TripAdvisor and Fake Reviews

(MoneyWatch)  I wrote about TripAdvisor's caveat that there could be fake reviews on their user-generated content Web site, something causing critics to question their credibility. Just so you know, TripAdvisor isn't the first site that has had fake reviews. (And at least one cosmetic surgery company had to pay restitution because of faked positive reviews.)

I think most people understand that these Web sites which solicit volunteered comments often cater to those with the most extreme views on either end -- it skews to people who really liked the place or really disliked it. In some instances, where the negative reviews were unfair, the hotel owner may feel there's no alternative but to post to try to balance out the review. But that, is a slippery slope.

One of the big problems TripAdvisor is having is that hotel employees are posting negative reviews of competing hotels simply to lower their rankings. Other companies are offering public relations "services" to improve or inflate rankings. It's no surprise then that TripAdvisor has a warning sticker near these hotels. As always, buyer beware.

Unbiased and objective reviews are unique, but some Web sites are claiming them. A new Web site, Oyster.com offers a team of reporters who write up reviews and take scads of incriminating photos. Its co-founders come from (what was Microsoft Live Search and is now) Bing, and helped create the site based on their own bad experience with poor hotel reviews. From a recent review of the Catalina Hotel in Miami:

The hook in my bathroom was about to fall off the wall, and one of the sockets was cracked. Otherwise, everything seemed clean. Seemed is the operative word, because it was much too dark to see anything in the Dorset building. The Maxine building is similarly gloomy. Clean freaks should ask for a room at the Catalina itself. These plain white rooms look a bit antiseptic, but sometimes that's a good thing.

Still, the old guard is having none of it. For many, user-generated content can seem useless -- especially when one's first visit to a hotel is disappointing.

Arthur Frommer, founder of Frommer's travel guides, told the Associated Press, "Find write-ups by professionals whose judgments you trust and rely on that. . . . I would never rely on the judgment of amateurs."