Have you ever noticed that these prefacing statements are often precursors to a tall-tale? Well, when it comes to endorsements (or indictments, for that matter) of travel experiences it becomes equally difficult to separate fact from fiction.
User generated and social travel review sites such as TripAdvisor and HotelChatter have become mainstream options for travelers seeking a third-party review of airlines, car rental companies, tour operators, hotels, and vacation rentals, to name a few. Millions of people use these sites to obtain a less biased review than they would get by looking at a travel services supplier website or brochure.
But, how un-biased are these sites in reality?
It's a question that we should all ask ourselves. After all, many of these sites are supported by advertising revenues. This applies a not-so-insignificant amount of pressure on the site operators/businesspeople to make sure the people paying the bills are happy. I know this may sound cynical, but as a former advertising executive myself, I can tell you that there is a significant moral hazard present in advertising supported businesses. Lest we think that the big, colorful real estate section in our local newspaper is there because the editor just couldn't wait to tell you about the new sub-division opening up on the other side of town. I have friends in the newspaper business that tell me a meaningful portion of the content is written to garner paid advertisements. So ask yourself - Is it real news or bait to lure-in advertisers?
When it comes to review sites, how trustworthy is the 5-star aggregate score for the service provider in question? Case in point, Yelp was hit with a class action lawsuit alledging that they are really running an extortion scheme. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a collection of local businesses that alledge Yelp promises to remove negative comments about their businesses only if they agree to pay a monthly advertising fee. Whoa. If that's true it really makes you wonder whether you're actually getting reviews of real exerpeinces or just the positive ones. Anyone that has used Yelp knows that there's no shortage of inflammatory reviews of service providers. Many of the negative reviews are actually really funny, but most are plain outrageous and could be considered libelous in some jurisdictions.
Forrester Research examined the motivations of travelers that read and wrote reviews of travel experiences. The research found that 21% of travelers had read reviews on travel review sites like TripAdvisor in the previous 12 months in order to make travel purchase decsisions. The research also found that:
- 19% of the travelers who responded said that they left a review because they were told they would be entered into a drawing for a prize or would receive some form of compensation for submitting a review.
- 27% said they wanted to warn others about a bad experience.
- 48% said they wanted to share a good experience with others.
Indeed, many marketers would argue that the revolutionary impact of the social networks and user generated content sites (like travel review sites) is embodied in the ability to inspire, monitor and, (cough, ahem!) control word of mouth marketing. Of course, the transparency offered by social networks can cut both ways. As travelers, we ought to question the credibility and integrity of some of the advertising supported review sites. Perhaps a more faithful representation of travel experiences could be gained by polling your own social networks using a Facebook poll or some sort of survey. But even then it would be difficult to gain a large enough sample size or let alone locate anyone within your network that has purchased or consumed services from a provider in your intended destination.
Despite the moral hazard, review sites might still over the best solution in the market for obtaining fast background checks on potential service providers.
How about you? Do you trust these review sites?
Russ
Russ Hearl
CEO & Co-Founder
Sherpa Travel Exchange, LLC
601 Van Ness Ave., Suite E208
San Francisco, CA 94012
http://www.staysherpa.com/
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