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Suspicious About Hotel Reviews? You Are Not Alone
Hotel reviews come from a variety of sources. Trusted travel experts, agents and professional organizations may have delivered in the past when travelers chose an unfamiliar hotel so, naturally, people continue to utilize the resources for their future decisions. Others might check in with TripAdvisor or online travel sellers Expedia, Priceline, Travelocity, Orbitz and Hotels.com. Whoever travelers are checking in with, it's big business with mixed results.As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the hotel review equation is difficult to navigate. "It's hard to overstate how important customer reviews are [to hotel sales]," said Douglas Quinby, senior research director at PhoCusWright Inc., a travel-research firm.
Common complaints about online hotel reviews stem from their accuracy. What one guest experiences and reviews turns out to be an entirely different experience for someone else.
Reviews often highlight a stark difference between commonly rated factors like the "value received" and whether a hotel "exceeded expectations" from one stay to another.
Oh, and those reviews that jump off the page as being just too good? Reviews that sound like they were written by a hotel manager looking for business? They might very well be.
In a study of hotel-review websites last year, PhoCusWright decided to remove one small national brand of hotels because the data was suspicious. "The volume of reviews was off the charts and the [rating] scores were off the charts," said Mr. Quinby. He declined to identify the hotel brand.
Which reviews should you trust? Probably not TripAdvisor.
TripAdvisor says it has technology to filter reviews, weeding out problems and that customers and hotels themselves are able to police the site for fake or inflated reviews.
But do they?
"When reviews don't match up with reality, consumers return to the site to post reviews of their own experience," said Adam Medros, vice president of global product for TripAdvisor in the Wall Street Journal report. Hotel owners sound the alarm either when another hotel is suspected of adding in fake reviews.
"It just works," said Mr. Medros. "The site wouldn't have grown as it has without users coming back and saying the information was useful."
Experts disagree.Travel-guidebook legend Arthur Frommer told the Journal that he began printing reader letters about hotels in the 60s. After a few years, he realized that hotels were writing him letters about themselves. "I was being gamed," said Frommer. "Hotels are so dependent on reviews that of course they will generate their own. They would be crazy not to."
Filed under: Europe, North America, United Kingdom, United States, Hotels and Accommodations
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Karen Robbins Apr 7th 2012 2:42PM
As a regular reader and contributor to Tripadvisor, I would caution those using the site as their sole source of evaluation to think wisely. When reading reviews on Tripadvisor look at the country of origin of the reviewer. Someone from Singapore, for example might hold a higher standard than someone from the States or Australia. Always read the best and the worst and then check out the middle ground. Usually the worst is because something went wrong--not always the fault of the hotel. Personalities clash sometimes. Is the person reviewing fairly? Read carefully and discern. It may be a problem you would never have let bother you.
Also see how many reviews the contributor has posted. If it's just one or two they may be overly enchanted or extremely agitated and want to vent.
Besides Tripadvisor, go on Google and find the hotel on the map and hit satellite view. zoom in and jump down to street level. Not only does it help in finding the hotel when you get there, it also helps you to see what kind of an area it's in. We once found ourselves in an industrial area rather than the more picturesque part of Stuttgart because we hadn't checked it out on Google.
Hope those hints help.
Spunky Bash Apr 8th 2012 8:02AM
I recognize the room In The picture. Thats Alcatraz !
Brownhurst Apr 8th 2012 6:29PM
I use trip advisor but with a grain of salt. I do try to review the places I travel to and be as honest and as objective as possible. I have found that google street level is a great way to check out the surrounding area as well.
At least with the Internet, I an not just traveling blind anymore.
Srishti Jun 14th 2012 4:53PM
I've had big problems with this before. In one particular instance, I read reviews that said cleanliness was excellent, but once I arrived I found a greasy hand print on the door. Reviews are so highly subjective it's hard to figure out which one will be relevant to you. It's actually a problem I care enough about to have built my own website.
Check out http://travtar.com (full disclosure: I founded the website). Once you're logged in, you can filter reviews written by people who are your friends or by people who have the same hotel expectations as you. It's in beta so if you have any feedback I'd love to hear it!