Do you trust online hotel reviews?
Welcome to my blog, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Evidently a Scottish hotelier has admitted posting made up glowing reviews of his establishment on the Trip Advisor site. I am not sure how this problem can be overcome. I know you have to register when you write a review but is is a bit much to expect a site like Trip Advisor to check the crudentials of everyone who posts a review.
I think that reports like this will further fuel the growth of travel social networking sites like Gusto. On these sites you can read a profile of the reviewer so you can get hopefully place more belief in their opinion. Also opinion is very subjective, one mans meat is anothers poison. If you feel that a contributor to a social networking site is on the same wavelength as you, then their review may be more applicable to you.
Another dilemma for me is should I promote my business on a social networking site.You can read about this debate here. You could argue that that any reviews I write will be biased, as I am only interested in selling the service. I would suggest that this would be counter productive for me in the long run as it would become known on the social networking site that I did not give honest reviews and I would be discredited. Whereas if my reviews are proven to be honest then I will build up a good reputation and secure more business for myself in the long term. Also I am upfront in my profile about having a travel business.
What do you think? Would you believe a hotel review that I had written? Would you be suspicious of someone promoting their business on a social networking site?
January 11th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
[...] I would like to ask your opinion about what you think makes a good destination guide? I find that the best way to market the business is to promote my destination guides as widely as possible and have the full text of the guides or links to the guides published on other websites. This helps Europe a la Carte come up in the first couple of listings when searches are made for the destinations which I feature. So my guides need to be good; useful, informative and interesting. However it is not that easy to write about travel. My aim is to give the reader a desire to visit the place about which I have written. Yes, there needs to be some factual information but I believe that having links to more detailed information is the best approach, as not every person who reads my piece will want to know everything about all topics. The issue of User Generated Content was discussed is a thorn issue. The main accommodation affiliates which I use, Venere and Active Hotels do have feedback and ratings from guests. However user reviews have been somewhat discredited recently. link to: http://www.europealacarte.co.uk/blog/?p=33 I always write a comment about any accommodation I have stayed at or visited. I do always try to be objective, whether readers trust my reviews or not, I don’t know. I think how much emphasis you give to your accommodation depends on the sort of holiday you are taking. Do you think you will spend a lot of time in your hotel room? Will it just be to sleep and shower, as you will be out all day sightseeing, so basic, clean accommodation will fit the bill? Whereas if the trip is to celebrate a special occasion such as a wedding anniversary you do want your hotel to be great. I think that photos are a crucial part of any destination guide, you know the the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. I could wax lyrical in flowery language but I don’t need to if I have good photos. I think that a destination guide needs to have a structure that makes it easy for you to find the parts that you are interested in. I try to summarise the attractions of each destination in a “unique points” paragraph. to give you a taster of the destination to decide if it appeals to you. So back to my question of what you think makes a good destination guide? I’d love some feedback from you! [...]
February 3rd, 2007 at 12:18 pm
[...] New research shows that UGC is more trusted than travel agents sites. I don’t think that these findings are exactly ground breaking. I would have expected a higher percentage of people it’s only 20% to trust user generated reviews than trust content on travel agents’ sites, that stands at 12%. I have discussed this topic before. I think that only sensible approach is to use a few several different sources. I think that the system used by Active Hotels, on of the hotel affiliates I use, is a good approach. You can only submit a hotel review if you booked the accommodation through the Active Hotels website and using the email address provided at the time of booking. With sites like Trip Advisor anybody can log in and post a review. [...]