{"id":517,"date":"2010-02-04T13:19:25","date_gmt":"2010-02-04T13:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/croatiatraveller.com\/blog\/?p=517"},"modified":"2010-02-04T13:19:25","modified_gmt":"2010-02-04T13:19:25","slug":"avoiding-tripadvisors-fake-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/croatiatraveller.com\/blog\/avoiding-tripadvisors-fake-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding Tripadvisor&#8217;s Fake Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The problem that has bedeviled <strong>Tripadvisor<\/strong> for years has recently come to a head with a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.travolution.co.uk\">report <\/a>that hotels are regularly approached by companies offering to plant positive reviews for a monthly fee.<\/p><div id=\"croat-1084996113\" class=\"croat-content croat-entity-placement\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-4787844071747328\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-4787844071747328\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"7926307719\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Planted Reviews<\/h2>\n<p>The travel industry site,<strong> Travolution,<\/strong> reported that one hotel received paid <strong>positive reviews before it was even open<\/strong>. The allegations were picked up by the <strong>Telegraph<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/travel\/7129475\/Can-we-trust-hotel-reviews-on-TripAdvisor.html\">(Can We Trust Hotel Reviews on Tripadvisor?)<\/a> who noted that &#8220;if it was possible to unearth all the fake reviews, there    might not be enough red pen to go around. Like drug users in sport, the    people committing the offences are nearly always one step ahead of those    trying to catch them&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Tripadvisor Response<\/h2>\n<p>Tripadvisor claims that it devotes considerable time, energy and money to weeding out fake reviews but is it enough? A combination of human screening and automated tools is supposed to identify fraudulent posters but reviewers and hoteliers have complained that the system is still manipulated. Responses to an <a href=\"http:\/\/current.newsweek.com\/budgettravel\/2009\/06\/tripadvisor_tries_to_respond_t.html\">article in Budget Travel<\/a> on the subject included users disappointed with supposedly wonderful hotels and\u00c2\u00a0 hoteliers bludgeoned into upgrading guests brandishing a potentially negative TA review.<\/p><div id=\"croat-1051104205\" class=\"croat-content_2 croat-entity-placement\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-4787844071747328\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-4787844071747328\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"7926307719\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">A Network of Shills?<\/h2>\n<p>Some users claim that they can spot a planted review because the reviewer has a meager profile with few other reviews. Not so fast. Edward Hasbrouk of <a href=\"http:\/\/hasbrouck.org\">The\u00c2\u00a0 Practical Nomad <\/a>attended an industry conference in which &#8220;Elias Plishner, V.P. of the interactive division of the McCann-Erickson advertising agency, boasted that, &#8220;We have an entire division in Singapore [where labor is cheaper than in the USA] devoted to seeding online forums and bulletin boards with targetted content&#8221; for our advertising clients. Worse, these people are paid to spend months, in between assignments, creating profiles and posting &#8220;neutral&#8221; messages to establish a credible online persona and background from which to post their secretly-paid advertising messages. . .&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/hasbrouck.org\/blog\/archives\/001182.html\">see blog post<\/a>)<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Solution<\/h2>\n<p>So how to get credible hotel reviews? Frankly, I don&#8217;t use Tripadvisor. I have better things to do than wading through dozens of reviews trying to figure out which ones (if any) were planted.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookings.net\/country\/hr.html?aid=322276\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-522 aligncenter\" title=\"booking-en_468x60banneranim1_en\" src=\"http:\/\/croatiatraveller.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/booking-en_468x60banneranim1_en.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"60\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There are a number of hotel booking sites that post <strong>reviews by guests that have actually stayed there. <\/strong>I use either <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookings.net\/country\/hr.html?aid=322276\">booking.com<\/a><\/strong> or <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hostelbookers.com\/hostels\/croatia\/?affiliate=croatiatraveller\">hostelbookers.com<\/a><\/strong>. Here&#8217;s how it works: after your stay the agency sends you an email with very detailed questions about the establishment. The review is then posted, anonymously if you wish. ALL of the guest reviews on these sites are necessarily made by REAL guests. Sure, there are fewer reviews but the ones that are there are more reliable. It&#8217;s your choice.<\/p>\n<p><script src=\"http:\/\/www.hb-247.com\/stc\/flb.cfm?b=468x60_bagaan&amp;affiliate=croatiatraveller\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><div id=\"croat-3573238154\" class=\"croat-below-post croat-entity-placement\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-4787844071747328\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-4787844071747328\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"7926307719\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The problem that has bedeviled Tripadvisor for years has recently come to a head with a report that hotels are regularly approached by companies offering to plant positive reviews for a monthly fee. Planted Reviews The travel industry site, Travolution, reported that one hotel received paid positive reviews before it was even open. The allegations were picked up by the Telegraph (Can We Trust Hotel Reviews on Tripadvisor?) who noted that &#8220;if it was possible to unearth all the fake reviews, there might not be enough red pen to go around. Like drug users in sport, the people committing the <span class=\"excerpt-dots\">&hellip;<\/span> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/croatiatraveller.com\/blog\/avoiding-tripadvisors-fake-reviews\/\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bos_mb_destination":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-croatia-hotels","tag-croatia-hotels"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Avoiding Tripadvisor&#039;s Fake Reviews - Croatia Travel Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/croatiatraveller.com\/blog\/avoiding-tripadvisors-fake-reviews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Avoiding Tripadvisor&#039;s Fake Reviews - Croatia Travel Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The problem that has bedeviled Tripadvisor for years has recently come to a head with a report that hotels are regularly approached by companies offering to plant positive reviews for a monthly fee. Planted Reviews The travel industry site, Travolution, reported that one hotel received paid positive reviews before it was even open. The allegations were picked up by the Telegraph (Can We Trust Hotel Reviews on Tripadvisor?) who noted that &#8220;if it was possible to unearth all the fake reviews, there might not be enough red pen to go around. 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