How TripAdvisor changed vacation-planning universe – The Washington Post.

“TripAdvisor has more than 84 million reviewers, and their critiquing styles vary wildly. Balanced and tempered. Highly observant and specific. Overly enthusiastic. Nit-picking and negative.”

Object Reviews are Key

Its the overly enthusiastic that are often fraud which is something that TripAdvisor works very hard to eliminate and because of thta it has the best rating and viewership of all review sites (see graph below)

Eliminating Fraud a Top Priority

Adam Medros, in charge of fraud at TA pointed out that they have 5o or more filters to detect suspect behavior.  He compared the process to a biologist singling out And says “A team of inspectors investigates the claim, and if their suspicions are verified, TripAdvisor may affix a red badge to the hotel’s listing, a scarlet letter that could scare away business.”
Apparently fraud is found in only a fraction of reviews. “The owners know it doesn’t pay,” Medros says.

Users of  TA like Ginny Cunningham, pint out that TripAdvisor has freed them from having to rely on hyped reviews from company that have a vested interest and as he says “want to profit from my choices.”  He adds “Frommer’s, Fodor’s and travel agents are great, but they’re exceedingly limited in the real-life feedback they offer.”

And that i think is the key to TAs success, real reviews by real people, not glossed over comments that are nothing more than an advertisement. That too is the reality of the digital age, which makes one wonder just what is the future of advertising – see blog on advertising at a crossroads

Will Reviews Replace Ads?

Not only has TripAdvisor Changed Vacation Planning, it has changed travel and it may be on its way to change how we advertise or for that matter the entire advertising industry! 

Cleraly there is a move to more authentic adverting and marketers are keen to use more social content and sharing to Engage and Influence buyers rather than just Promote and Market to them. This will become the standard in the future!

Dark Clouds on the Horizon?

But not all is smooth sailing, as we shared in a recent post, and TripAdvisor Strategy may be on Shaky grounds as it mixes its old mission of having the best reviews, to becoming just another OTA.