Experts involved in the British Channel 4 investigation warn that “tourists are extorted money for hotels through false reviews.” In this regard, they explained how to distinguish a false opinion from a true one.
Usually, people plan their summer holidays in winter. However, it is better to be careful with hotel reviews. Many tourists choose a hotel based on what people have said before. But some comments can be written to order.
“97% of Brits read other people’s reviews when booking a hotel. And Channel 4 research has shown that one in three hotel reviews are fake,” says Kim Burgess, director of the customer experience at Feefo.
However, the hotel staff can also write their opinion, which is done to increase the rating.
To avoid being scammed, the first thing to consider is this: “The safest option is to read reviews from platforms that have been vetted and have gone through robust review verification procedures. And open platforms are places where anyone can leave a review without any verification,” says Burgess.
In addition, there are templates for fake posts like “The best hotel I’ve ever stayed in.” Too-flattering reviews can also be fake. Several comments may be written by a bot or by the same person, in which case the similarity in their posts is immediately noticeable. Then, if a lot of good reviews come in one day, this is also done to cover up a bad post from a little earlier. Even if the name of the hotel is mentioned several times in the review, this is done to manually increase the rating. A true opinion is usually written in detail, including small details.
In addition, people can seek help from tour operators, who have a reliable way to gather information about real customer opinions.