Fake reviews - hype or hindrance

Diane Clarkson | November 14, 2006, 02:03 PM

With the growth of traveler hotel reviews, there are ongoing media stories of hoteliers posting fake reviews.

I’m often asked if these fake reviews will undermine traveler reviews. The days of blind trust are quickly ending. I suspect we will see a growing importance in the number of reviews per property.

Critical mass formerly meant the number of properties reviewed. There will be more emphasis on the number of reviews per property as savvy reearchers will increasingly eliminate the highest and lowest reviews, instead searching for common themes amongst the middle.

Interesting to note, the Scotsman.com ran a story yesterday about a Loch Ness hotelier posting fake reviews on TripAdvisor. While the reporter admonishes the hotelier as unrepentant, he fails to note there were 54 reviews for this hotel or that the first page of reviews included the titles “What a dump”, “Awful”, and “Sadly disappointed”. Really, how much impact did this fake reviews have?