I can see that more people are using 4sq and other mobile services, but I don’t believe that this will lead to the death of Tripadvisor. Do I trust the word of an old school friend on Facebook over the word of 20 strangers about a hotel in Guatemala? No way.
There are two reasons why I can’t imagine myself switching away from consulting TripAdvisor in the near future. 1/ Size of the crowd – a popular hotel may have 50+ reviews. This volume provides some confidence (maybe misplaced) to the main sentiment behind the reviews. 2/ Usability. I don’t do mobile internet much in the UK, and not at all when abroad. So I read reviews and post my own from the comfort of my desktop or that of a PC in an internet cafe. For this I’m very comfortable with the TripAdvisor site. It’s far from perfect, but it does the job well enough for me.
As an example, recently I wanted to book a hotel in Dubrovnik a few hours before arrival. I logged on at an internet cafe, used TripAdvisor to find the highest rated hotel within our price range, went onto the hotel’s own website and made a booking; all in less than 10 minutes.

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4square & Facebook work pretty well locally, as there’s where most of most people’s friends are. However, when you’re trying to find a decent hotel in, say, Carmel, how many of your friends have been there and know more than a single place?

Mine certainly won’t know, but the 200 plus reviews on many of the hotels there do seem to give a fair impression of what to expect.

It’s about size of network, meaning that TA isn’t going away, neither is Hotels.com or HomeAway.

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Hi Darren
I don’t agree. I think Trip Advisor is already plugging itself into Facebook quite successfully already. So you can find your Facebook friends on TA etc now. You’ll get TA reviews filtered via your social network – so reviews posted by people you know will be prioritised for you. TA’s is unassailable. Facebook could become the platform you use to write or read Trip Advisor reviews, but they are here to stay. Agree though that other smaller review sites will die. Note too that Expedia (which owns TA) is now starting to use TA content to add info about places on there and in the process has stopped buying in 3rd party destination content.
Cheers
Jeremy

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Hello Darren,
Interesting post. As a professional travel writer and lodging editor, I have watched my print editorial outlets and travel expenses budget shrink. As such, I have had to change much of my writing style from print format to online. As with any business model, we adapt to the changing tides of the environment.

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Darren,

Without sounding too critical; why is it we need to speak to our ‘friends’ via an electronic media?? If I was seeking the view of a friend about a hotel I’d either call him/her or speak direct. Certainly not hook up to some one dimensional piece of gadgetry just in case someone in my ‘social circle’ has loaded something. Social media is getting ridiculous. I just don’t ‘get it’ Clicking through to facebook and reading something like, “I’ve just had a glass of wine LOL’ (???) What the hell is there to laugh about a glass of wine?? The whole thing is full of people who judge others by the number of none existent ‘friends’ they have. If you have ‘ a friend’ you wouldn’t be hooked up by a PC but acrttually having a real life conversation with them down the pub. That is social.

If this is the future shoot me now.

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Andy’s point about the sample size on TA is the key here. Sure, I’ll go to my friends for a recommendation first, but not many of them have been to Bosnia/ Guatemala/ insert other random place I might be going to…

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Hi Darren,
I share your view but rather thinking of an extinction, I think about an evolution… at least I hope otherwise I will have to look for a different job )

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I have to say that where we sit in the holiday deals side of things, one of the most common pieces of feedback we receive in our customer surveys is that customers want to see reviews. That said I think there is scope for both personalised reviews (ie from within your circle of friends online) and general reviews. I use both where possible. If I want to go to Ireland for example, I’ll speak to friends about their experiences but then I will also look online for reviews of wherever I want to stay.

The recommendations from friends is far more credible because I know them personally; their personality, situation, relative wealth, likes/dislikes etc so this is a great guide like speaking to a friend who also has kids: “so where’s a decent coastal place in Ireland to take the kids” – that’s not as easy to do on sites like Trip Advisor. However once I’ve found a few decent options, I want to see individual reviews and (whilst I’m generalising using TA as an example) TA has over the years tried to make the reviews more relevant by adding additional information like why they visited, whether they had family etc.

Ultimately though the emergence of social media will allow me to garner my friends’ experience whilst I’m surfing, where I don’t need to call people up as I’m researching (yes there are those that don’t like or don’t get social media but as Darran quoted above, a lot of people do…); instead like this example, I could end up seeing my friends’ thoughts as I browse sites: http://ht.ly/2GK7W

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I’m not so sure I would trust my friends’ opinions. It all depends on who my friends are. Often we can have quite different tastes. One might like a party vibe. Another might prefer the Shangri La. Another might be a clean freak. And someone else might find it a travesty if there is no free breakfast. Are these things I care about? Nope, not a bit.

Is there any real reason to trust them over someone I don’t necessarily know, but somehow I might have more in common with?

I don’t believe the future of reviews is about what your real-world friends say. The internet can offer so much more than just a literal translation of an off-line recommendation process. Systems that can understand more about what you like and deliver reviews from like-minded people are much more compelling, even if they are reviews by strangers. It’s the same reason online communities are so popular in the first place. Because they give you a chance to connect with like-minded people from all over the world, not just your small real-world friends group.

I’m not saying FB Places won’t have an impact – it certainly will. But I don’t think it’s the be-all-end-all.

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I don’t think travel recommendation websites are going to die, but they have to keep developing.

500 reviews for one hotel are not relevant or useful any more.

If someone wants to make a decision based on recommendations, those websites have to work on filtering that information and making it relevant to EACH user.

I think the big change is people don’t want to know all about one city but those tips that are not common and shouldn’t be missed. They don’t have the time to read 500 comments.

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Very interesting blog post here. Some good comments too. I will say though in researching the growth of social medias influence on consumers purchase decisions I highly doubt any of the travel specific sites would die off. According to Forrester were now in a world where over 500 Billion comments about product opinions are being made a year which is almost 250 comments a year for every person with internet access. While yes the majority of these are not travel specific theres a lot of conversation out there. Believe it or not comments made by strangers on the internet are beginning to influence our decisions more than our direct or indirect (facebook extended friends) network. If anything I would think that more Travel review websites will be popping up. For me before I book any trips or hotel stays I go to more than just one travel review site.

Also want to make sure to comment that as Depesh stated customer surveys are no longer just for internal use. We are finding more and more that our clients are using their survey results to provide a non biased opinion on customer experiences and satisfaction.

By the way Nancy, do not fear there will always be people looking for an experienced expert opinion about products and services. Budgets may be shrinking and your medium might be changing but that just shows its time to adapt and find where your readers are because they want to know what you do.

Allen Bredeson

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I don’t believe travel sites are all that different from any other medium when it comes to the need to evolve in order to remain relevant to their audience. Over time there may well be some natural attrition of those unwilling or unable to change, but people are traveling more than ever so timely information and knowledgeable reviews are still relevant. After all, travel tips and recommends from friends and family are nice; but that’s only meaningful if everyone always goes to the same places.

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The main problem for me is trust. I trust a good friend with similar taste. I trust 20 honest anonymous reviews that tell me WHY and WHY NOT they liked a place. But I do not trust that reviews on the sites are always honest. Recently I’ve been looking on Yelp to find a hair dresser close to my new house and also an auto body repair shop to get rid of some dings and scratches. It seems like 90% of the reviews are gushing, glowing praise with five star ratings and this I do not believe at all. It just makes me feel like I’m being bilked.

On the other hand, I find the Amazon product user reviews to be really worthwhile. You can tell from the way they are written that they are real experiences.

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Darren,

Andy has a point of course ignoring the sarcasm. I personally run a travel review site and travelers want professionally packaged information on the destinations they want to go to. I agree with most of the feedback from your readers, the review will in fact keep growing. You are not interested in the individual when shopping for a travel deal.

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Interesting view.

Not sure about Foursquare. It’s essentially a ‘game’ where you try to check in more than mates or strangers. It gets boring fast. Many people are switching it off. That said, twitter nearly went under until the iphone launched. It was a mobile service that took off when it became an internet (and by dint) smart phone service. So Foursquare might morph into a reviews site. However, it may be replaced by better location games.

Achieving trusted status is the key, and this is where traditional media have an advantage over all peer review sites. Why can’t The Telegraph or Guardian add their hotel reviews into Foursquare? Perhaps that’ll be the next step for the geo-based service. I still use Tripadvisor, but it favours popular hotels. On a round the world trip, for mid-range accomodation seekers, it’s often less reliable than the still-relevant Thorn Tree Forum. TA simply doesn’t have the volume – if any – reviews for certain locations. So it’s not good off the beaten track. Where it is particularly strong is giving recent informaiton (where available). I.e. a hotel that was good is currently under siege by rats.

Maybe the future is a blend off all three models – media & peer reviews delivered by a location-based service. A kind of Lonely Planet -meets-Trip Advisor-meets-Facebook PLaces?

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Very interesting post and comments. I am the founder and CEO of an inbound tour and wilderness lodge operation in Costa Rica I thought you might be interested in the perspective of someone who is on the receiving end of the reviews.

Whenever I ask guests how they decided to book with us, whatever else they say they invariably mention Trip Advisor. I can’t claim any more insight than anyone else on the future of review sites, but I would not be surprised if reviews on Trip Advisor are the single most powerful influencer of travel decisions today.

On the whole this a very good thing. The site gives travelers unprecedented access to usually reliable information. Trip Advisor generally rewards good suppliers and punishes bad ones.

Of course this much power inevitably leads to abuses. Suppliers are tempted to post phony reviews—good ones about themselves and bad ones about their competition. (I even heard one can buy reviews from an enterprise in the Philippines at very reasonable rates. I was not tempted.)

Travelers are also tempted to abuse Trip Advisor. It still does not happen very often, but many of us in the travel business have noticed a increasing tendency on the part of travelers to use threats of bad reviews and/or promises of good ones as a lever to get refunds or upgrades.

I try to judge each case on its merits, but the minute Trip Adviser blackmail or bribery comes into the picture, I have a strong inclination to resist.

My reason for this is that I think that Trip Advisor is much too valuable a resource, both for us and for travelers, to allow its trustworthiness to be contaminated by reviews that have purposes other than to help fellow travelers make informed decisions.

In the short run buying off bad reviews might seem like good business, but I am convinced that the whole travel business is better off in the long run if all of us who are in the business let the reviews fall where they may. Somehow I think the people who would consider using our services are sophisticated enough to figure out whether a review is accurate or not.

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Trying to find out about a hotel from Facebook, Twitter, or pleaserobme.com (oh, I mean FourSquare) seems really inefficient once you move beyond your local area. TripAdvisor has lots of faults, but at least you can get the wisdom of the crowd effect for places that are really great or really lousy. Personally I prefer to read reviews from people who really know what they’re talking about, on sites like LuxuryLatinAmerica.com, Travelfish.org, TurkeyTravelPlanner.com, Eurocheapo.com, or BrazilMax.com — in other words, from writers who know the place inside out instead of strangers (or even friends) who have only visited one hotel. Besides, let’s face it, half my friends are idiots!

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I have recently started writing reviews on tripadvisor and its quite liberating actually – i do highlight the good and the bad of properties (hotels, restaurants etc) and my goal is to write something unique and helpful not one that influences.

if you look at tripadvisors top 10 travelers choice etc you have to wonder if things are skewed! Asian best service has mostly thai resorts and a couple of sri lankan resorts. I clicked on one of them to see what people wrote and i did find that even at a luxury 5 star property people do say bad things! at one hotel’s reviews in the ‘best service’ Asia category, of the two most recent reviews right below the first which said “Excellent” highly recommend there was one that said “upset at tea trails response” …

the good however outweighs the bad significantly on these winning properties…and i think from my recent experience i go purely by the percentages! i guess thats where the tendency for abuse comes in cuz no one has the time to read more than the first page of reviews and even if that, the headlines of those…so people go for quick fixes like percentages when shortlisting.

I also dot go by what a couple of friends tell me either – a majority vote is a far better indicator.

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Eye-catching headline but… ultimately hot air.

Social networks are indeed huge and they can be a superb source for referrals and recommendations.

But reviews? I’m struggling to wonder how often my accommodation needs will overlap with my friends. When they don’t converge – and for sheer volume – you’ll never beat the review websites – it’s “the wisdom of crowds” in action.

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