled places, as the one I found in Croatia. I review as I like to give back, especially if its a place I found on TA…but I do not post photos. But that does not make me less real. I am just not that into taking photos and posting them for TA. Not that I couldn’t …I just don’t think about it while I am traveling.
An article that needed to be written! I am quite senior in the Trip Advisor reviewer hierarchy and get very annoyed at the number of obviously fraudulent reviews. For my own use, I look at the outliers with a very jaundiced eye, and basically disregard anyone with under 25 or so reviews. I also give weight to the management comments addressing positive or negative reviews. For the most part, these tend to be honest responses, and reflect management involvement with quality. On the other hand, I can’t imagine why more managers don’t respond to reviews, its such a great opportunity for them.
There is a big market to rent USA/EU IP addresses for short terms. This allows hospitality industries to hire people in 3rd world countries to write reviews. It happens every day, and it’s a growth industry to many people who rely on review sites. When reading reviews, any reviews – I tend to read the reviews themselves. If it sounds too good/or bad to be true, then it’s probably a scammed review.
Hi. I liked your article but don’t agree that one should ignore reviews by people who don’t review often and/or don’t post photos. I am extremely well traveled but only post when I’ve stayed at a property that was a hidden treasure, a property that seemed grossly overrated, or someplace I received unexpected but superior service. I just don’t like to spend a lot of my time online; I’d rather be traveling!
I only review hotels (so far 150) and agree with the comments. I am most annoyed when I give a not-so-good review (does not happen often) and my review is very obviously pushed down by lots of fake reviews from people with 1 or 2 reviews….where are the army of Trip Adviser computers? Some other sites select one recent good review and one recent bad review, and put them side by side at the top. I think Trip adviser should display three categories at the top of the reviews..all from the last 6 months, good review, bad review and one from the person with the most hotel reviews. By the way, I do not use a photo because I am too ugly.
austinflyguy
I try and, literally, review every restaurant and hotel which I visit. My husband and I have really gotten some excellent information from there which has led to finding a few great hotels, and good restaurants. We generally read a lot of the reviews, and you can pick up on whether the venue is good or not, if you read more than one review, usually several. I have heard, since I started reviewing, that a lot of it is ‘set up’, but again, I think it would be difficult to tell the good from the bad. Seeing how many there are is an excellent tip, as well as how many reviews the reviewer has written. I will continue to use TA, and think it is an excellent resource. On a recent trip to Scotland, ending in London, I think I reviewed every restaurant and hotel which we visited, and there were a lot! Also attractions. I really do appreciate people talking the time to do so. I do not use a photo of myself for an avatar, but do post photos occasionally.
I agree one needs to take care with TA reviews, but I also suggest it is always worthwhile to check the profile of the poster if one has qualms about accuracy/worth. I have not lived “at home” since March 1979 and my posts tend to positive to very positive, not because i am scamming anyone or have particularly low standards but because I research where I stay/eat/etc., and therefore tend not to arrive in places to eat or sleep that are the pits. If I do suffer an unkind surprise, I write pretty scathing reviews because the place has obviously not lived up to my expectations. I suspect other fairly frequent posters have similar standards, gained over more than one trip to Hawaii, and therefore I reiterate that posters unwilling to offer a reasonable profile tend to be less than reliable judges of quality/expectations whether the reviewed stopping place is for business, pleasure or simply a place to kip before the next flight.
I have travelled a great deal and I grnerally spend a fair amount of time writing detailed reviews. Many times my reviews are not posted by Tripadvisor even though I follow their rules assiduously. It is frustrating and I now review sporadically. I never rant on TA; I assume readers will consider exceedingly negative comments as suspect. I’m not thrilled by a particular pattern: when hoteliers respond to negative comments they generally invite the reviewer to contact the GM (for example) if returning to the property. In other words, a poor review invariably ensures the traveler will experience VIP status in the future. I make a point of contacting a guest services manager (for example) before I arrive to a new hotel to avoid unwanted surprises, such as a bad view. When I have some nitpicking to do about an otherwise excellent hotel experience I speak directly to management while I’m at the hotel. Fabulous hotels should not be downgraded for misbehaving children, the cost of minibar (yes it’s expensive: just don’t use it if you object) the weather or a lack of free tea bags. Mostly, if you are traveling abroad please don’t complain about the lack of English programs on TV
I do not agree that a lack of photos is a negative. I’ve done a few reviews, but life is short–reviewing places for TA isn’t my paying job. Therefore, I don’t bother with photos. I would expect a number of others to feel the same way. However, as a writer, putting together a few lines re: the pros and cons of a hotel doesn’t cost me much time, so I often do it as a way to give back. I do agree that the more reviews, the better, and to discard outliers, but often 100 is just not attainable as a minimum number of reviews. I don’t often travel to huge cities, so the number of reviews is often under 100.