Christopher Elliott recently posted a simple question on his consumer advocate blog: Do you believe online hotel reviews?
To date, the poll that he is conducting reveals that over 90% of respondents believe online reviews are very reliable or somewhat reliable.
What is even more interesting for hoteliers to know is what strategies consumers use when reading reviews. Read the comments that readers posted, they will give you valuable input on how potential guests evaluate reviews of your hotel!
Some things that commenters mentioned they do...
- Assume the truth lies "somewhere in the middle"
- Look at the overall picture, as there are complainers who write especially negative reviews, and not all glowingly positive reviews may be legitimate
- Focus on recent reviews that show the current situation at the hotel
- Take reviews more serious if there are a lot of them for a given hotel
- Look at negative reviews specifically, to see if the reasons for complaint are about something important to the reader, and also to see if the hotel has replied and shown it can fix the issue described in the review
- Some experienced travelers even look at the tone of different reviews to evaluate if a review may be fake (just another reason not to fake your reviews!), and look at the reviewer's profile where available to see how they have rated other properties
What this means for hoteliers
- Make sure you have a regular stream of fresh reviews that mention recent stays at your hotel.
- Focus on getting a large number of good but honest reviews, rather than a few glowing reviews. People will look at the overall picture, and are more likely to trust you if many people liked you than if a handful of people absolutely loved you.
- Do not write your own reviews, people will spot them. Not only will you lose the business of the person who spotted the fake review, you may also get reported. Some sites, like TripAdvisor, post big warning signs on your listing if they believe reviews may be fake. This would immediately ruin any credibility your positive reviews may have given you.
- Reply to negative reviews. They will seem a lot less negative to potential future guests if you show you are listening to feedback and are working on fixing things.
Follow the link below to read Chris' post:
www.elliott.org/blog/weekend-survey-do-you-believe-online-hotel-reviews/#comments 
