Travel site warns of fake hotel reviews

July 16, 2009|Associated Press

The hotel review may sound too good - citing obscure details like the brand of faucet fixtures - or perhaps one stands out as the only negative rating of an otherwise popular location.

The travel website TripAdvisor, which is part of Expedia Inc., has been quietly posting disclaimers to warn customers of hotels writing fake reviews to improve their popularity rankings or hurt competitors.

The red disclaimers near the names of hotels show that TripAdvisor has a problem with fake reviews, travel bloggers, and industry specialists say.

One blogger, Jeff Tucker, warned that without changes to restore credibility to the reviews the site is “going to come crumbling down behind them.’’

But TripAdvisor said the disclaimers have been used since 2006 and involve a small fraction of the 400,000 hotels reviewed. The company, based in Newton, said it has a successful system to root out inaccurate reviews.

“The 23 million reviews and opinions are authentic and they’re unbiased and they’re from real users,’’ a spokesman said.

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