Hawaii visitors have been trusting online reviews to pick hotels, choose restaurants, and book activities for years. Many of those reviews were fake, pressured, or paid for. Beat of Hawaii first exposed that problem 16 years ago. It never got fixed, and today it is worse than ever.
BOH saw the review cracks early.
Back in January 2009, Beat of Hawaii began documenting something most travelers had not yet considered. TripAdvisor, which at the time dominated Hawaii trip planning, was already struggling with manipulated reviews tied to properties here. Visitors chose where to stay, where to eat, and what to book largely based on those rankings. A small movement in stars or placement could directly translate into revenue, creating huge incentives.
What we found was not minor. Public relations firms described posting fake reviews as “the most basic of tactics in the PR 2.0 world.” Employees were encouraged to write glowing feedback about their own hotels. Competitors planted negative reviews about rivals. The system was already being engineered in ways that were obvious once you dug further.
That reporting was picked up internationally, including by The London Times. TripAdvisor responded by placing fraud warnings on certain Hawaii listings while maintaining that overall, only 9% of reviews were fraudulent. Other reporting suggested the percentage was significantly higher.
Years later, Fakespot analysis estimated that roughly 30% of reviews for Grand Wailea, for example, were unreliable. For a property that most Hawaii visitors recognize instantly, and that we later reviewed personally, that number alone should have prompted deeper skepticism. Other properties showed even higher percentages, but even one marquee resort with that level of questionable feedback tells you the issue was in no way isolated.
The point is not that we were right. The point is that the review problem in Hawaii was identified early, documented clearly, yet never fully resolved to this day.
TripAdvisor faded, but the incentives remained.
TripAdvisor no longer defines Hawaii trip planning the way it once did. The company built its entire brand on the authority of its reviews, and that authority sat at the center of its identity. Once travelers began questioning whether those reviews were real, the entire value proposition shifted. As credibility weakened, so did influence. Revenue and hotel booking growth slowed. The stock price lost most of its former strength. Google’s dominance, OTA competition, mobile and app shifts, and strategic pivots all played roles in the company’s decline. But the credibility of the review was the foundational crack. When trust eroded, the business model suffered.
What stands out is that TripAdvisor’s decline did not clean up the review ecosystem. It merely redistributed the same incentives across more places.
Google reviews do not require a verified stay. Anyone can rate a Hawaii hotel they may never never have entered. Yelp requires no proof you ever visited the business you are reviewing. Facebook too circulates recommendations that are difficult to verify. Influencers blend personal enthusiasm with hosted stays in ways that are not always obvious to readers. The problem did not disappear. It simply diversified.
Technology made this easier than ever. Five-star Hawaii reviews can now be generated in seconds, complete with sunset details, room numbers, and even staff names that sound pulled from real life. If you’re scanning fast before spending $6,000 or $8,000, it’s almost impossible to know what’s genuine and what’s manufactured.
Pressure is now part of the experience.
This kind of pressure is not an isolated incident. Over the past year, readers have described similar moments across the islands. One was asked to leave a review during a scuba activity before even getting back to shore. Others have shared that relying on ratings that turned out to be fake eroded their willingness to experiment.
As a reminder how global this problem is, this recently happened to us while traveling outside of Hawaii. A laminated card with a QR code arrived with the check, followed by requests for a five-star review. We declined, but were asked again gently and then finally as we prepared to leave. The review had become core to the service exchange itself, while bringing the whole subject home once again.
When a rating is solicited in the moment, it gets mixed up with the service itself. It is no longer an evaluation after you have processed what happened. It becomes another layer of the interaction, and that emotional aspect nudges scores upward in ways that may not necessarily reflect the full experience.
The financial stakes in Hawaii make this more consequential than in many destinations. Flights, hotels, rental cars, activities, and dining add up quickly, and visitors’ expectations rise with the cost. One longtime reader told us that after several highly rated experiences failed to live up to reality, it started to “kill the desire to explore.”
What Hawaii visitors can realistically do.
No review platform is immune. Booking.com ties reviews to completed stays. Airbnb has its own verification program connected to reservations. These systems reduce certain forms of fabrication, but they do not eliminate inflated praise, pressured feedback, or strategic rating behavior at all. So while verification lowers risk, clearly it does not remove it.
Instead of focusing on star averages alone, look for patterns. Consider reading lower-rated reviews first and paying attention to recurring themes that resonate with you on both ends of the review spectrum. Specific complaints about cleanliness, service consistency, or maintenance tend to carry more weight than does blind enthusiasm. A long list of flawless five-star ratings with little criticism deserves close scrutiny.
Cross-reference multiple review platforms, but still do not assume consistency equals authenticity. Review marketing initiatives travel quickly, and similar language may appear in many places.
There is also value in ground truth. Those who live in Hawaii revisit places over time and document changes as they happen, bringing more context than anonymous reviewers can. Sixteen years of tracking review manipulation in this state have shown us that while tools evolve, incentives remain consistent. The platforms and the tactics have changed and become more sophisticated. The underlying motivation to influence critically important ratings does not change.
As for that dinner we were asked to review on the spot, it was just okay. It did not warrant automatic perfection. It deserved time to settle before being judged. In the end, we were inclined to leave a less-than-favorable review because that experience tainted the entire evening.
When you are planning your next Hawaii trip, do you still trust the reviews you read, or have you too already started adjusting how much weight you give them?
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From the other side of the fence, my condo in Hawaii was once given a low star review on a travel site by an individual who had not stayed in my condo. The review ranted about the smoking and general courtesy rules of the resort, with no comments referencing the unit he occupied, if indeed he had even stayed anywhere on the property. I contacted the platform, reported that the individual had not stayed in my condo, and requested the review be removed. No response from the website in question.
I have also heard of situations where one condo owner would post negative reviews of rival condos in hopes of steering your business to his unit.
My advice to travelers: Read all the reviews for all the units in the complex you are considering and look for patterns, but don’t believe all the glowing reviews or all the negative ones.
While I scan the positive and glowing reviews, I generally work my way down to the bad reviews! I want to see what guests complain about or unsatisfactory experiences. Then decide whether that’s relevant to our travel needs and expectations. The negative reviews tend to be more revealing, allowing us to manage expectations.
IMO I love reviewers who provide month/year visited as properties and restaurants change with time. Take a photo. Back up your lack of satisfaction with a photo for stained bed linens, bugs, mold, hair etc. What bothers me is the advertised photo of room not even close to what you get when you arrive. Hotels should provide square feet of the room, distinguish next to elevator, laundry room, stairs, or noisy area. IMO I personally like to run into cleaning personnel in that I know the room will even be cleaned. Photo’s don’t lie and they really tell value in the price you pay for what you get. I think in one review BOH had to travel to Walmart or Target to purchase a table just to be able to involve a place to operate a laptop. Most repeat visitor’s stay at the same STR’s, condo’s, or hotels exactly in the same room so factor that in with all the 5 star ratings. All rooms have different views, shade or sun factors, and wear and tear. Check frequency rooms cleaned.
Hi Don.
You have a very good memory. That’s true. https://beatofhawaii.com/new-renaissance-honolulu-luxury-or-letdown-the-truth-revealed/.
Thanks for your 900 comments to date.
Aloha.
I cannot recall a single time I’ve been asked to leave a review in person while anywhere in Hawaii.
Yes, I received an email with a review link a million times, but I hardly call that pressure.
I’ve realized that many negative reviews are posted by people out of spite….a traveler didn’t get the $25 credit they were promised, the maid showed up late, etc…just small stupid stuff that had very little to do with their overall vacation. But these people use the review sites to vent about a small thing when 99% of their vacation was otherwise perfect. Most travelers to Hawaii who had an excellent time don’t post reviews…many reviews are posted by people who have a gripe, which skews the ratings.
“But these people use the review sites to vent about a small thing when 99% of their vacation was otherwise perfect..”
Facts. And that is horrible Aloha on their part.
IMO I think a lot of people are afraid to post 1 or 2 star reviews. Some businesses in a certain state were allowed to sue negative reviewers for deflamation of character because it hurt the business survival or livelihood.
Therefore IMO if I see a repeated problem through a series of reviewers then in my mind it’s more true than not. Most people are really inclined to give a positive 4-5 star review because if you can’t say something nice don’t say nothing at all mentality. Places always change because of new or changing employee’s and hotels age and maintenance conditions also change after years go by.
While it may be true in some places that some businesses can go after someone who writes a bad review, I think that has more to do with the content within the review itself. I have seen businesses actually pay to have reviews removed, regardless of the legitimacy, which I think is just as big of a problem. Also, I think people are more inclined to write negative reviews because a bad experience induces a bigger reaction to share than just a mediocre or “good” experience. More importantly than the rating itself is the content. I see way too many ratings with no content or description, or one sentence, all lower case. Good or bad, I tend to trust ratings where people clearly take time to describe their experience. Additionally, I also look at business responses to ratings too. Especially with smaller businesses that rely on word of mouth. Large franchises or corporations have the pockets to manipulate reviews so when I’m in Hawaii, I find small business reviews to be more reliable.
We closely scrutinize any online reviews for where we choose to book for our stay. We learned the hard way, years ago, when we showed up at a Maui hotel that glowed brightly from online reviews, only to find it to be a dump in reality.
We video recorded a hotel employee, behind the front desk, writing fake reviews and then sharing them with a coworker. They were having a good laugh each time the creative writer shared his fraudulent reviews.
Needless to say, we demanded a full refund and quickly found much better accomodations.
We’re more likely to trust VRBO reviews as they are written by actual guests and their reviews are date stamped with their stay period. This helps us understand if the reviews are old or recent. Recent reviews hold much more weight. It’s important to assume “buyer beware” whenever booking accomodations, especially in such a competative market as Hawaii.
This is in defense of the many owners of vacation rental properties, yes, including myself, who have actually earned their five-star reviews. I’ll use my own rankings as one story of many owners who are like me.
I’ve owned a condo in Poipu since 1998 and I rented it out through an agency for the first 10 years. In 2008 I decided I could do a better job myself…….. better for myself And better for my guests. I have 27-32 parties a year from vrbo. In my ad I let my guests know they are as important to me as if it were my own family staying there. I do Everything possible to make sure they feel that way. I go above and beyond and I have over 160 5-star reviews on vrbo. Now, I read here that people should discount all of that as Fake. No, it can absolutely be true. Let’s not paint with such a broad brush.
As someone who has been in the tourism business for 45 years, I appreciate, qualified reviewers, and of course reviews of customers that actually have used our services. We have had from people that have never been on our charters or have stayed in our accommodations. There are even statements from authors of travel books that I’ve never experienced our services. Look for qualified reviewers. Each review needs to be looked at, the number of reviews, positive versus negative, of course, and how that balances. Even positive reviews from a non-qualified reviewer should not hold a lot of weight!
I don’t think it’s all fake. We’ve had some amazing experiences in Hawaii that absolutely deserved five stars. But I agree the pressure part is newer and more uncomfortable. And, the technology aspect of reviews is concerning because businesses now can just generate detailed fake reviews at such large scale.
Honestly I just assume up to half of online reviews are fake or manipulated at this point. Sad but that’s where we are at.
We rely on first hand reporting more than random reviews now.
Terry, how do you do first-hand reporting yourself when planning a trip to someplace far away that you’ve never visited before?
You don’t
The QR code at the table thing drives me crazy. Let me leave and think about it. A review should not feel like it’s part of the tip.
I used to plan Hawaii trip experiences around TripAdvisor rankings. No more. Now I read the reviews differently, starting with three-star reviews first because they usually sound the most real. If everything is glowing and generic, I move on.
Just to say, reviews are broken everywhere, not just Hawaii. We’ve had the same problem on the mainland, and in Europe too.
I stopped trusting five-star Hawaii reviews many years ago after getting burned several times. Too many “perfect” stays that to me felt average or worse. So now I just check reviews everywhere I can and try to put it all together in my head. No perfect way to vet that’s for sure.
Just returned from Cook Islands via HNL. It was a joke at the airport returning long walk to Alaska counter for PDX flight at 9:45 had to bag drag all luggage from customs go outside the secure area. Only 3 TSA scanners so long lines to get back into secure area. After another get our bags then go through another Alaska check in and security the restaurant was full since they had closed off most of the restaurant. At LAX returning your pre checked bag is routed after customs so you only have to take your carry on back through security.
We recently made the same trip, and while inconvenient, FAR from the worst international travel/customs experience we’ve had. It’s part of the journey, friend. However, what does that have to do with falsifying reviews?