TripAdvisor reviews could be fake say advertising watchdogs

Travel review site TripAdvisor has been told it can no longer claim to offer "trusted and honest reviews" after an investigation by advertising watchdogs found the site could not guarantee customer feedback was genuine.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it was possible some of the reviews on TripAdvisor were fake as they was no way of proving they were from genuine customers as the site doesn't vet its users.

It ordered TripAdvisor to avoid running adverts claiming its reviews were from real travellers, or were honest, real or trusted. It said this should be a warning to all websites that make claims about the reality of their user-generated content.

The ASA's investigation followed complaints from two hotels and from online reputation management company KwikChex, which represented other hoteliers, that TripAdvisor's claim to offer honest reviews was misleading as it could not be substantiated.

The advertising body acknowledged that reviewers were asked to sign a declaration that their reviews were real and that they had no incentive or competitive interest with the places commented on.

It also recognised that TripAdvisor used "advanced and highly effective fraud systems" to identify and remove fake content.

But it said it was still possible that "non-genuine" reviews could appear on the site undetected and that users might not be able to spot them.

It warned that this was particularly a problem in cases where an establishment only had a small number of reviews. It added that offering hoteliers a right to reply did not fully address the problem.

The ASA's ruling was based on a survey of the site carried out in July 2011 when it was still owned by the travel booking service Expedia. It has since been spun off as a separate business.

TripAdvisor issued the following statement in response to the ASA ruling. "We have confidence that the 50 million users who come to our site every month trust the reviews they read on TripAdvisor, which is why they keep coming back to us in increasingly larger numbers to plan and have the perfect trip."

Tripadvisor.co.uk removed the word "trust" from its homepage last year. Instead it describes itself as "the world's largest travel site" However, its international tripadvisor.com address - which is accessible in the UK - continues to describe its content as the "world's most trusted travel advice".

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Cruise.co.uk claims market still ‘buoyant’

An online cruise travel agency claims the market is ‘weathering the storm’ despite the Costa Concordia tragedy.

Seamus Conlon, managing director cruise .co .uk, said: ‘Like everyone in the industry we’re truly shocked and saddened by the Costa Concordia accident last week but already our figures show that the accident is having little or no effect on bookings for the key brands.’

The agency said in a statement: ‘With 150,000 searches for deals this past week alone, including a high proportion for March departures, cruise seems to be weathering the storm.’

In the two weeks before the incident, visitors to www.cruise.co.uk were up on the previous year with 100,000 unique visitors, making 157,000 searches for cruise-based information.

In the seven days since the incident, there have been roughly the same number of hits, with searches for cruise ship videos up 150%, with more than 45,000 videos viewed.

The company has seen a significant increase in people who want to research Costa.

Conlon added: ‘Early January showed that P&O, Cunard and Royal Caribbean are still top with British browsers but we’ve also noticed that the interest in the luxury brands such as Seabourn, Holland America and Oceania has risen 100% over this time last year.

‘River cruising is up 50%, showing strong growth with more interest in both the specialist operators and the less well known destinations such as the Far East and Russia.’

However, another agency, IgluCruise, told The Sunday Times that new bookings had fallen since the disaster.

Richard Downs, of IgluCruise, told the ST that cruise lines ‘are keeping their heads down at the moment’.

However, the market needs to restore confidence, so he suspects there will be some ‘great offers’ in a couple of weeks’ time.

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First Choice publishes report in support of all-inclusives

First Choice has commissioned a report to back up its decision to go all-inclusive in 2012.

Its Holiday Spending Survey, conducted in association with the Centre of Economic and Business Research, claims more than half of holidaymakers (57%) overspent whilst on holiday last year, costing UK consumers £403 million.

It also says overspending impacts the lives of over half of Brits (52%) when they return from non all-inclusive holidays.

One in four, it claims, have to cut back on things such as the weekly food bill (26%) and luxuries such as weekend socialising (28%) when home.

The research was carried out by Opinion Matters between 7 and 13 December 2011 based on a sample of 1106 UK adults who have been on holiday abroad.

Douglas McWilliams, chief executive of the Centre of Economic and Business Research, said: “The figure of £403 million is surprising, particularly when people want budget certainty these days. It seems it is the little extra things on holiday that sometimes we don’t even consider that really do add up and make a difference.”

According to the British Travel Association, 74% of Brits are considering an all-inclusive holiday this year and research by Mintel in 2010 claimed the all-inclusive holiday market grew by 32% between 2004 and 2009.

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Best Western

       

Hotel marketing organisation Best Western added a record 21 new member properties this year, almost double 2010’s intake.

The new members, with a combined rooms total of more than 1,200, take the Best Western portfolio over 280.

The group said its strong focus on increasing quality resulted in six of this year’s intake having four-star ratings, while membership of six others that failed to meet its standards has been terminated.

Director Keith Pope commented: ‘Best Western has invested considerably in the brand in the past 18 months with the launch of ‘Hotels with Personality’ and our latest three-tier brand enhancement: Best Western, Best Western Plus and Best Western Premier, giving customers more choice and clarity when booking, and easing the decision-making process.

‘These campaigns have had a positive impact on sales through our central reservations, which are up by 33% year-on-year.

‘Our increasing success at bringing in corporate and leisure business for member hotels, plus our other marketing activity, such as three TV advertising runs, the Hotels with Personality road show and a full website overhaul, have raised the brand’s profile with both consumers and hoteliers, all helping to attract quality new members to Best Western.’

All Best Western members continue to be independently owned and managed, while operating under the group’s banner.

It currently offers more than 15,495 three- and four-star rooms in Britain.

 

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