Summer 2023 will be remembered for an important detail – at least for insiders and consumers – namely the decline of Tripadvisor in favor of Google Maps. Il Gambero Rosso spoke extensively about it in June: “We monitored about fifty establishments, including bars, bakeries, pizzerias and restaurants, noting that on Google there is an average of one review a day, while on Tripadvisor we are in the order of one review a week”. And talking to various restaurateurs and hoteliers, the assessment is shared.
On the other hand, the experience is slightly different. Google Maps responds to the primary need for navigation and therefore the discovery of a place, but at the same time, in the same app, it immediately reveals associated structures and reviews. Tripadvisor is instead a primary space for reviews and secondly it offers location and navigation, moreover through Google Maps itself. And then we must remember that Android users are naturally within the dimension of Google Maps services, while it is not said that the same happens among iPhone users.
Tripadvisor and Google, between competition and collaboration
Tripadvisor, as is known, is a free online platform that allows the consultation of over 859 million reviews and opinions relating to 8.6 million accommodations, restaurants, experiences, airlines and cruises. In practice it is the largest travel service in the world (463 million travelers are estimated each month) specialized in comparing fares and bookings.
Google Maps, on the other hand, is a free online map and navigation service that provides additional information relating to restaurants, hotels, petrol stations, grocery stores and any type of activity or attraction. Each single point present (or created from scratch) on the maps can be combined with a review. Apparently the objectives would seem different but in reality Google, thanks to agreements with third parties (such as Tripadvisor itself, Booking and others), in many cases also allows reservations and therefore in this market segment it plays both an informative and commercial role.
“When I say Google wants us to exist, it’s for multiple reasons,” Tripadvisor CEO Matt Goldberg told financial analyst Richard Clarke at the latest financial conference in June. “Number one: they face regulatory challenges. They benefit from having competitors in these spaces. They don’t want to destroy competition…we’re a paying user of Google. They want us to keep paying. And so we’re having really interesting conversations about how we can differentiate ourselves, about how we can focus on what we do best and how we can collaborate.”
The case of 250 negative reviews for the tavern of 2 euros for a dish: what is review bombing and how it works by Emanuele Capone 08 August 2023
Fake reviews, bad for everyone
Tripadvisor’s credibility began to suffer several years ago when the boom in fake reviews paid by agencies to improve the reputation of hotels and restaurants exploded. At the time it was the easiest target with growing demand; today even the Amazon and Google shop are confronted with the same distorting phenomenon. An online search is enough to discover specialized sites that sell reviews of all kinds for Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, etc. Prices range from a few euros to dozens, with discounts on cumulative packages, promotions and any other marketing gimmick worthy of the best supermarket. The case of The Shed is striking, a fake restaurant that became first on Tripadvisor in 2017 despite having opened only one evening serving frozen food.
That’s why every year since 2019 Tripadvisor publishes the Review Transparency Report, which takes stock of the online reviews published. The 2023 edition confirmed that 30.2 million were published last year, of which over 50% in Europe. Approximately 2.3 million were manually reviewed by human moderators and approximately 1.3 million were identified as fake and then deleted (with 72% still before publication). It should be remembered that over 90% of normal reviews are screened by an automatic system: it directly removed 3.7% of cases and required human evaluation intervention in 4.7%. Overall, the fake reviews were around 4.4% of the total: 61.6% to increase the number, 32% uploaded by the same restaurateurs or friends, 3.9% paid and 2.48% to damage businesses others. The last detail is that most of the fake reviews come from India (15.6%), Russia (13%), United States (8.1%), Turkey (6.6%) and Italy (5. 95%). In 2018, the first sentence (nine months in prison and a fine of 8,000 euros) against a professional reviewer for money took shape in Italy in 2018.
Google told Guardian Money last year that it had blocked or removed a total of 115 million fake hotel, restaurant and business reviews across search engines, Maps and YouTube. The company recently filed a lawsuit against a scoundrel responsible for more than 14,000 fake reviews generated through 350 fraudulent company profiles, and last November it sued dozens of online fake review specialists. “In 2022, we protected more than 185,000 businesses from further abuse after detecting suspicious activity and attempted abuse. We also stopped 20 million attempts to create fake company profiles in 2022, and we continue to invest in new technologies and processes to keep information about our useful and reliable products”, ensure from Mountain View. The central argument is that a bogus review is bad for business: The Federal Trade Commission cited a survey in which consumers reported wasting an average of $125 each year on inaccurate reviews.
How to recognize a fake online review by Riccardo Luna 20 October 2022
How to defend yourself
Reviews on Tripadvisor and Google Maps are totally free; no one checks whether they have actually stayed in a place or eaten lunch in a specific restaurant. Also for this reason one wonders if they can really be reliable tools for choosing destinations or structures. The answer is yes in most cases, but you also need to be clear about the variables involved. Google Maps is gaining traction because the reviews are more concise and are uploaded from real personal profiles more easily verifiable, while those of Tripadvisor are only part of the microcosm of the platform. Obviously everything can be circumvented if you want, but it is likely to think that any consumer has a cell phone normally connected to Google services and therefore it is easier to upload posts.
Then the number of reviews, the rating, the type of text and any summary photographs can be useful for understanding whether there is a widespread opinion on the structure. The tone is also fundamental: there are users who enjoy destroying businesses and do it with an aggressive attitude, and entrepreneurs who have not understood that responding to negative comments is a great marketing opportunity. Is an offensive message more credible or a calm and kind answer? Naturally apart from the restaurateurs and hoteliers who have turned the response into an exhilarating promotional tool – there are so many groups on Facebook in this regard, such as Memorable reviews.
When choosing a restaurant or a hotel, it is good to consider every detail: from the photos to the dates of publication of texts (we must consider management changes), the zeal and enthusiasm of the reviewer, the prices, the location, the type of menu, etc. And then there’s common sense and personal palate: maybe you’re used to just one type of cuisine or always very generous portions or traditionally intense flavours. At the same time there are also entrepreneurs or businesses that aim to squeeze guests in during the busiest seasons, trying to survive in the others.
How does it come out? Perhaps remembering that online services are born to provide the illusion of being part of a real community and that sometimes one shouldn’t take them too seriously.