TripAdvisor (TA) has had a long and arguably jaded history and has always been plagued by fake reviews in a business model that demands quantity rather than authenticity. The Times of London said that a third of TripAdvisor reviews are fake.
Late last year, TripAdvisor said that it had either rejected or removed close to 1,000,000 reviews it deemed fake in its latest report. But at the same time, it believes that less than 4% of the reviews are fake, which is at odds with The Times viewpoint.
TripAdvisor too has never achieved a viable business model, fancying itself everything from an accommodation and activity reseller to a booking portal, all with limited success. TA also blamed Google for their rapid decline, which may in part be true.
In 2020 TripAdvisor dismissed one-half of its employees in a shake-up.
Those remaining had to take a pay cut. And the company’s stock price has fallen from $110 about five years ago to $27 today. That in spite of their CEO assuring investors that The Fork restaurant reservations and Viator activity businesses will survive. TA just merged their restaurant and accommodations teams and businesses.
And yet reviews are of tremendous importance.
Qualtrics recently said that 91% of those 18-34 consider reviews online to be as important as personal recommendations. Negative reviews can cost a business millions in lost revenue. TripAdvisor said based on its research that 75% consider reviews to be “extremely or very important when making travel decisions.”
TripAdvisor Plus is their latest failure.
Last year, soon after launching its long-awaited subscription program, TripAdvisor did an about-face. What was to have been immediate discounts on hotel bookings has instead turned into a cash-back offer after your stay. The $99/year subscription was to have yielded savings while booking, but instead will now only provide TripAdvisor “wallet” funds after your stay.
It gets complicated but TA was promoting rates lower than available on hotel websites in order to get subscribers. That clearly didn’t fly with the hotels, which then said they would then not participate in the program.
As of today, going to the TripAdvisor Plus website yields: “Coming soon: Endless travel savings. One simple membership. We’re sorry but Tripadvisor Plus isn’t available for you yet.”
Last fall TA’s CEO said that he was still hoping to enroll tens of millions of members. That sounds like Costco or Amazon Prime-like, and honestly, we just don’t see anything like that happening. He said he expects to add “millions of subscribers over the next years with that same longer-term opportunity in the tens of millions.”
This comes following multiple other failures in a list growing ever longer. Since then the company has tried everything, from being a vacation rental site (FlipKey), a metasearch tool (like Kayak), an instant-booking site for hotels, plus activities, experiences, and dining reservations. Nothing has proven successful, and while they have a 25% share of all hotel reviews, those don’t make money.
For those who signed up previously for the first iteration of Tripadvisor Plus, there is supposed to be a credit or something else announced to help out with your $99 fee.
How are you feeling about TripAdvisor these days?
It sounds like many of us are not going there so much anymore. As a result, what once was big and powerful is now getting smaller and somewhat less relevant.
When TripAdvisor broke off from Expedia over a decade ago, they were the only review game in town and they had both reputation and Google search rankings. Those are both no longer the case.
Uncontrolled fake reviews first wrecked the company.
Two years ago, it was revealed that UK’s Travelodge was caught with fake reviews. Travelodge later “admitted that it had been reprimanded for its behaviour on TripAdvisor.”
At the same time, The Times wrote “A third of TripAdvisor reviews are fake…” They said that top-rated hosts have up to twice as many fake reviews as lower-rated ones. “Hotels and restaurants are trying to cheat their way to the top of TripAdvisor.” TripAdvisor has an alleged zero-tolerance fraud policy. You tell us, how could both of these be true?
Review checker software plays a role too.
It is not uncommon to find up to 40% of a given hotel’s TripAdvisor reviews being tagged “unreliable” using a review checker like Fakespot. Try checking yourself and see. Top reviews yield significantly more business, and fake reviews can be purchased in order to make money at our expense. TripAdvisor and other companies in the review space have been lax in doing anything about this.
When TripAdvisor’s fake reviews first made the news.
Beat of Hawaii was one of the first to write about TripAdvisor reviews and fraud in January 2009 (articles below). That was republished in the US, Australia, and Europe. Here’s what we first said:
“Intense competition in the travel industry, greatly exacerbated by the state of our economy, has caused hotels and other travel providers to artificially manipulate review rankings in order to achieve increased bookings and revenue.”
Where to get verified reviews.
We all crave reviews before committing, but at the same time, it is very hard to discern the real from the professional, fake results. Where have you turned? The review sources we use ourselves are the ones that have largely taken over where TripAdvisor left off, namely Airbnb, Booking, and Google. Also Facebook. They aren’t even close to perfect either; just saying.
What are your thoughts? Are you over TripAdvisor?
Original Beat of Hawaii articles on TripAdvisor review fraud:
TripAdvisor And The Big Business Of Fake Reviews, Part 1
TripAdvisor And The Big Business Of Fake Reviews, Part 2
Can TripAdvisor Stop Review Fraud?
Post updated 2/22/2022.
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Aloha everyone.
I must say I will go regularly to Tripadvisor for reviews. I would also compare reviews with the individual sites, whether hotel, air, restaurant or activity. Usually, I book things directly, but the reviews certainly help. I can’t think of any major failure….or have I just been lucky?
I feel things would be worse without Tripadvisor.
Once again, Mahalo Jeff and Rob for posts and updates.
Hi Michael.
Next time we’ll share some crazy personal review stories and will leave it at that for now. Best to you. And hope you escape that UK wind storm.
Aloha.
I really value TA when choosing activities and destinations. In return, I enjoy leaving detailed reviews that I hope will help other travelers. It’s been a fantastic resource for me to find many worthwhile excursions. I joined TA Plus for a significantly reduced hotel rate in Vegas, as well as general savings of $10 per person on most daytrips and cruise excursions. I think you can usually tell which reviews are legit. The vengeful and manipulative spirit of Yelp, Google, fb helps nobody.
I have been doing reviews on TripAdvisor for many years. We eat local, travel quite a bit. Last year, 2021, we spent on average $700.00 a month at restaurants. Somebody has to be the good guy! As far as looking for reviews I check several others…
In past years I was an avid user of TA’s Maui forum found it loaded with upbeat knowledgeable posters offering great trip planning advice.
It has since been hijacked by a couple of individuals living on Maui who feel the need to offer negative reviews of restaurants and resorts that they themselves have not visited in several years.
I prefer Yelp reviews.
With all the negative reviews allowed on Yelp if your business has a positive 4 or 5 star rating you earned it.
I remember when Trip Advisor first started, before it strayed from its path. The reviews were pretty honest back then, and I contributed many reviews and tried to be balanced. Now it seems there are reviewers on many sites who seem to be out for revenge, so not only are the reviews unbalanced, but the contributors too! I research several places for reviews whether it’s a product or vacation related before making a decision.
So who’s reviews are to be trusted?
I count on TripAdvisor for restaurant reviews (and occasionally hotel and activity reviews). When I read the reviews, I discount the ones that are “generic” and focus on the ones specific to someone’s experience. If fake reviews are being posted to Trip Advisor, why wouldn’t we expect them to be posted to other sites too? We can be discriminating by choosing the quality of the reviews we read on any site.
Aloha! I stopped using TA as most of the ratings had gotten stale (over 3 years old). Not only was it chaotic to use, but it had become cumbersome because it was loaded down with so many old pictures. Several of the hotel sites had visitor pictures dating back to 2006, some that were tagged with the wrong hotel, and rarely had the room number associated with the ratings. I often wondered why TA didn’t clear those off their site since they were essentially useless. I now check Google and Yelp for ratings, etc. Please stay safe and be well.
Hi Debi.
Thanks again.
Aloha.
I dropped Trip Advisor 2-3 years ago and never looked back … the information they provided was a complete waste of time for me and they send an annoying amount of unsolicited emails, even when asked not too …
IMO, Trip Advisor is basically zero help unless you know zero about travel and have no ideas, don’t know how to investigate destinations, confused by booking accommodations, and overwhelmed by choosing airlines or other means of travel — all on your own.
I’m sorry to hear about the issues TA is having being profitable. I’ve used TA for many years to plan our vacations – hotel, restaurants, and activities and have had great success. I think I’m pretty good at spotting the fake reviews and what to look for. As with any website, it’s best to look at the reviews with an open mind, not as the last and most truthful word. We’ve had some great vacations on Maui and the Big Island using TA reviews and we always tell the vendor where we heard of them, which most appreciate a lot. I checked out Fakespot and was less than impressed. Not a deal breaker for me. I might use it in the future, but not all the time.
Aloha! And Mahalo for sharing this story. I thought it was just me that there was something up with TripAdvisor. While yes, we cannot go anywhere anytime soon, we can start thinking of planning our dream vacations. 🙂 So I have been looking around at places that might be comparable to Hawaii and the reviews just do not make sense sometimes. Ugh. Such a shame. I used to value their reviews. But now, there are so many better blogs, Facebook Group pages, Instagram tags, that you can learn from. But any who – thanks again for sharing your insight to this matter. Much appreciated. Have a great day!
Hi Stacie.
Thank you! It is interesting to see in comments that visitors think they can spot fake reviews. Perhaps they do not realize how sophisticated a business fake reviews are or how expertly their content is crafted.
Aloha.
Trip Advisor is a good source for those us of not in the tech loop about activities and things to do and see. there usually isnt a profit motive for reviewing National and State parks but rating them for safety cleanliness and usability is. That is where I find the value in TA And Ive learned to sort out the fake reviews ie. overly bad or overly good and look at the majority of reviews for accommodations such as proximity to highways etc. However all the online booking sites do this annoying thing that says “Hurry Only one left at this price” something like that. I try to contact the accommodation directly for better pricing and service. Yes its work but nobody wanted to use travel agents anymore who rely on returning clients Yelp is notorious for manipulating reviews. And asking others on TA what they think of some place is also good. There are too many players in the mix.
I liked TA very much but then they changed and became sterile and the reviews you could tell some were written by non tourists. For a while they were outstanding. Hope theycome back as their reviews were invaluable when planning a European trip or going to the Taj Mahal or Yellowstone. They cluttered it all up with car rentals and flights.
I used to try to help other travelers by reviewing my experiences. But this exposed me to a relentless spam bombardment by Trip Advisor. I closed my “account” and I’m glad I did.
I did see a lot of fake reviews, but on the other hand Amazon and all other large outfits have the same issue.
You can do pretty good research with Lonely Planet and Google. It takes some time, but it’s better than travel sites, which are all trying to push you in one direction or another to sell you something.
I’ve always loved Trip Advisor and have somehow missed the fact that they haven’t been able to manage a profitable business model after all these years (but can’t say I’m surprised, it’s a tough racket). Their reviews have helped me choose a lot of hotels over the years and and a few activities when traveling. I think I’m pretty good at sniffing out fake reviews but maybe I’m naive.
In any case, I’d be sad to see them go. I would never, ever want to use Facebook to check reviews, and I find the interface for Google reviews to be poorly designed and annoying. Booking.com is fine.
Thank you to Beat of Hawaii for this helpful and interesting blog. We had hoped to come to the islands soon after an absence of more than 15 years, but who knows how long it will be now, major boo hoo.
Hi Susan.
Thank you. Hope that you will return again soon.
Aloha.
I use TripAdvisor alot, especially for hotel recommendations and hints/tips for things to do at a new destination. I have seen ‘fake’ reviews in the past, I tend to ignore them.
My family and I, went to Austria, Italy with a short trip to Germany last summer. I used TA to find restaurants to start. It gave me some really outstanding tips.
I left some reviews when we came back and some of the managers requested me to contact them next time we visit so that they could speak to me in person.
Others thanked me for the positive comments. I’m glad that I used TA while there, otherwise, we may not have found excellent service and food that only the locals would know.
I like Trip Advisor. I used them ALOT. And, certainly before every trip. I travel somewhere about every 3 months by plain, ship, RV, and car.
I recently submitted a review, which was 100% factual, concerning VRBO and a condo at the Mahana in West Maui. It was about the owner cancelling my prepaid reservation 2 days prior to arrival, no refund. VRBO Tolstoy me I didn’t qualify for refund. TripAdvisor, which fas posted maybe 100 of my reviews, told me they wouldn’t publish my review because it wouldn’t be helpful to other travelers. Huh? VRBO still part of Expedia, T/A must still be part of that
Yelp does that, too. The reviews they hide as “not useful” are often much more revealing than the ones they show. They can talk all they want to about algorithms and whatever, but these policies aren’t really defensible.
We have a condo down the road from Mahana and use VRBO to book some, I believe that the owner had to refund you. I would contact VRBO again. Sometimes the agents have absolutely no clue what they are talking about.
Good luck.
I have a fair amount of experience contributing reviews and I DO read a lot of reviews. Fake or real, you can’t learn much by a four or five-point rating system. Teddy’s Bigger Burgers on Maui gets similar stars compared to Merriman’s with similar comments, “it was amazing.” Similarly, fake to real, 1-star ratings don’t tell you much. When you read the comments on copter tours, the lowest ratings often are because the company canceled the tour, usually weather. I think the key is to look at the 3 and 4 stars and looks for patterns in the comments. I ask does the pattern match something that means something to me?
How important are the number of stars? I had a B and B guy on the Big Island tell me that my 4 stars from my previous visit hurt. I asked if he read my comments which were outstanding, but the bathroom in the premier unit was minuscule. He said people look at the number of stars. Do you think that is true? I read the comments.
I have personal rule of not trashing a place based on one experience. I also refuse to let a less than perfect experience ruin my day or trip. If I do smack a place, I try to be as specific as I can and if the negatives include employees, I supply names. I also email the management.
Something I’ve gleaned from your website is the importance of knowing the questions to ask of oneself, e.g. what do I expect from the experience, and the questions I hope to get answered from reading a review. Snorkel tours or wild dolphin tours are good examples of knowing what you expect and what you’re going to get. It is also good to know that when you “ask a friend,” you tend to get what they like in an experience and the pricepoints and value they live with. Are those the same as you?
Although we’ve been to the islands dozens of times, we still find a tour or restaurant we haven’t tried and we frequently are reminded, “if you had a great time, be sure give us a review on….”
Hi Thomas.
Thank for your many thoughtful reviews!
Aloha.
I was an avid TripAdvisor devotee for years. I worked hard to post reviews of resorts, hotel stays, restaurants,etc. But over time would see people with blatant fake profiles post and just name drop staff members but no real substance of additional information. FB Fan Pages are my go to these days. Sad I had worked up a pretty good status with TA. I still go there for pictures of places – they seem fairly reliable.
I like Trip Advisor and have had great success with it over the years.
I’ve used Trip Advisor in the past when looking for things to do (off the beaten path) in the places we’re visiting. We had a major score in Bermuda a couple years ago, while visiting on a cruise. Pointed us on a self-guided excursion to some hidden caves in public areas, which only the local folks frequent, where you could swim in the caves and cost nothing more than the local bus fare to get there. It provided better than what everyone else was paying $100+/person for.
I’ve also given back, by contributing reviews of the unique places we’ve been, to help others who might not want to take a chance on something which is out of the way, not well known, or visited by few.
Unfortunately, any popular site is going to have its share of fake reviews. Happens all the time, whether it’s Amazon, hotel websites, other travel websites, or Trip Advisor. It’s the downside of their own success. Folks post the fake reviews there because they know that it is successful and gets lots of visitors looking for information. Like everything else online these days – Buyer (consumer) Beware.
It is a sad fact that most websites giving advice on travel amongst other things are either purveyors of dubious reviews or they write reviews based on criteria that I find irrelevant and ignore major issues which to me are deal breakers. A clear example is the Points Guy. It is pleasant to note that this site tries to inform rather than opine which is why I keep reading. Yes, some of it I know already, some of it puts me right when I misunderstood. Some of the replies are not to my taste but hey the world is a big place and who says I have to like everybody. The fact that you also favor Kauai made me realize it was da kine.
Hi Rich.
Thank you!! We appreciate your comments.
Aloha.
Wow! Thanks for this information. I must admit this is so disappointing. My family has rarely had the opportunity to travel, but next fall we are taking our dream vacation to Hawaii. Based on all the reviews, I planned on staying at the Ka’anapali Beach Hotel. I had no idea about fraud. I am a lot more nervous now about planning our trip.
I also find it disappointing that if and when we do travel, any review that we may leave will be discounted since we have written no other reviews.
Thanks for all you do! People like me really need it.
Hi Kristin.
Thanks. Better to be aware than surprised. We once stayed at a vacation rental that had apparently good reviews and had taken their photos using a fish eye lens. What was called spacious turned out to be painfully small. We did leave a review.
Aloha.
Interesting and helpful. Here’s another story about fake reviews in the opposite direction. When I bought my condo on Maui there was a horrible review about it on TripAdvisor about ringworm. The owner, an attorney, was able to have it removed, but the scamming guest went unpunished.I rent out my condo in Kihei, am a SuperHost on AirBnB. I was off island and couldn’t check a guest’s claim that there was a mouse that kept them up at night, and that the washing machine had mold. I comped her some money back, hired pest control, and had condo staff and my cleaner check the washer. No mold, no mouse. When I wrote to ask for my money back, she said no. And, in case you didn’t know, AirBnB is happy to host the accommodations and relay the money, but they do nothing to help a host with a problem. I’m also getting stories from other owners around Maui about guest fraud. So, some of the reviews on AirBnB are also untrue, but they are written by real people.
Sadly, it isn’t just TripAdvisor that you cannot trust.
We booked a VRBO rental on the big Island with 5 star RAVE REVIEWS only to find that there was only cold water running from a garden hose to the ‘outdoor kitchen’ sink and that the outdoor kitchen was useless due to hoards of mosquitoes that swarmed around you during meal prep – and this during a Dengue fever outbreak. The owner continuously sprinkled the bushes and plantings around the ‘outdoor kitchen’ – thus making certain that there was a continuous crop of new vicious skeeters.
The dining room was a room beyond the living room – we had to carry all food through the living room. DUH! Who designed this condo?
The queen sized bed was horrendous! Sagged so badly that we fought to sleep on the edges. No night stands.
The ‘quiet, serene, peaceful’ description didn’t apply. At night, we had to keep the sliding door open for ventilation = then we got to listen to sirens and large trucks. There was also heavy machinery early in the morning with construction just a block away. (this was not the owner’s fault. We just feel it would have been nice to mention that and let the renter decide if that was the type of experience they were looking for. We weren’t).
The worst? The itsy, bitsy, teeny, tiny DARK bathroom with a shower that measured 24 x 20 inches and had no light. You could not tell if there were creepy crawlers in there with you or not. You were literally showering in the dark. We at least fit into the shower. But any person of size would not have been able to even take a shower! We paid $1500 for the week in 2016. A really lousy experience.
THIS PLACE HAD ONLY FIVE STAR REVIEWS AND THEY CONTINUED FAR BEYOND OUR VISIT!! We wrote to the owner – no response. We wrote to VRBO. No response. I did not leave a review. I figured it won’t be posted or no one would believe me anyway.
Similar experience with a VRBO rental in Mexico. LOUD XMas parties from 10 pm until 3, 4 and 5 a.m. They really party in Mexico. Talk about LOUD. No mention was made of his in the ad and I know the owner KNOWS that this happens during that time of year EACH AND EVERY YEAR! A Warning to anything even thinking of staying on Playa Norte Isla Mujeres during XMas season!
They say a picture speaks a thousand words. THAT was before the invention of Photo Shop!!
I occasionally use TA Forums, but rarely use it for hotel reviews. I wrote one review that they declined to post. Have not bothered since. It was not a five star review. Whatever algorithm they use must favor five star reviews from fakes!
oh well……….
I had never heard of Fakespot before, interesting tool. Trying out the Chrome extension (despite ITS bad reviews). Thank you!
Thanks Erin.
Aloha.
Thanks for this information. I have been an avid TripAdvisor reviewer for many years and this makes me sad. I go to great efforts to fairly review businesses, most of them in Hawaii. I might be thinking twice about it, and I will definitely be looking at the reviews with a more diligent eye. I do like the idea of the forum for getting more accurate information. How does a review testing website work? Thanks again for this information.
Hi Tammy.
You can read about how it works on the Fakespot website. It may well not be perfect, and there are others too. But the value is obvious since otherwise, you have to wade through up to thousands of reviews.
Aloha.
Yeah, it’s amazing how people view TripAdvisor reviews as gospel.HOGWASH!
They will take off reviews that are completely legit and reprimand the company for planting that review. Yet, at the same time allow false reviews?
I guess their ever mysterious method and use of algorithms ain’t working so great now is it?
Not to mention since when does the public have the best view point on a lot of things and how many of them are predisposed to only saying nice things and would rather not if bad? You know, if you don’t have anything good to say don’t say anything at all
Have you gotten any additional information about the problem with the Hawaiian Airlines Neo Jet? I emailed the company and go the usual “we’re checking into it”. We’re traveling soon on Hawaiian air, and I’m a nervous flyer at best.
I noticed the Waikolai Hotel (rainbow tower) in Honolulu isn’t on your list of top 10 hotels. Pls tell me it’s a great hotel!!
Hi Valerie.
You can get the link from TripAdvisor and paste it into Fakespot to see how it does.
Aloha.
I think this is a big issue. The worst I have found is in UK. Reviews are generally suspicious anyway. When I see various magazines with 10 awards I often completely disagree with their findings and one has to accept that different people have different priorities. Whilst that is not dishonest, comments about cleanliness etc that are fake definitely are a fraud. Worst for me have been UK restaurants..
I’m curious how the new short term rental law has affected those rentals on Oahu. Are the number of advertised rentals reducing or remaining unaffected? And has anyone been cited for a violation?
All your comments are from 2018!
Good article…still a valid and relevant concept.
Thanks Grant!
Aloha.
I used to write reviews on TA for just about every place we did business. After reading about how much of their site is scam reviews I have stopped reviewing altogether.
Hi Grant.
Good to hear from you. Concur completely – stopped posting reviews there a decade ago and deleted profile.
Aloha.
I stopped posting as well when two negative reviews of “5 star” properties were not posted. The worst was a booking at The Hotel Regina in Wengen Switzerland. The hotel was listed as a luxury property and was a real splurge. The rooms were tiny and dilapidated and nothing worked properly. In the vaunted dining room our table had no two legs of equal length and wobbled terribly. When we asked to be moved to another table, the hotel solved the problem with a matchbook placed under one leg. As I stated, my fact based review, exact but politely written, was never posted.
“…..there is likely an equal business providing negative reviews” for rival companies. “Likely”??? Logic says to agree but can’t make that claim without some basic evidence.
Why no mention of Yelp? Are they somehow immune to all of this or are you just biased against Trip Advisor?
Hi im travelling from la to Hawaii sep 2019 my luggage is paid for. Then when my holiday in Hawaii finished I’m going to Las Vegas do I pay for my bags for this journey? Thanks.
Hi Mary.
We haven’t any idea. Have you contacted your airline?
Aloha.
Use Trip Advisor forums instead of reviews. You can actually have a discuywith people. The forum regulars know Hawaii very well, and they are tenacious at exposing business that self promote. TA treats the forums as poor relation. But they are a great way to learn and have discussions with people who love to help you love Hawaii.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g28932-i36-Hawaii.html
Thanks for the very useful article! Hard to know where to find accurate info these days. Even some TA forums seem populated with undisclosed hired help. Then there’s the honest awkwardness of going back to a favorite restaurant to find quality slipped.