As travelers are starting to shop around for where to spend their holidays, the debate over the credibility of online hotel reviews is heating up. A recent study by Bay Area-based hotel market research company Market Metrix found that up to 40 percent of online reviews could be fake or even paid for. And even if they’re real, the study found that most reviews are negatively skewed, since people are way more likely to write about a bad experience than rave about a good one.

The study also pointed out that only 20 percent of adults over 50 use social media, making the point that it’s mostly the young folk who are dishing the dirt on hotels, even though the older demographic is the biggest spender on hospitality.

The company said these are important stats for hotels to keep in mind, since many use this type of customer feedback from social media to make business decisions about how they’re running things. This is something Market Metrix says hotels shouldn’t do.

TripAdvisor — one of the world’s largest travel sites — begs to differ. It defended the importance of reviews through an independent study, which found that 98 percent of TripAdvisor users think the hotel reviews on the site accurately reflected their experience.

The study, which surveyed 2,739 site users, also found that 74 percent of travelers write reviews because they want to “share a good experience” or useful information with other travelers.

Clearly, both these companies are biased. Market Metrix sells customer surveys to hotels and TripAdvisor likes to think of itself as the gold standard for accommodation reviews — and maybe it is. But like Yelp, which recently launched a sting operation to catch companies manipulating feedback, TripAdvisor has also had to take down some bogus reviews.

Source: bizjournals.com

HT Editor