TripAdvisor in the news: are their reviews reliable?

Once again, TripAdvisor is in the news for reports of fake reviews. This is not surprising considering that anyone in the world can write reviews with no verification.

TripAdvisor Dealt Another Blow: Hotel PR Exec Admits To Posting 100 Fake Reviews Online

Hotel and travel review site TripAdvisor.com has come under fire in recent years for the abundance of fake reviews on its website, but many travelers still see the platform as the industry's leading place for "real" information about a hotel or destination.

Hotel PR exec admits to posting 100 anonymous reviews on TripAdvisor

Accor's general manager of communications has put TripAdvisor reviews into question again by acknowledging that he posted more than 100 hotel reviews on the site using a made up name.

Peter Hook, an Accor general manager of communications based in Sydney, has been posting generally good reviews of Accor properties and mostly critical reviews of its competitors for the past few years.

Do your guests look to TripAdvisor for reliable information?

Do you think that there is a verification system that TripAdvisor could put into place to ensure that the reviews are true and accurate? What would you suggest that they do to fix the problem?