Simplistic
Yet this was not made clear to travellers and a highly suspicious pattern of reviews had continued to appear, it was said.
This suggests a lack of action to stop repeated abuse, says the magazine.
In LasVegas two of the 10 highest ranked hotels had received almost half of their hundreds of five-star ratings from first-time reviewers who had never made any other TripAdvisor contributions before or since – raising suspicions that the reviews could be fake.
And a hotel in Cairo lost its top-rated spot afterWhich? revealed 79 per cent of five-star write-ups were left by profiles that had no other contributions on the site.
Naomi Leach, from Which? Travel, said: “TripAdvisor’s failure to stop fake reviews and take strong action against hotels that abuse the system risks misleading millions and potentially ruining holidays.
“Sites like this must do more to ensure information is reliable and, if they continue to fall short, they should be compelled to make changes so holidaymakers are no longer at risk of being duped by a flood of fake reviews.”
TripAdvisor said: “This analysis is based on a flawed understanding of fake review patterns and is reliant on too many assumptions, and too little data. It is far too simplistic to assume all first-time reviewers are suspicious. Every genuine reviewer in the world is at some point a first-time reviewer.”
The site says it uses sophisticated fraud detection technology that analyses first-time reviews in far more detail thanWhich? can do.
“We also have an industryleading team of fraud investigators who work tirelessly to protect the site from fake reviews,” it said.
TripAdvisor admitted that earlier this year the Travelodge Wembley Central, London, had been given its red warning badge.
This is the site’s most severe warning, telling travellers reviews may have been manipulated.
Travelodge said: “We experienced a breakdown in our internal communication when TripAdvisor identified an irregular pattern of reviews at our Wembley Central hotel that needed investigating.
“We have taken appropriate action to ensure this does not happen again.” HOTELIERS have had a love/ hate relationship with TripAdvisor for as long as the platform has been in existence.
On the one hand, it offers the kind of word of mouth confirmation that operators crave.
But, on the other, it leaves them open to criticism and, in some cases, slander that’s difficult to counter.
And the issue of fake reviews is a constant threat to hoteliers. As today’s Which? analysis has revealed, it is likely that some hotel employees have