It’s the travel season. I recently booked rooms in far-flung places where I had to rely on online reviews to steer my decisions. I looked for high ratings, seemingly honest guest reviews and photos that travelers had taken.
Do consumers trust online reviews for hotels? Yes, of course they do, and they trust online reviews more than brand websites and ads. TripAdvisor recently celebrated an impressive new statistic: the travel review site reached 100 million reviews and opinions this month. The reviews include more than 2.5 million accommodations, restaurants, attractions, and local businesses in more than 116,000 destinations. Central Park in New York has more than 12,000 reviews!
Here are some of the findings from Trip Adviser:
95% of travelers say reviews are trustworthy.
78% of travelers say reviews help them feel more confident in their booking decisions.
74 percent of travelers say that they write and post online reviews because they want to share a good experience with others.
53% of travelers won’t book a hotel that has no reviews.
35% of new reviews on TripAdviser are submitted by Facebook-connected travelers.
5% claim the hotel was not as good as the reviews implied, but 80% say the hotel met their expectations based on the reviews.
What signals a trustworthy review? Travelers look for the number of reviews, pictures and images, and the quality and detail. And all hotels should respond to hotel reviews. I gave the Hard Rock Hotel in Chicago high marks because they have an active social media presence and will respond to guests on social media. It sets them apart. Almost 90 percent of hotel general managers agree that it’s critical for their staff to manage, respond to, and monitor hotel reviews on user review websites like TripAdvisor, Yelp, Google+ Local, and Travelocity.
To find out how to spot a fake review, check out the infographic from Olery.
