http://www.heraldsun.com.au/travel/news/hotels-to-embrace-tr…
What does everyone think about this?
Could it lead to hotel owners posting fake or questionable reviews to improve their hotels standing?
Personally I get a lot of use out of sites such as TA so I hope it continues to be reliable.
I don't think it will work. Either the company will filter out unfavorable reviews or they will sock-puppet on trip adviser. Considering how many companies attempt to sockpuppet here, i dont think it will take long before workers try and defend or overwrite unfavorable reviews..
On a side note, i don't take anything from the herald/news.com.au seriously. It looks a bit like cash for comment imho, trying to get more people onto the site to check out their new integration. It's accor blog news, not national news.
I think if you take it with a pinch of salt it'll still be worthwhile.
And keeping in mind that everyone have different levels of expectation…and it's only when you're really satisfied or really unhappy that'll lead you to making a review.
Tripadvisor is owned by Expedia Inc (which also owns hotels.com).
According to Wikipedia "TripAdvisor claims that reviews are systematically screened by TripAdvisor's proprietary site tools that are continuously upgraded. Their large and passionate community of more than 40 million monthly visitors help report suspicious content. Also, a team of quality assurance specialists investigate suspicious reviews."
Of course I suspect it would be relatively easy for hotels to create legitimate looking reviews.
LOL, forget moderator, I'm a quality assurance specialist.
It would be a bit naive to think it doesn't happen already. Happens already with Urbanspoon and the likes. Integrating the site with Facebook adds some authenticity but unless there are humans hired to check for sockpuppeting/astroturfing, then fake reviews are always going to be a problem.
As an aside, TripAdvisor reviews are quite an interesting insight into expectations depending on residency. AKA, Americans complain about the smallest things whilst Europeans have a bit more of a tolerance.