Travel Securely Securely Travel
TripAdvisor, responds to the recent claim that the travel website has too many fake reviews shares the inside scoop on fake reviews from their optic.
The 29-page report shows that since 2018, TripAdvisor has stopped over 1,000,000 fake reviews (really people?). Which equates to about 2.1% of all reviews posted in 2018 were fake (97.9% are real).
TripAdvisor’s senior director of trust & safety minced no words in throwing Facebook and Google under the proverbial bus as not policing their corners of the internet and the reviews within their domain.
“Ensuring that TripAdvisor is a trusted platform for our users and listed businesses is a top priority. We’ve continued to make advancements to our industry-leading fraud detection efforts in recent years, but it’s a daily battle and we are far from complacent. While we are winning the fight against fake reviews on TripAdvisor, we can only protect our corner of the Internet. As long as other review platforms aren’t taking aggressive action, then fraudsters will continue to exploit and extort small businesses for cash. It is time other platforms like Google and Facebook stepped up to the plate to join us in tackling this problem head on.”
~ Becky Foley, senior director of trust & safety at TripAdvisor
What is a fake review?
TripAdvisor defines a fake review as any review written by someone who is trying to unfairly manipulate a business’ average rating or traveler ranking, such as a staff member or a business’ competitor. Reviews that give an account of a genuine customer’s experience, even if elements of that account are disputed by the business in question, are not categorized as fake.
TripAdvisor
Fake reviews fall into three primary categories
Biased positive reviews - an owner, employee, or even a relative — submits a review in an attempt to improve the ranking position
Paid reviews - business employs the services of an individual or a company in an effort to boost its ranking position
Biased negative reviews - deliberately malicious review about a business
Knowing that fake reviews exist, that TripAdvisor is attempting to police their environment, and they can’t be 100 percent successful in that policing. Therefore, Securely Travel recommends that travelers use multiple avenues to draw conclusions on whether or not a review is legitimate before making their travel decisions.
TripAdvisor Content Policy exists — Read this policy here.
For completeness, we have been provided access to the TripAdvisor report and you may download the 29 page pdf below.
