NB: This is a guest article by Gilles Granger, founder of travel review website Vinivi.
User generated content and hotel reviews have become a mainstay of travel sites in recent years, giving visitors the chance to see what the wisdom of the crowds has to say about a property.
But the concept is controversial, with anonymous and inaccurate reviews sometimes left by rival properties or PR agencies. Here we outline twelve easy steps to help uncover the Pinocchios of the web, the fake reviewer:
1. Check the email address and username.
Many fake reviews are posted by a hotelier boasting about his own property – and who uses his own hotel email address to submit it. Equally unusual email addresses (usually free such as gmail or hotmail) or usernames are frequently bogus – for example if they contain lots of numbers or random letters.
2. Note puffery.
Most genuine reviewers use common phrases to express satisfaction or discontent. An abundance of superlatives, overly flowery criticisms or flattery should prompt suspicion.
Plus fakes submitted by a hotelier will often contain positive details (if submitted by the owner) or negative ones (by competitors) that a real customer would not think to comment upon – for example the brand name of a supplier such as a caterer. Excessive use of exclamation marks is also a sign of a fraudulent review.
3. Look at a property’s website.
Someone paid to write positive reviews will often copy and paste.
4. Vagueness.
For example, saying that a place is terrible without justifying the complaint can mean that the reviewer is unfamiliar with a property and has probably never stayed there. Such reviews are frequently submitted by competitors or even a vengeful former member of staff.
5. Refusal to enter into dialogue.
Most genuine complainers are more than happy to discuss their problem and often will try to seek compensation or redress. Someone who will not respond to a concerned, polite follow up email are to be treated with caution.
6. Mismatches.
When the complaint doesn’t correlate with the stated “type” of traveler. For instance when someone who says they went on a business trip complains about the lack of family facilities.
7. Sarcasm.
“This is a great hotel – not”. Real reviewers typically take their responsibility in offering feedback seriously and are rarely in the mood for irony.
8. Timing.
An unhappy guest will usually make their feelings clear within a few days of returning from a trip. A review submitted weeks or months after the alleged stay will prompt a Vinivi consultant to investigate further.
9. Multimedia.
Take a look at pictures or videos that have been submitted. If these seem to lack spontaneity and are too generic and professional in appearance there is a good chance that they have been uploaded by a hotel’s own management.
Also most genuine critics will offer a photograph that identifies the property in which they stayed (e.g. signage, exterior) alongside any detailed unflattering shots so we check whether a supporting ‘contextual’ image has been provided.
10. Look for patterns.
If a positive review specifically looks to undermine a previous criticism, there is a good chance that it has been put forward by that property’s management.
11. Words and style.
If a hotel’s name is written in full, with the same reference and capitalization as in its marketing materials (eg. The Named Hotel by Named Brand in Location), this is a sign of an overt marketing ploy by a hotel to reinforce its branding.
12. Odd ones out.
If a property generally attracts positive comments about its facilities or service you should be suspicious of a one off opinion which is excessively critical.
NB: This is a guest article by Gilles Granger, founder of travel review website Vinivi.
About Special Nodes
Good one Mr.Granger
Hmm. Frankly none of these suggestions are particularly foolproof. And I think quite a number are distinctly tenuous.
- To say for example ‘if a hotel attracts mainly positive reviews, distrust an overtly negative one’ – that’s ridiculously simplistic. Different things please and annoy different people. There are lots of real life whingers out there who get brassed off about dumb things like the fact that the beer in the mini bar wasn’t cold enough or a particular member of staff didn’t smile at them or whatever and sound off about it in highly aggressive fashion on places like Trip Advisor. And… everywhere has the occasional off day too. I’ve read plenty of reviews of great places that have just had one unfortunate situation where someone was say double booked or whatever.
- And multimedia – so what if it looks professional – as long as no one is suggesting its amateur, what’s the problem?
- And to say ‘if it’s vague it’s probably not real’. UGC is written by all sorts of people and some are very vague. They can’t be bothered to go into detail, but want to at least register that they had a good or a bad time at a place.
- “Excessive use of exclamation marks is also a sign of a fraudulent review.” Why??
Dear Jeremy
Thank you very much for taking the time to give your thoughts on my suggestions. Spotting fake reviews is indeed a tricky task and these tips are intended as ‘signs to be suspicious’ rather than each providing definitive proof that a review is fraudulent.
As you may know, at Vinivi, we have developed a process called ‘certified reviews’, where we basically partner with OTAs to gather client feedback. Based on that process, we can distinguish spontaneous reviews (which could be fake) and fully genuine ones. I definitely agree with you that there is not a definitive pattern.
Your first point deals with an ‘odd one out’ excessively bad review. The emphasis here is on ‘excessively’. Certainly the uncommoditised nature of the tourism business gives rise to variance of style and service – but where a single review indicates very strongly that a property is underperforming when many others have found it to their satisfaction this is a prompt for us to investigate further. Sometimes a minor criticism can in fact drive believability – but where it is very strong it is often someone trying to mislead.
The second point regarding multimedia. If it looks professional it probably is! If the fake review is done by the hotel, often, the manager will not allow a ‘so-so’ photo to be published (e.g. with staff members not ‘looking their best’)
The third point about vagueness. Most real reviewers will offer some point of clarification for their opinion and an overly-generic comment is often a sign of a mass-produced one..
Finally exclamation marks. Again back to observation. A majority of reviews that we identify as fake do this. I would say it is a manifestation of a liar’s tendency to ‘overdo it’ – trying to divert attention from the substance of the lie to try to win trust through what seems to be passionate expression and presentation.
Again, Jeremy, many thanks for your comments and hope that my response is helpful…
Gilles Granger
Hi Gilles
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
I remain unconvinced. I think Benn’s comment below is far more lucid. The best way to tell how credible a review is, is to have a way to know more about your reviewer – not to make assumptions based on what they say in specific reviews. That’s about having profiles for reviewers that allow you to know more about them and see how often they review, what they review etc. Trip Advisor does this and for me it’s absolutely the way to go – rank reviews on the history of the reviewer – much as eBay works at the moment too
Jeremy
I have to agree with you Jeremy and with Benn about the history of the reviewers. At Vinivi, we added points (system similar to ebay) to show user activity. It works quite well and shows how many contributions a reviewers has written. It’s the way forward, but I also sincerely believe that Certified Reviews system is the way to go. With this system, you are sure no review is fake.
Also look for reviews that are made by a reviewer with a history of just the one review. Again, not foolproof but in conjunction with others can illustrate fraudulent behaviour.
Dear Benn
Thanks for your comment – agree that review history is an important dimension to consider.
Gilles Granger
This may offer some good pointers to the uninitiated, but it’s true that it’s much more complex than this… each site has it’s own idiosyncrasies and nuances. I would be wary of getting presumptuous about what is, or is not, real. It’s not for you to judge. That’s for the users to decide…. in aggregate. Eventually, the obvious nonsense will fall to the bottom. We are at the beginning of all these new technologies, and understanding it is, possibly, more complex than an arcane list of rules.
Thank you for your comments on the piece.
Certainly technology is evolving rapidly and sites do operate different strategies – however we strongly believe it is our responsability (as website editor) to ensure that we put in place all the necessary processes, filters and techniques to ensure visitors that reviews are trustworthy. Also the good news is that Vinivi ‘vets’ its reviewers so we can be sure that reviews on our site are genuine – reducing the doubt for consumers. I am saying we are the only one to do so (booking.com does it for instance)
Many thanks again
Gilles
Great comments. It seems that the business side of reviews sells the users that read reviews a bit short. I think it’s an obvious, mundane fact that people read reviews and auto-filter people who swear, or are poor spellers, or irate and unhinged, etc. the casual process of filtering reviews is something we all do… so it’s important not to overreact to any one review. The fact is… if you as a hotel owner knows the review is fake or slanderous…. so will the potential guests that are considering the hotel. The best practice is to respond to the conversation, and allow future guests to observe how you comport yourself and handle situations like a crazy person’s rant. My responses to negative reviews, especially ones that are obviously false, have gotten us more business than my positive comments to positive reviews.
The social graph will be what teaches these review sites…. the algorithm approach isn’t sophisticated enough.
All true and useful and above all: use your common sense!
Manu
All true + a great need of common sense!
Manu
Great conversation here!
How about certifying reviewers. I mean Twitter have adopted the “Verified”label for celebrities. We can do the same by certifying super users travellers on review sites.
I have reviewed about 40 hotels with pictures and videos, surely people will look up more to my reviews than somebody who just registered on the site and left a 2 line review…
Bonjour Guillaume,
Vinivi already ‘certifies’ reviewers by making sure that they are genuine and recent guests, together with operating a ‘points system’ to record activity. This point system could / should be taken one step further, I agree with you. It is a most useful suggestion that we might develop further. Merci!
Not fool proof but good advice. As someone who likes to read reviews and to research the heck before I go on a trip I think you brought up good stuff. I wish there was a way for the normal traveler to engaged in dialogue about reviews. Usually I have to see a pattern so one bad review won’t usually put me off.
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