Report

Fake ratings and hostelworld!

Hostel Reviews, Booking Engines, and Directories

euro started this discussion 14 years 10 months ago

Look what I am talking about:
Hostelworld did not removed but changed the rating what was made by an avid traveller, the other
ratings from novice. The old rating is already on the google stored, but the new is different,
ONLY hostelworld can change it!
On building of GRANDIO one month ago was a table, That AUTOKER holding a big company
gave to the HOMELESS people (giving value to the hungarian society)
May 31
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=3&ved=0CDEQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hostelworld.com%2FHostels%2FBudapest%2FHungary%2FReviews%2F&ei=EHoFTL6cKOiHONLu7IUF&usg=AFQjCNHzXMNd2R9RfhuSC97sxfxM3FhdZw&sig2=ho47fJIG76pRm9VIZWPKJw
Best Hostels in Budapest | Hostelworld.com Budapest Hostel Reviews - May 31
Latest Reviews. kareldegend6598 (Avid Traveller from Belgium), May 2010: Way OVERRATED (Fake?). In my experience with over 60 hostels in 1 year I can only ..

http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Grandio-Party-Hostel/Budapest/42307/reviews/
In my experience with over 60 hostels in 1 year I can only say this place is way overrated. The shower had dirty floors of sand and dirt, no mirror in bathroom, the sink was very small and partly broken, the toilet didn\'t have a sink. The shower/toilet/sink facilities are not handy at all. The building doesn\'t have any character honestly, the rooms are very basic but ok. Staff are basicaly about drinking and pubs.

http://www.hostelworld.com/Hostels/Budapest/Hungary/Reviews/ This 10 sure faked, but I think the same is the other 40 at the beginning.

Comments

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rmzhao82

13 years

1. If you require someone to upload a photo, you'll receive far, far fewer reviews. About 15% of my hostelworld bookings leave reviews. I suspect if they were required to upload a picture to submit a review, that number would fall to 1-2%. It's too much work and unless someone had an amazingly wonderful (or terrible) time at your hostel, I don't see them putting in the effort.

2. As much as some of us would love the sweet justice (revenge?) of rating our guests, in hostels of most sizes there isn't the time to get to know every guest well enough to rate them. Furthermore, who would be responsible for giving the ratings? The hostel manager? Owner? Any random workers? Furthermore, I don't think you'll find a hostel booking system that will allow hostels to deny guests bookings based on ratings. Users would be upset about this and turn to another booking site. I know I would.

I think we have to face that there may never be a perfect reviewing system.

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gordo

13 years

Of course there's no 'perfect' review system; how could there be? A perfect review system would accurately describe the hostel - but what WE all really want is a review system that benefits US; lets not mince words here, we may not admit it but I doubt too many people here would admit a review system was 'perfect' if it resulted in them getting lower reviews!

The system hostelworld employs is not full proof - but its a damn site better than say, TripAdvisor - at least you have to have made a booking via HW in order to leave a review. And ultimately, any system that relies on user generated feedback is going to be open to abuse. An objective independent review company/organization would be nice in some respects but even then, theyre not really going to be able to judge according to their overall experience, only on the facilities and standards they can objectively observe.

In most cases, whilst fake reviews are never good, they really dont have the ability to massively skew a hostels overall rating. If the abuse is endemic (ie. fake reviews are the ONLY reviews) then yes, there's a problem. But otherwise, if a few fake reviews are really screwing up your business, I'd wager theres actually a bigger problem afoot.

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Good Morning Hostels

13 years

Thing is my hostels in Belgrade and Budva are probably one of the busiest over the whole year and that is mainly beacuse i dont relly on booking systems completle. Out of all guests i think that 30% of them come via booking engines.
So fake reviews are not screwing my business at all, and i do not have a problem with fake ratings per se, but what im talking about is situation in the whole city. Its really simptomatic in Belgrade, and you can check by yourself, more than half of total of 60 hostels have 90+ ratings on hostelworld. I checked lot of different cities and there is no situation like this, and ive been to all of hostels in Belgrade and believe me some of them do not deserve 80% of rating, not 93,94,95,96...

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Good Morning Hostels

13 years

My previous comment wasnt posted so im doing it again :) Thing is my hostels in Belgrade and Budva are probably the most busiest ones in their cities over whole year, mainly because i do not rely on booking engines completely like most of hostels do. In my hostels the percentage of people from all booking sites is somewhere around 30%.
My point is, fake reviews do not srew my business at all, im just concerned about overall state of hostels in Belgrade as Im president of Hostel Association of Serbia.
You can check, there is more than 50% of all 60 hostels with rating of 90+ in Belgrade which is not normal. As im travelling more last couple of years, ive never saw that structure of reviews in any city. And believe me, ive been to all hostels in Belgrade, most of them do not deserve 80% rating not 93,94,95,96...And what is most dangerous thing, its not all about pumping reviews, bigger problem is low ratings that hostel owners, workers, friends are giving to competiton. I had 60% of rating from somebody that wasnt actually in my hostel !!!! I generally think that those kind of games are going to ruin lot of people hard work, because people are going to start avoiding hostels in Belgrade, knowing that most of reviews are fabricated, good or bad.

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Josh Hostels

13 years

My previous comment wasnt posted so im doing it again :)

Sorry, I don't know why the posts are being held in the moderation queue, but I try to check it daily and publish the posts... :)

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massi

13 years

Dear Orla,

I have hostel in Koh Phangan, and of couse i read all the reviews about mine and the others. Last month there was a review not finish, show on the main page of the hostel but then look inside to all the reviews was unexistant, than this time about the same property there is no more reviews that I read just a month ago, then are u sure that kahosan is in koh phangan, read the review of phangan hostel and i will be very curious about the meaning...
Let's see especially for koh phangan that on full moon party everyone enjoy and meet people but this doesnt match then with the quality of the hostel, there is someone that check the reviews and then show what they like, why some disappear...I guess your website was one of the best almost of my customer come from Hostel world. And i have agent take care about reply my reviews is not possible that I can do by myself as she only turn to me the booking?

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massi

13 years

[This situation is not only in Belgrad, If there was a real person from hostel world or whatever booking engine i guess almost hostel would be out, not only fake pictures, not pictures at all...reviews that say not even an animal could stay there and then are on top rated hostel....

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ACBBPatrick

13 years

Of course there's no 'perfect' review system; how could there be? A perfect review system would accurately describe the hostel - but what WE all really want is a review system that benefits US; lets not mince words here, we may not admit it but I doubt too many people here would admit a review system was 'perfect' if it resulted in them getting lower reviews!

The system hostelworld employs is not full proof - but its a damn site better than say, TripAdvisor - at least you have to have made a booking via HW in order to leave a review. And ultimately, any system that relies on user generated feedback is going to be open to abuse. An objective independent review company/organization would be nice in some respects but even then, theyre not really going to be able to judge according to their overall experience, only on the facilities and standards they can objectively observe.

In most cases, whilst fake reviews are never good, they really dont have the ability to massively skew a hostels overall rating. If the abuse is endemic (ie. fake reviews are the ONLY reviews) then yes, there's a problem. But otherwise, if a few fake reviews are really screwing up your business, I'd wager theres actually a bigger problem afoot.

Hopefully HW will implement better safeguards to catch fake reviews with their newly announced review categories for 2012. See the thread related to this topic.

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euro

13 years

It is not very big difference, that the bookers can make only reviews, it costs only 2-5 euro to be a fake booker.
The investigation must be much more sophisticated.
Not all the reviews are fake, but 95%. If the hostel makes 200 fake and the real customers 3 than is not real.

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euro

13 years

Actually almost impossibile to reveal fake raters, but I tell you one case.
I had a booking, but I was ovebooked. I followed the guest to a next door hostel which has lot of 100% and the avarage very high.
The guest gave to me 10% it was my rating, because they booked with me, but they stayed with them.
That hostel has any bad rating, only me, how this is possibile?

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