{"id":55579,"date":"2014-03-27T00:51:07","date_gmt":"2014-03-26T22:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=55579"},"modified":"2014-03-27T00:51:07","modified_gmt":"2014-03-26T22:51:07","slug":"travel-reviews-under-review-majority-of-travellers-and-hoteliers-say-they-contain-fake-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/accommodation\/travel-reviews-under-review-majority-of-travellers-and-hoteliers-say-they-contain-fake-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Travel reviews under review: Majority of travellers and hoteliers say they contain fake reviews!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Travel<\/a>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<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0of tourist attractions, restaurants, and accommodation!<\/p>\n

The Worms University of Applied Sciences in Germany evaluated the reliance of travel review sites, their credibility, and consumer requirements. \u00a0The findings of the study were the following:<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Reviews are consulted by one in two travellers, half of these recognising that they should handle them with ‘care<\/em>‘.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Half of travellers say reviews are an important input to making accommodation decisions, but friends’ recommendations and the establishments’ website influence their decision too.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Twitter followers, Facebook friends, customer reviews on review sites, YouTube views, and blogposts on blogs can be bought.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 The majority of travellers read up to 20 reviews<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 \u00a0The majority of review readers consider reviews to be credible, but content must be credible<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Reviews are not credible if they are unlike all others, and if their wording is not believable. Videos and photographs add to credibility, as does the recency of the review.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 The majority of travellers feed back that the reviews reflected what they experienced, and 20% even said that the establishments were better than the reviews reflected.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0If they doubt a review, they will not book the establishment.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0Fake reviews are definitely included in review sites, confirm more than a third of travellers and hoteliers, with another third stating that fake reviews are probable.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 The majority of hotels encourage reviews from travellers at Reception, or telephonically, by e-mail, or letter.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 German hotels spend 5 hours per month reading their reviews, and 3 hours to read those of their competitors.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Less than a fifth of hotels use software to manage the reviews.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0Half of European hotels confirm that they have experienced fake reviews.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/strong><\/span><\/a> \u00a0Twitter: @WhaleCottage<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0of tourist attractions, restaurants, and accommodation! The Worms University of Applied Sciences in Germany evaluated the reliance of travel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[7,124,25,248,1590,22,21],"tags":[32367,7647,32378,2381,24556,27,24553,24554,1587,32373,24555,3941],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t