Comments on: Why bother with User Generated Reviews?

By: The modern day equivalent of a public flogging? : Tips from the T-List

The modern day equivalent of a public flogging? : Tips from the T-List — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:06:50 +0000

[...] some respects perhaps the new rules are a little late. I recently wrote about the declining appeal of user generated reviews due to information overload as well as mistrust of the [...]

By: An official ban on flogging : Tips from the T-List

An official ban on flogging : Tips from the T-List — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:05:56 +0000

[...] some respects perhaps the new rules are a little late. I recently wrote about the declining appeal of user generated reviews due to information overload as well as mistrust of the [...]

By: Europe A La Carte Blog » Blog Archive » An official ban on flogging

Europe A La Carte Blog » Blog Archive » An official ban on flogging — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:46:15 +0000

[...] some respects perhaps the new rules are a little late. I recently wrote about the declining appeal of user generated reviews due to information overload as well as mistrust of the [...]

By: Darren Cronian

Darren Cronian — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:32:31 +0000

Karen, it’s very interesting that they are dumping social networking, and I’m sure that they had a travel forum which appears to have disappeared as well.

If someone is visiting a site for flights, hotels etc then I personally think it’s unlikely that I would also signup for a social networking site, when you already have a crowded marketplace with Facebook, Bebo and MySpace.

Expedia created a business model of hotel reviews with Trip Advisor and then added on all the extra services you see today, and it is for this reason why it has worked so well.

It’ll be interesting to see what TUI do with holidays-uncovered and what Expedia do with Holiday Watchdog.

As for Travel Rants, I think as more and more content is being added (especially now that I have a writer in Amanda helping me) and more comments are being left by consumers, I think the price of the blog will rise.

Interestingly though type ‘hotel reviews’ in Google and I’m on page 2 for some reason. So I obviously need to visit more hotels and leave more reviews to jump to the first page! ;)

By: karen

karen — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:23:32 +0000

Col, thanks for your comment, I know it’s different when you have kids. The hotel facilities are really important then. Kids Clubs are great as they offer the parents some adult time. The hotel pool is also important as a venue for family fun. Services like early kids dinner etc are useful too.

By: karen

karen — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:18:56 +0000

Darren, I’m not surprised that consumers are dubious about reviews on sites which are owned by large online travel agents.

Interesting to read that Kayak are dumping social networking. I think probably a mix of user generated content and content by “experts” will be the way forward.

Is Travel Rants the only independent consumer travel blog in the UK? If so, you may receive an offer you can’t refuse?

By: Darren Cronian

Darren Cronian — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:03:56 +0000

Just to add.

Tim Hughes of Boot has written an interesting post that SideStep/Kayak have dropped a social networking site because of a lack of participation by members.

http://tims-boot.blogspot.com/2008/03/tripup-our-site-is-dead-go-to-facebook.html

They could have given it to me rather than dumping it! ;)

It does make you think though if all this talk that User Generated Content is King is just media induced tripe. I believe that well written content is still king and that’s why blogs like TR gets great traffic for so many (thousands) of long tail keywords.

By: Darren Cronian

Darren Cronian — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:49:51 +0000

I wonder if this growing disillusionment of hotel review sites is because consumers have caught on that a growing number of these sites are non-independent and owned by OTAs.

Look at the sites listed for ‘hotel reviews’ in Google most of the sites are owned by Expedia. Trivop and Real Holiday Reports will be the next two sites to be snapped up by an OTA or large player in the travel industry.

You read it here first! ;)

By: col

col — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 12:22:19 +0000

Exploring, not spending time in the hotel, obviously no kids then, try and get mine away from the pool and kids club. “Independent” hotel reviews are vital to booking our hotel as everything revolves around it, as the kids have to be kept entertained and we can have a small amount of free time.

By: karen

karen — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:45:49 +0000

Thanks for your comment Gary. The feeling is that consumers are suffering from choice fatigue and fear of bad advice, so are more willing to listen again to the knowledge of “experts” rather than depending solely on the opinion of other consumers.