White Paper: Are TripAdvisor Reviews Bogus?
21 December 2011
Are TripAdvisor Reviews Bogus?
As online reviews have grown in popularity, attacks regarding their authenticity and trustworthiness have increased. TripAdvisor, the leading online review site for hotels, has been criticized for allowing reviews to be posted by anyone about any hotel, without needing supporting evidence. In an attempt to evaluate the legitimacy of these concerns, we compared results from TripAdvisor reviews with the Market Metrix Hospitality Index (MMHI), a well known hotel customer satisfaction panel in operation since 2001. Customer evaluations for 67 hotels were directly compared using TripAdvisor1 and MMHI data for 2009. The results indicated that these sources provide consistent results by property although more variability was identified in the TripAdvisor reviews. This is the first study that we are aware of that empirically evaluates the reliability of user-generated reviews for hotels and should help address questions raised about the credibility of user-generated reviews and review sites. We also suggest how review sites might better present hotel results and inform users about how to make better use of the reviews.
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