Airbnb is on an amazing growth trajectory, set to double the number of bed nights booked this year to 80 million, after seven years of operation. The sharing accommodation platform claims to have 1,5 million rental listings around the world .
A lot has been written already about the effect that Airbnb has on the hotel industry, Continue reading →
A study conducted amongst just more than 1000 German travellers in December 2013 and January 2014, and with input from 1500 hotels in European countries, has found that travel review sites are believed to contain fake reviews of tourist attractions, restaurants, and accommodation!
The Worms University of Applied Sciences in Germany evaluated the reliance of travel review sites, their credibility, and consumer requirements. The findings of the study were the following:
* Reviews are consulted by one in two travellers, half of these recognising that they should handle them with ‘care‘.
* Half of travellers say reviews are an important input to making accommodation decisions, but friends’ recommendations and the establishments’ website influence their decision too.
* Twitter followers, Facebook friends, customer reviews on review sites, YouTube views, and blogposts on blogs can be bought.
* The majority of travellers read up to 20 reviews
* The majority of review readers consider reviews to be credible, but content must be credible
* Reviews are not credible if they are unlike all others, and if their wording is not believable. Videos and photographs add to Continue reading →