‘One in three TripAdvisor reviews are FAKE’ with hotels and restaurants buying glowing reviews for £7, investigation finds
An investigation has found that a large number of reviews on the site seem to have been uploaded by websites which offer glowing praise for a fee
UP to a third of reviews on TripAdvisor are fake with hotels and restaurants buying positive reviews, it has been claimed.
Analysis of tens of thousands of reviews on the site has shown that top rated bed and breakfasts have almost twice as many “false” reviews as lower ranked establishments.
An investigation has found that websites are offering glowing reviews for £38, according to The Times.
Others allowed owners to bulk buy reviews for less money, with one offering 10 positive reviews for £69.
One restaurant owner admitted to the paper he had already posted “a large number of positive reviews” but wanted further help to boost his ranking.
He wrote to a website offering fake reviews set up by The Times: “I’m looking to improve my TripAdvisor account, I’m currently 3.5 [out of five] and would like to be 4.5 in the next month, please let me know if you can help.”
“The Times investigation is based on entirely flawed techniques.
“The methods used by Fakespot are completely unreliable for one simple reason: they have no access to the technical data you would need to determine whether or not a review is fake.
“We do, and we have been using this data for over a decade to track millions of reviews.
“If Fakespot’s methods were in any way reliable, we would be using them.
"We have tested their analysis, with reviews we know to be either genuine or fake, and the results show it to be completely unreliable and inaccurate.
“We are the experts in catching fake reviews, not Fakespot. Their business model is dependent on convincing users that review sites cannot be trusted. Our site is built on trust.
"If the content wasn’t useful, if it wasn’t delivering great recommendations, then consumers wouldn’t keep coming back to the site.”
Responding to TripAdvisor's comment, a Fakespot spokesman said: "Fakespot's mission is to bring trust and transparency back to the Internet and improve the consumer experience on sites where we analyse reviews, including TripAdvisor.
"If our service saves only one consumer from booking a holiday based on fake reviews then we have done our job.
"Contrary to TripAdvisors claims, we have access to all of the technical data we need to give consumers a reliable Fakespot Grade of reviews on TripAdvisor.
"Furthermore, to express that we are not experts in catching fake reviews is not supported by the fact that we are trusted by millions of users to spot fake reviews on Amazon, Yelp, TripAdvisor and the Apple App Store.
"On Amazon alone, we have analysed over 2 billion reviews and have saved countless consumers from buying products based on fake reviews."
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