A further analysis by KwikChex of TripAdvisor's daodao website following media exposure of a huge number of suspicious reviews has initially revealed the following:
In a new sample of prolific reviewers on the site, we detected that 12 of those (All ranked Top 500) we previously looked at have had their reviews removed - the total number of reviews removed with just these 12 was over 10,000.
We are however still detecting patterns that suggest the problems on daodao are continuing.
And one of those removed has posted a number of new reviews since (Previously had 920 reviews)
www.daodao.com/members/thinkleeamy/g294212-China-Beijing#1440435The scale of the problems do seem so huge that it may be best to suspend the site completely until a very thorough audit can take place - and new systems put in place to better detect fraud.
This has been corrupting content on all TripAdvisor websites and is a threat to the integrity of not just the n TripAdvisor brand, bur also to the brands of major hotel chains that were reviewed.
TripAdvisor appears to be stating it was an element that was not being controlled effectively - a 'back door' for review abuse. There are however in our opinion, more destinations that need investigating thoroughly where reviews are placed directly on TripAdvisor sites.
www.KwikChex.com
