 |
| From Trip Ad Liars |
Trip Advisor, the most
famous user-generated review site in the hospitality industry, the one that we
have no need to present to anyone, has been “red-flagged” in his turn.
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| From Brisbane Times |
The Advertising Standards
Authority in Britain, after several complaints from a reputation management
firm and two famous hotels, has decided to investigate and hold the website
responsible for misleading Trip Advisor users, implying that all the reviews on
site were trustable and from real and honest travelers.
Apparently, the company has met some
strong reactions from businesses that accuse Trip Advisor to publish “fake” and
“defamatory” reviews. This investigation tends to be a serious affair for some
businesses that have been unfairly challenged by the famous website. Small
hotels that do not receive a high amount of reviews can be highly damaged by
excessive and false accusations of food poisoning or bud bugs hostels.
Indeed, up to 2000 hoteliers have clearly expressed complaints to
kwikChex, a reputation management company that fill the complaint, and felt
unfairly represented online. This same company claims that Trip Advisor is not
as trustable as it claims to be, estimating around 10 million the number of
fake reviews on the website and accusing the travel community website not to
authenticate, verify, or remove fraudulent posts proved to be false
accusations.
For now one, the website
will no longer use the famous slogan “reviews you can trust” but the brand new
“reviews from our community” regarding the fact that reviews are not verified
and proved to be true.
Trip Advisor has quickly responded
to the rumors by arguing that this slogan change has “nothing to do with the
ASA’s investigation” but was a response to “evolving communications efforts of
the company, highlighting their commitment to their
all-important community”.
As it is not the first
time Trip Advisor disturbs the crowds, it now does not claim to be ”100% free
of fraud” and has made some efforts regarding advanced fraud detection systems.
But under those redemption facts, it seems that the time of authenticated
reviews has not come yet. Despite Trip Advisor could have the resources to
implement significant changes regarding trustworthiness, the company that did
not stop to grow since its creation in 2000, makes us wonder about the limits
of user-generated content in the tourism sector as effective tools for both the
suppliers and customers if not regulated.
Keywords: Generated-user
content, community, trustworthiness, complaints, reviews
Source: Hunter, M. (2012, February). TripAdvisor scolded by UK ad regulator for "trust" claims. CNN Travel. Retrieved on the 7-Feb-12, from
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