Is TripAdvisor and social media the easy and correct way to finding travel advice?

Abstract:

This paper discusses whether or not the tourist can trust Trip Advisor and social media in general when seeking holiday advice. Issues regarding the negatives about TripAdvisor are raised including the outcome of what can change to gain back the tourists trust.

Key words:

TripAdvisor, social media, holiday advice, tourists' trust

Discussion paper:

Is TripAdvisor and social media the easy and correct way to finding travel advice?


Gone are the days in the 21st century when every tourist goes to their local library or book store to research about the destination they will be going to on holiday. Well of course not, is probably what you're thinking when reading that sentence and this is obviously correct. With consideration, yes some tourists still probably do like to use books as their method of learning about where they will be travelling to. However in this day and age with the easy access of the internet and smart phones, who really has the time to read through tonnes of books?

"Social media is fundamentally changing the way in which travellers and tourists search, find, read and trust, as well as collaboratively produce information about tourism suppliers and tourism destinations." (Sigala and Christou, 2012)

The vast majority of the world is signed up to social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter, Google is used every day and Wikipedia is used as a source of finding out information. TripAdvisor is a holiday review website with links to both Facebook and Twitter as well as a Smartphone app for anybody to download and use - so technically TripAdvisor is a very popular website that can be seen and accessed by so many people across the world.

TripAdvisor has been around since 2000 and has been accessed by thousands upon thousands of tourists each day for the last thirteen years when holiday advice has been needed. However until recent years there have been many articles in the media accusing TripAdvisor of not checking reviews properly through their screen checking systems, with regards of fake and malicious reviews of hotels and tour operators. A spokesman for Tripadvisor when questioned in relation to fake and malicious reviews stated: "Our policy clearly states that, in addition to profanity, no hate speech, sexually explicit language or graphic reports of violent criminal activity will be tolerated. We are proponent of free speech and we believe many aspects of a traveller's experience are valid travel planning considerations." However Smith (2010) writing on the behalf of The Telegraph argues that if you log on to TripAdvisors' website and type the words 'racist' or 'racism' into the search engine you might be surprised by what you find as these words crop more than 2,300 times in reviews.

TripAdvisor makes an implied admission that you cannot trust all reviews. A spokeswoman said: "Our advice to travellers is to throw out the anomalies that appear overly critical or overly complimentary. What is left is the collective wisdom of the community." She added that the site has more than two million photographs to help people make an 'educated evaluation.' (TripAdvisor, 2013)

Kwikchex have frequently criticised TripAdvisors' approach to screening procedures - proof of this is that Kwikchex submitted three fake reviews of a restaurant on the same day, two of which were identical - just over a month later, the reviews were still on the site and the restaurant had risen to 17th best in London. "Such case studies blow apart TripAdvisors' claims about sophisticated filtering systems, and illustrate how unreliable its reviews are," said Chris Emmins, founder of KwikChex, which - since 2010 - has been campaigning for TripAdvisor to accept only reviews from authenticated patrons rather than anonymous users.

Smith (2010) states: "A poll carried out by The Telegraph Travel earlier this month (March 2012) suggested that nearly 90 percent of our readers would support such a policy." However TripAdvisor (2012) argue this statement: "We stand by the proven model we have in place, because we believe all travellers, not just the one individual who made the reservation or has the receipt, are entitled to share their honest feedback about where they have stayed. Requiring a proof of stay would dramatically reduce the number of reviews available. No system, verified or not, is perfect, we are continually working to stay ahead of those attempting to game the system."

So basically this indicates that TripAdvisor puts travellers' personal thoughts of their company to one side and just carry on like nothing has been brought to their attention to improve their service. It also seems evident that TripAdvisor would rather its company image be dragged through the mud, instead of stopping and acknowledging what it can do to actually change and improve. A dissatisfied visitor is the worst publicity for a destination or product and destination (Page and Connel, 2009). Taking this into consideration it is hard to understand as you would think TripAdvisor being the top holiday review website would want to stay at the number one position - but with so many articles in the media about fake reviews of hotels and restaurants etc, surely this will mean that tourists will go elsewhere for holiday advice and they will know what they will reading is not true. Therefore to conclude, there is always the possibility that tourists may opt to going to their local library and book store after all as they know what they are reading there will at least be true.

References:

Kwikchex (2013) TripAdvisor reviews. [online] Available at: http://www.kwikchex.com/tag/tripadvisor/ [Accessed: 29 Apr 2013].

Page, S. and Connel, J. (2009) Tourism A Modern Synthesis. 3rd ed. China : John Yates .

Sigala, M. and Christou, E. (2012) Social Media in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality . Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited .

Starmer-Smith , C. (2010) Tripadvisor reviews: can we trust them?. Telegraph , 08 Oct.

www.tripadvisor.co.uk (2013) TripAdvisor. [online] Available at: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ [Accessed: 29 Apr 2013].

The author has selected an interesting question to form the basis of their discussion 'Is trip advisor and social media the easy and correct way to finding travel advice?' Although the title appears thought provoking and interesting, there are many possible routes which can be taken to provide an answer, such as, the notion of the 'correct way' is dependent on personal opinion, and as soon as personal opinion is brought into the online travel review it becomes very difficult to discuss the idea of trust (Sparks & Browning, 2011).
The main reason for commentary on this discussion paper is due to primary research that I have previously conducted on the area of the online travel review in the context of consumer trust and confidence.

The author begins by introducing change that has developed within the 21st century, however, wrongly assumes that every tourist used to head to the local library in order to find travel information. It may have been better placed for this study to evaluate the transformation between WOM (traditional word of mouth) and EWOM (e-commerce word of mouth) to grasp a better understanding of the online travel review. Stringham and Gerdes (2010) state that consumers often seek the opinions of likeminded consumers before making a purchase decision, the author may have been better suited elaborating on this notion rather than the transformation from the traditional travel book.

With reference to the point "Trip advisor makes an implied impression you cannot trust all reviews" this is showing trip advisor do not hold faith in all their reviews. The author also added this notion of making an 'educated opinion' using the photos on trip advisor. This is a very good point to add to the argument of trusting an online review, as currently authors have contradicting opinions of the unbiased appearance of the online review (Sweeney et al, 2008: Hu et al, 2011) and the idea of 'education' playing a part in your interpretation of the consumer generated information.

I believe this discussion paper is placing too much pressure on the social media outlet and trip advisor, of course the author is correct in suggesting trip advisor should do more to combat against manipulation, but responsibility must also lie with the online user to determine for themselves where to place their trust. It cannot be assumed that every over critical or over complimentary review is a fake, as it has been noted that a consumer that has a bad experience will feel a moral obligation to post a review, and with the internet acting as a barrier the consumer will begin to ignore general behaviour and produce more negative styles of communication, possibly producing a very real online review. It therefore falls to the consumer to determine which review to give more weight to.

The discussion is well structured and explanations are provided for points raised, however when researching the subject of the online travel review there needs to be a clear focus in mind, when the author included an element of trust, trust must clearly be defined in the context it is to be discussed. The online travel review is a very difficult subject and I believe the author has found a starting point, however it become important to delve beyond the surface when dealing with such a complex subject.

Hu, N., Koh,N., & Lui, L. (2012). Manipulation of online reviews: An analysis of ratings, readability, and sentiments. Decision support systems, 52, 674-684

Sparks, B., & Browning, V. (2011). The impact of online reviews on hotel booking intentions and perception of trust. Tourism Management, 32, 1310-1323

Stringham, B., & Gerdes, J. (2010). An analysis of word of mouse ratings and guests comments of online hotel distribution sites. Journal of hospitality marketing and management, 19 (7), 773-796

I chose this paper because it interested me to understand a different view to my own, with regards to social media's influence on the tourism industry. From personal work experience I have been in regular contact with different forms of social media whilst working in the hospitality marketplace. I have dealt with various General Managers whom held responsibilities for checking their hotel's reviews and answering reviews if necessary.

The paper discussed the reputation TripAdvisor holds in the perception of the media, that has been formed due to the poor policing of comments. I think it is important to point out that albeit TripAdvisor being the leading review site, it actually holds little sway in the actual booking of the holiday. I have come to this conclusion through my own personal experience and research into the hospitality side of the site. It is definitely fair to say that customers do infact check and look at the rating and reviews on the site. however it holds little effect on the overall business for hospitality, as it is more often than not that the customer is influenced to book through reassurance, better pricing or through general requests for a 'nice bedroom' within the property.

I think the paper makes a good discussion on the poor brand equity that TripAdvisor holds for itself with regards to some of its stakeholders such as the businesses themselves. The paper displays a future pattern of false information and malicious reviews, which will most likely harm the smaller businesses such as country bed & breakfasts, and that I believe TripAdvisor should monitor much more closely. However it is integral to point out that the companies do have the chance to clarify any of the reviews, and to answer queries through managing their pages on the site. Infact if a company does indeed comment on their reviews, then they are ranked higher for their customer service; not to mention clear up any complaints that were not captured during the customers visit/stay. I think the author outlined a concise opinion that the media portrays however I believe further research into how the site harms the businesses would give a clearer insight, as I am sure it must affect it somehow.

TripAdvisor (2013) Make TripAdvisor work for you. [Online] Accessed on: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Owners [Last viewed: 16/05/13]

I personally found this discussion paper particularly interesting, as it is a subject involving sites that I myself have used in a number of ways in the past and have always wondered what other people's perception is of the Trip Advisor website and other similar e-services giving holiday feedback.

The paper correctly begins with stating that times have changed in relation to the search for information and library books are no longer the first port of call for the majority of people. The changes in recent years to the search for information has altered dramatically with the Internet being used as an extremely powerful source of information incorporating millions of people's views at the finger tips of the majority worldwide. Trip Advisor with over 75 million reviews and opinions is just one of these websites that help form the opinion of many of today's tourists Funk (2012).

As the discussion paper accurately confirms there are face and malicious reviews within the website which can tarnish the reputation of hotels and tour operators and are usually posted on the website for this exact purpose. However there are many reviews that are genuine and are sincerely trying to advise for or against using a particular service or staying in a particular hotel. My personal problem with websites such as trip advisor however is not the fake and malicious reviews; it is the extent to which you can trust the review system.

I will elaborate. After partaking in a holiday and returning home, if I have thoroughly enjoyed the holiday, the destination and the hotel then my desire is then not to post a review of the holiday but to simply telly friends and family about the good aspects of the holiday. However after arriving home from a bad holiday with numerous problems the first thing you want to do is warn as many people as possible to stay away from the destination and its hotel, the best way to do this is often trip advisor. I feel that within this discussion paper the author has not identified this problem and may be an area for further research into the topic and provide a scope for additional exploration into Trip Advisor.

The paper explores a range of ideas effectively and contributes well to the question raised in the title. However the paper does have some limitations it discusses Trip Advisor as being the top holiday review website which is the new era in searching for information and attracts thousands of tourists each year but often falls short due to the untrustworthiness of the site and the fake reviews posted on there. In answer to this the authors states that tourists can always go to the library. But who decides who's telling the truth? A tourist who has been to and experienced the destination? Or an agency who are paid to promote a certain hotel and seek to portray the hotel in as best light possible.

Funk, T (2012). Advanced Social Media Marketing. New York: Apress. 122.