Probably. From KABC-TV in L.A. –
Michelle Madhok regularly reads hotel reviews written by other travelers. The advice came in handy when she planned her honeymoon to Bali… She booked her trip based on the comments and it basically lived up to the glowing reviews, but she’s had trouble in the past.
“There was a hotel where the review said it was within walking distance to the beach. It was only within walking distance to the beach if you were willing to walk two miles,” Madhok said.
Ed Perkins is the author of “Online Travel.” He says while many of his readers depend on the cyber reviews he warns them all to be careful.
“There’s no guarantee that a rave review for any given hotel wasn’t prepared by that hotel’s own PR director,” Perkins said…
Abuse is such a concern, larger sites are taking action … But how well do those systems work? Well a fake review was sent to Citysearch and TripAdvisor. Not wanting to mislead travelers, a five-star hotel was picked, but the review purposely included overly glowing, PR style comments. The review sailed through, on both sites.
TripAdvisor says this posting was too similar to others to be flagged. Citysearch says it relies on the honor system…
“If it looks like it’s written by a PR Person, it probably is…,” Madhok said.
Technorati tags: PR, Public Relations, Marketing
And whatdya wanna bet they count these reviews in their clips reports?
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This is true… I’ve been working in the hospitality industry for a decade, even completing my university degree with a major in hospitality management. My most recent job was in marketing for a west coast hotel chain, so I was involved in the PR for them. We did not ever take part in that practice because I consider it unethical, but I remember reading an article in a marketing magazine once that actually ADVISED marketers to take part in this practice. It was suggesting that to miss this “opportunity” to promote the brand was not only lazy, but damaging to the brand by not jumping on the new social media tools. Talk about misunderstanding Web 2.0!!