Choice warns TripAdvisor users to be aware of fake hotel reviews

[CarolF Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CarolF]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/travel/t...-1226757110257

TRIPADVISOR has come under attack over fake reviews, with consumer group Choice warning holidaymakers to be on the lookout for hotels' tricks.

Its warning comes after an Accor hotels staff member was reportedly caught posting more than 100 positive reviews on TripAdvisor for Accor hotels around the world.

"The boom in hotel review sites has given rise to the practice of 'astroturfing' or the writing of fake reviews by companies to promote their own accommodation," Choice head of media Tom Godfrey said.

"Yet US-based Trip Advisor, the world's biggest online travel review service, has no plans to improve its verification processes."

More than 88 per cent of Aussie travellers check user reviews before booking a hotel, Choice reports.

Responding to the Choice investigation, TripAdvisor spokeswoman Jean Ow-Yeong said: "Trip Advisor has used sophisticated filters and behavioural modelling. Our large and passionate community of 260 million monthly visitors let us know if they see something amiss."

She said the site has "a world-class international team of specialists that spends 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, making sure our reviews are real".

But Choice pointed to an example in July where a UK restaurant with rave reviews turned out not to exist.

In the US, the New York Attorney General recently levied hefty fines on 19 companies that wrote fake online reviews and created fake online profiles for businesses.

The ACCC and NSW Fair Trading are looking in to similar practices in Australia, Choice said.

Choice has highlighted the option of third party verification - an option that Expedia websites in some countries have chosen to use.

The process requires the reviewer to provide transaction identification reference or evidence there has been a commercial relationship.

Expedia Australia would not say whether it would adopt a similar third-party verification method, Choice said.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for hotels.com - an Expedia subsidiary - said: "Once the stay is completed, we send the guest a link so they can write a review. No incentive is offered for this information."

Neither Travelocity nor Orbitz responded to questions about verifying the authenticity of reviews.

Read more of the Choice report on hotel review sites.

Choice tips for spotting fake reviews:

• Check reviews about the same business from different sources.

• Keep an eye out for tell-tale signs of fakery such as a sudden increase in positive or negative reviews over a short time frame that are out of sync with earlier reviews.

• Beware of reviews that are allegedly from different people but are suspiciously similar in tone and style.

• A one-star rating by a reviewer for a five-star hotel should be regarded with suspicion.

TripAdvisor also offers tips on how to ensure its reviews are reliable:

• Becoming a registered TripAdvisor user may seem like surrendering your anonymity (to the extent that you have any at all online!), but you'll be able to find out more about the reviewer and the hotel and be in a better position to check on the review's authenticity. You can opt out of being sent promotional material.

• Check the public profile of the reviewer to see what other reviews they've posted. Do their reviews seem balanced and consistent? You can also email the reviewer directly with questions about a specific property if you're a registered user.

• Connect with Facebook friends who've posted reviews on TripAdvisor - another way of double-checking the authenticity of a review.

For more information, read TripAdvisor's guidelines about posts and rules on fraudulent reviews.

[ArtsieAng Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close ArtsieAng]

Hmmm, Interesting! Something to take into consideration, for sure.

[Hobbitess Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobbitess]

I think reading reviews for places you've been to, or before and after you go, can give you a good feel for the dishonest ones. Used to be, you could generally discard the "one post" ones, because a lot of the fakers just posted to the particular one they were interested in. Enough people know about that now that the fakers will often do a couple of extra "nothing" reviews, where they really don't say anything informative about the places they aren't interested, then either rave about the place they're trying to promote, or go into great detail about the place they're angry at.

Timeshares seem to bring the resentful guys out; reading on places I've stayed at, some of the negative reviews are clearly All About Revenge. If I'm familiar with the place, I can usually ferret out what originally set them off, but they'll pile on all kinds of accusations I know were not true, along with some stuff that might be true (most resorts and hotels have a unit or two that are not up to par, and someone who is there on a holiday weekend will get stuck with them). Reading Disney World reviews can be a lesson on people who are gonna say nice things no matter what -- I can't count the number of WDW resort reviews I've read that are five star despite problem after problem after problem, where you KNOW the reviewer wouldn't have given anywhere else so many stars. Which is not dishonest reviewing, but rather, from my perspective, inaccurate. Brand names don't do much for me, but there are plenty of studies showing that some people really do get enough of a zing out of a brand name to compensate all manner of problems. I call it the "Yeah, but I was still at Disney!" phenomenon.

Mostly I look for specifics on Trip Advisor, rather than "love it", "hated it" or the star rating, and it serves me pretty well.

[gandalf252002 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gandalf252002]

I think what concerns me most when reading reviews of timeshares on Tripadvisor, is that they are reviewing the sales experience and not separating it from the property itself. Not that there is anything wrong about posting comments about the sales people, tactics etc. but there are some very nice resorts that get a bad wrap because of a single experience. People have a tendancy to focus on only one aspect and not review it as a whole.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

I always try to post a review on Tripadvisor myself and am now a "Senior Contributor"
whatever that means with 50plus reviews.

I always check TA and read the reviews.
I also find that when a hotel doesn't like my review that they will respond below my review.
I do try to give the hotel a chance to remedy the situation. Some do and some don't.

As to the Disney Kool-Aid drinkers, I think that many of the reviews are favorable because if
you have a problem at a Disney hotel and bring it to management's attention they will more
than bend over backwards for the most part to remedy the situation. Many times very
generously with a refund or cash credit to your bill. That makes those who would have been
quite unhappy with paying a gazillion dollars for their Disney vacation a little happier about
accepting the shortcomings. I find Marriott is also very good with this too.
But you gotta speak up first so they know there is a problem.

As for Choice, I'm not crazy about their brands so can understand if they are being hurt
by other chains getting a better review. They are bottom feeding in the hotel industry so
of course they are going to get some tougher reviews. But if all you can afford is a
Super 8, then somebody's gotta do it. I'm just thankful that I can stay in timeshares
for Super 8 and Motel 6 prices.

I see TA similar to the ebay feedback system. If you have a 95% positive experience
from most buyers then it's easy to just ignore the negative responders. But if you see
50% complaining then stay away.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

I have never yet written a review because it is a very personal opinion, IMHO. What I like and treasure may not be important to someone else at all and visa versa too so I hardly ever read reviews on Trip Advisor or other boards nor would I review the resorts we own because I am biased.

Trip Advisor saved our beacon once because DH had booked hotel reservations on three Hawaiian Islands and I asked him why he had chosen them instead of renting a timeshare since we were staying a week at two of the three islands. Late that night, I went in Trip Advisor and two of the three hotels had very bad ratings while one of them was a well known hotel but they had lost their lease so let the place run down completely but not the prices so I woke my husband up in the middle of the night to come and look at the comments and we looked at all the comments. We found two replacements with excellent reviews so booked them the next morning and even returned to one of them a second time.

I don't like to post restaurant reviews either because I have regretted it. We raved about a restaurant on Maui and went with our friends and it was the worst meal we ever had so you never know.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

The real problem is the shill posters who try to get junk to look good and it happens wherever including here.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

The real problem is the shill posters who try to get junk to look good and it happens wherever including here.

But we know they won't get far here with you around.

[jerrry94087 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jerrry94087]

I have never yet written a review because it is a very personal opinion, IMHO. What I like and treasure may not be important to someone else at all and visa versa too so I hardly ever read reviews on Trip Advisor or other boards nor would I review the resorts we own because I am biased.

True, but some points are shared by a significant percentage of people.
I wrote a very bad review for the timeshare in Italy few years ago, and got 6 useful votes. Hopefully this helped people to avoid this bad resort. Now, after few years I see few good reviews there for the same resort, suggesting they did some remodeling of the problem areas. Hopefully this resort turned around and is making improvements.

The other issue with many review sites is that they always have vested interest in their own business making revenue, and their own interest has nothing to do with fairness or objectiveness that many would expect, but rather with their own cash register activity. I saw cases when Yelp, for example, would hide some reviews and not others making certain businesses appear in better or worse light, depending on if this business pays Yelp or not. They were even sued for this several times, but they always had better lawyers than the other parties. And what particularly upsets me is that they would hide my review not right away, but in a week or so, when they think I stop paying attention. Sneaky them!

So I would take all reviews with the grain of salt, and will always look if the business has ads or coupons with this company which may cause reviews

[BWolf Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BWolf]

jerry94087: We've given up on Yelp. Yelp seems to be a bunch of young kids who claim they use "algorithms" to distinguish between good and bad reviews. I asked one if she knew what an algorithm was, and got stone cold silence. I just burst out laughing. They shuffle three shells around, but the nut isn't under any of them.

TripAdvisor is a pretty good resource. Throw out the over the top reviews and the very negative reviews and try to judge the rest based on merit.

[CarolF Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CarolF]

As for Choice, I'm not crazy about their brands so can understand if they are being hurt
by other chains getting a better review. They are bottom feeding in the hotel industry so
of course they are going to get some tougher reviews.

I didn't realise that you have a hotel chain called Choice. "Choice" in this article refers to the name of an independent consumer advocacy group - http://www.choice.com.au/

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

I didn't realise that you have a hotel chain called Choice. "Choice" in this article refers to the name of an independent consumer advocacy group - http://www.choice.com.au/

LOL, so funny how a couple thousand miles of ocean makes all the difference in perspective.

Here is our choice brand.
http://www.choicehotels.com/
Not terrible but not great either. Affordable motels with free breakfast for the most part.
I used to stay in many before I discovered timeshares so I can speak from experience.
I think Econolodge and Rodeway Inn are the bottom of the ladder in Choice.

I once was going to check into an Econolodge in Kissimmee near Disney and they had bulletproof glass
in the "lobby". Needless to say I went elsewhere and that trip convinced me to purchase DVC and of course
the rest is history.

[CarolF Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CarolF]

Apparently we have Choice Hotels too. I haven't used them but I did recognise the Comfort and Clarion brand names. I wouldn't feel comforted by the presence of bulletproof glass either lol.

I posted the original article because Accor hotels has a timeshare system in the Asia Pacific called Accor Vacation Club. It is a points system which owns individual units (accommodations) at 21 resorts/hotels within the hotel chain.

My main complaint is the quality of the beds Accor put in their timeshare accommodation, they were good for the first 2 years but have sagged badly for the last 4 years. They are currently doing a "hard upgrade", so I'm hoping they will upgrade the quality of the beds or replace them more regularly. A number of TripAdvisor reports give a poor star rating for Accor "Sleep Quality" but no discussion within the text. Very frustrating. I think my main complaint with TripAdvisor is that the reports often don't reflect the star rating but on the whole there is a lot of helpful and useful information available.

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

I have been a member of Trip Advisor for several years and have posted 148 reviews. I check the reviews for hotels and restaurants many times. I read between the lines and don't pay any attention to reviews that appear false or don't apply to what I am looking for. I have never been disappointed yet by using them to select hotels or restaurants in areas I am not familiar with. I also participate on their forums.

[1950bing Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 1950bing]

I have been saying for years that TA can not be trusted. It's a G.O.B network.