For Those Who Use Trip Advisor...
For those of you who visit TripAdvisor before booking hotels and such (as I do), I felt I should point out something I recently noticed which affects the overall ratings of any hotel listed/reviewed in TripAdvisor.
Let me preface all of this by saying that I think TripAdvisor is just awesome! It is the best tool for any traveler.
We recently stayed at La Quinta Inn in Springfield, Massachusetts. Overall, our stay was "fair" but there were enough problems to warrant looking elsewhere for rooms for our next visit to the area.
While I was reviewing the reviews for La Quinta in TripAdvisor to see if maybe I missed something when choosing this hotel, I noticed that many of the good reviews for La Quinta were rather short and each seemed to be the same length as the other. Each of these "5 Star" reviews were around 50 words. Hmmm... that prompted me to look more closely...
At the bottom of each of these short "5 Star" reviews is a line that states "Review collected in partnership with La Quinta". So, that got me thinking... "what does this mean?"
La Quinta, as I found out later upon talking with some other La Quinta guests, asks customers to fill out a survey card at the front desk. They also ask for feedback in an email after your visit. This is a good policy and any good business should do this regularly if they ever hope to improve. However, I believe that La Quinta is supplying a significant number of "5 Star" comments to TripAdvisor hence the "review collected in partnership with La Quinta" at the bottom of many reviews in TripAdvisor!
I know La Quinta is not providing any of the bad reviews submitted to them for use in TripAdvisor. They would be fools to do so! That being said, it does bother me that any hotel can load their own reviews (of course, only 'glowing' reviews) into TripAdvisor shifting the overall ratings and results into higher categories. La Quinta definitely is doing this with the ratings in TripAdvisor.
So... what I want to tell everyone is to be aware that at least some of the good reviews in TripAdvisor are supplied by the hotel being reviewed, hence the short disclaimer line at the bottom of the review. Pay attention to that short line... "Review collected in partnership with...". I know that I will no longer consider these "partnership reviews" as accurate nor legitimate.
For TripAdvisor, my advice is that if you want to continue to include these partnership reviews in your overall ratings, please, please, PLEASE provide us (the customers reading reviews) with a way to sort the results without including these partnership reviews. When we sort out these partnership reviews, then show us the overall ratings as they truly are without using these partnership reviews. Also, put that partnership disclaimer line at the top of the review... perhaps in bold or a different color... it must be more prominent and noticeable by all TripAdvisor visitors. The way your website shows these partnership reviews, in my opinion, is misleading while providing the ability for poorly rated businesses to skew their results by adding only good reviews.
I really think TripAdvisor is one of the best tools available for any traveler but you must read every review carefully and understand that these partnership reviews can erroneously skew overall ratings.
Let me preface all of this by saying that I think TripAdvisor is just awesome! It is the best tool for any traveler.
We recently stayed at La Quinta Inn in Springfield, Massachusetts. Overall, our stay was "fair" but there were enough problems to warrant looking elsewhere for rooms for our next visit to the area.
While I was reviewing the reviews for La Quinta in TripAdvisor to see if maybe I missed something when choosing this hotel, I noticed that many of the good reviews for La Quinta were rather short and each seemed to be the same length as the other. Each of these "5 Star" reviews were around 50 words. Hmmm... that prompted me to look more closely...
At the bottom of each of these short "5 Star" reviews is a line that states "Review collected in partnership with La Quinta". So, that got me thinking... "what does this mean?"
La Quinta, as I found out later upon talking with some other La Quinta guests, asks customers to fill out a survey card at the front desk. They also ask for feedback in an email after your visit. This is a good policy and any good business should do this regularly if they ever hope to improve. However, I believe that La Quinta is supplying a significant number of "5 Star" comments to TripAdvisor hence the "review collected in partnership with La Quinta" at the bottom of many reviews in TripAdvisor!
I know La Quinta is not providing any of the bad reviews submitted to them for use in TripAdvisor. They would be fools to do so! That being said, it does bother me that any hotel can load their own reviews (of course, only 'glowing' reviews) into TripAdvisor shifting the overall ratings and results into higher categories. La Quinta definitely is doing this with the ratings in TripAdvisor.
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| Notice the line at the bottom of the review, "Review collected in partnership with La Quinta"... Be wary of these reviews and how they drive overall ratings higher than reality. |
For TripAdvisor, my advice is that if you want to continue to include these partnership reviews in your overall ratings, please, please, PLEASE provide us (the customers reading reviews) with a way to sort the results without including these partnership reviews. When we sort out these partnership reviews, then show us the overall ratings as they truly are without using these partnership reviews. Also, put that partnership disclaimer line at the top of the review... perhaps in bold or a different color... it must be more prominent and noticeable by all TripAdvisor visitors. The way your website shows these partnership reviews, in my opinion, is misleading while providing the ability for poorly rated businesses to skew their results by adding only good reviews.
I really think TripAdvisor is one of the best tools available for any traveler but you must read every review carefully and understand that these partnership reviews can erroneously skew overall ratings.
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