Warning over bogus holiday reviews

[HW Techie]

From today's Daily Telegraph -
"Holidaymakers have been warned not to rely on many of the reviews that are posted on increasingly popular traveller websites - because they are written by the hotels themselves.

Review websites, such as Tripadvisor, Holidaywatchdog or Virtualtourist - with reviews written by customers - have sprung up in recent years and become very popular with holidaymakers.

However, the consumer group Which?, in a report published today, warns that many of the glowing reviews are posted by the hoteliers and restaurateurs themselves."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml? xml=/money/2007/09/05/cnhol105.xml


"Neil Fazakerley, at Holiday Which? magazine, said: "I used to think user websites were a great idea, then I visited some hotels which had decent reviews and they were rubbish. My opinion now is that a hotel which has bad reviews is probably bad, but a hotel with good reviews might not be that good.""

Discuss -

[HW Jan.C]

well cant speak for everyone but I think that is total rubbish,, this web site is a gold mine of information on anyone looking to book holidays, I always look at reviews before I book myself and always have done. Looking through holidaywatchdog many reviews are not that flattering and then some are glowing, it depends on what your looking for from a holiday, everyone is different. I KNOW holidaywatchdog is an honest review site and the reviews are all checked and if at all suspect they are binned. we rely on holidaymakers from every walk of life to give their unbiast aspects of their holidays and hotels. I cannot speak for other review sites but I know this is the best review site on the internet for honest opinions on hotels etc.
Jan x

[HW Techie]

This was also discussed this morning on GMTV -

http://www.gm.tv/index.cfm?articleid=26834

[pubestone]

My advice is, take reviews with a pinch of salt, the main website that was pinpointed as a huge culprit was Trip Advisor, which only seems to print what suits them anyway and is full of locals promoting themselves, a FACT! Also reps have been using TA to initaiate scare tactic to try to push people into paying for their overpriced excursions going on about insurance etc. Well, guess what, you are not insured either way! Your normal holiday insurance is all you need. Check for yourselves.

Apparently hoteliers have been getting their own staff to make bogus reviews and also leave bogus bad reviews on hotels they are in competition with, so who can you trust? Not TA for a start. As Whoch mentioned TA having the owrst record of bogus reviews, i wouldnt believe a word that is printed onthe review pages whatsoever. Best opinion, your OWN!

[HW tenpin]

A fairly easy way to judge is by the number of posts a member has, or even if we are familiar with the posters name.

On this site I would think that anything over 50 posts would be a good indication that a member comes in regularly.
Even so please judge by your own opinion and that of our fabled reviewers.

Just a thought on this, could we list date of joining & No of post on the reveiws?

[pubestone]

Tenpin,

that is a great idea, i also think that any hotel that maybe providing fake reviews who are caught out (all sent fromt he same IP address etc) should be listed, who would want to stay at an hotel who does something like this? I wouldnt and would like to know of any hptel posting fake reviews, i shouldnt think it is hard to acheive for HW and others?

Some forums are slowly turning into a farce, it is such a shame there are so many people spoiling it for others. There are the nasty posters who only post to start an argument, there are the mountain of touters and reps posting fake stuff and using multiple usernames on various forums (always can tell due to the grammer etc who they are) and then the others who only go on for a laugh and abuse others. I am sure the majority of people are genuine, but as hoteliers, reps, touts know about these sites now, they are using them for thier own personal gain other than what they were meant for, swapping stories, giving travel related advice and holiday tips, what is happening to these sites? Why do the moderators allow this to happen?


I have been followed by a local idiot from Egypt from forum to forum, i had to inform HW why i wanted the username i was using removed (it wasnt and i wont refer to it because of this idiot) but thats another story.

There are two taxi drivers in Sharm who uses a multitude of usernames to try and gain business, one brit female uses fear as a marketing tool, on here are Alibabas, on TA as Ally19, DahabAlly, etc etc to name a few and now AshleyJP on Trip Advisor, why do the forum allow this to happen? The male usernames are Elembaby, Ramy97 and to many others to mention, just be careful if approached by these individuals.


Advice from a mod would be useful right now and what they intend to do to police it better.

[HW Techie]

Hi,

can you clarify exactly what your question is please? Happy to answer any queries anyone has, especially related to the thread topic.

[pubestone]

Techie,

the question is how can the mods make sure fake reviews are not being posted? Will the mods note if multiple reviews are being made about the same hotel from the same computer?

Would you consider compiling a list for members to view if it is found that a certain hotel is expoilting this site or trying to defame another hotel it is competative with? I certainly would question if i want to stay at a hotel if the staff post fake reviews.

Would HW take action with touts and reps using this site for their own personal gain?


I know it must be difficult challenge but the protection of your members/veiwers is paramount. It is a shame that sites like this will be treated as an advertising platform rather than an honest information source.

Members and viewers rely on honesty of others, its is a huge shame this have been brought to light today as i dont know what to trust now.

[HW Techie]

the question is how can the mods make sure fake reviews are not being posted? Will the mods note if multiple reviews are being made about the same hotel from the same computer?

We have several ways of combatting this, including IP checks. We work very hard to ensure all the reviews are genuine that get published on the site.

Would you consider compiling a list for members to view if it is found that a certain hotel is expoilting this site or trying to defame another hotel it is competative with? I certainly would question if i want to stay at a hotel if the staff post fake reviews.

Although it's not too difficult to pick up 99% of fake reviews, it's nearly impossible to state who posted the fake reviews. So it wouldn't be fair to list hotels we get fake reviews for as then their competition could use that against them. Hope that makes sense?

Would HW take action with touts and reps using this site for their own personal gain?

We try to prevent everyone and anyone from spamming the site. We are happy for people to plug their business if they are here to generally help others. CarolG is a great example of this, she never has spammed the forum, but everyone with an interest in going to Turkey knows she has a Travel Agency in Icmeler and respect her for her honest and helpful posts.

I know it must be difficult challenge but the protection of your members/veiwers is paramount. It is a shame that sites like this will be treated as an advertising platform rather than an honest information source.

Again, we don't allow people just to flog their wares on the site anywhere.

Members and viewers rely on honesty of others, its is a huge shame this have been brought to light today as i dont know what to trust now.

OK, I've been keeping this one bottled up all day -

Today's news that some reviews on holiday review sites like this one, are bogus isn't really new.

Last November this story ran across several Sunday papers, and pointed out several hoteliers who had posted positive reviews on TripAdvisor and other sites, then admitted doing so.

There are always going to be some "dubious" reviews that slip through the net.

Holiday Which? are the company behind the press release that recycled this story again. What possible agenda could they have? Hmm.. possibly getting you to sign up for a subscription to access their "expert" reviews?

They also seemed to assume that the great British public were so gullible as to believe every review written on these sites. I don't think anyone who uses review sites for any product would completely give over their self-will and not be able to apply their own judgements.

There you go, I feel better.

[HW John]

Any publicity is good publicity, glad to see the name in lights.
Shame on the media, as always it must have been a slow news day but we all know, you cant believe the crap you read in the comics.