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Tripadvisor Reviews

Hostel Reviews, Booking Engines, and Directories

Josh started this discussion 16 years 3 months ago

TripAdvisor, Where Truth Is A Matter of Opinion:
http://www.traveltrends.biz/ttn448-tripadvisor-commentary-by-martin-kelly

In the past year the number of TripAdvisor members – people who post reviews about their holiday experience – has grown from five million to nine million.

The number of reviews they have posted – which are not qualified, by the way - now exceeds 20 million. But can the rants and raves of this community be regarded as the truth?Of course not! The reviews are opinion, in many cases from people you normally wouldn’t give the time of day.

(I added the bold text.)

It's an interesting article about online reviews.

Comments

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camden-mary

16 years

I would agree also about your message....but I am more referring that I am just not a fan of the Trip Advisor web site.
Its just a personal opinion. I wont say that I never use it but sometimes I do.
Same as you...in some of the comments you have to leave some and also take some seriously. Dont take me wrong every time I travel I do look at the comments, but most important I do reply to the emails asking my comments !!!!!

Its the same for your comments at the hostel. When we were at the Conference In Dublin they also mentoin the same...while looking at your comments, especially bads one, some criteria are importants.

As for the book....its true that people will only put good comments. Rarely they will write something negative.

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Josh Hostels

16 years

I'm sure that many of us have guests who extend their stay and write the reviews while they are still in the hostel. If several people use the hostel's computers they would all show up as the same IP address, wouldn't they?

There's no way to stop all the fake reviews, but there are ways to design an algorithm that would catch a lot of them.

Examples:

Use the IP addresses to compare the city that the property was booked in with the city where the review was written. (Anonymous proxies would have to be blocked.)
If (7 of the last 10 reviews written from the property's IP C-block) are significantly different from (7 of the last 10 reviews written outside the property's city) then flag for manual review.
etc...

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aboriginalhostel

16 years

There's no way to stop all the fake reviews, but there are ways to design an algorithm that would catch a lot of them.

Another, even easier way... Just don't give the chance to review for the first time reviewers!

It is less chance to make a review for two, different properties especially if they are in a different city/country... Most fake reviewers ask their friends to book for them, so they don't have their credit cards involved again...

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Rucksack Brian

16 years

As for the book....its true that people will only put good comments. Rarely they will write something negative.

I took a look at a few of the comment books around my town. It's a party city, so many of the submissions were written while people were quite drunk. Most comments were not so much feedback as they were someone trying to leave their mark. All too often that mark was a crudely drawn penis. Charming!

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ligold44

10 years

I took a look at a few of the comment books around my town. It's a party city, so many of the submissions were written while people were quite drunk. Most comments were not so much feedback as they were someone trying to leave their mark

Unfortunately, I too have some problems with fakes reviews or competitors' tricks not only on TripAdvisor. I can protect my hostels by repeated requests my guests to leave good feedback. More good reviews -> more chances to have a good opinion about me. Naivety :innocent:
If you like or dislike reviews on TripAdvisor, I have to recognize that reviews influence on reputation of hostel/hotel. Keep in mind, now a lot of visitors are looking for accommodation online. I know that over 20% of all online bookings are generated by TripAdvisor.
The Main Sources of Reservations
So, I can not ignore reviews on tripAdvisor and OTA

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