TripAdvisor, the end of the road?
In the last few months we have noted a huge increase in guests using the “Google Review” platform over what was the most used and popular site being TripAdvisor. Currently it is close to 20 reviews or ratings for google over every one for TripAdvisor, but what is very evident is the disparity in the approval ratings. Over the last three months on TripAdvisor we have achieved an approval of just over 80%, whereas on Google review’s this stands closer to 92%.
Approvals are only 4/5 star rating’s. A three is “average” and in my opinion not a referral. So why the disparity? The demographics seem to be the same, with a diverse back ground of South Africans and lots of internationals.
In my opinion, Google is more “real” and people are not hiding behind fake identities and therefore there is less of a tendency to manipulate the system. Furthermore with the amount of reviews being processed daily on Google Reviews, trying to manipulate the so called “ranking system” that TripAdvisor has, must be virtually impossible. I recently noted some major moves on the TripAdvisor Wilderness restaurants ranking’s and did some research. I took the last 20, 4&5 star reviews per restaurant and added up the total amount of reviews each person had done to get an average amount per restaurant, and the results were quite astounding. It could be argued that the restaurants were actively sourcing positive reviews and encouraging clients to join TripAdvisor, consequently the new members with only 1 review.
In my opinion TripAdvisor has its flaws, from allowing people to hide behind fake identities, to trying to develop a restaurant ranking system for a diverse market. The industry is to fluid, with too many variables to throw us all into one pot. TripAdvisor is cumbersome and involves far too much detail and time. Its days as a review platform, in my opinion are numbered.
Ciao Massimo