Travel website TripAdvisor has such a strong influence on tourists that hotel managers are improving services to garner better online reviews.
According to writer Tom Vanderbilt of outsideonline.com, the so-called “TripAdvisor Effect” is so strong that it can shift an entire country’s tourism economy.
Consistent poor online reviews have led hotel managers to make changes to the hotels themselves to improve the consensus.
One study published in 2010 by UCD researchers examined reviews between Las Vegas hotels, where TripAdvisor had already been established (the website was founded in 2000) and reviews for hotels in Ireland, where it was still somewhat of a novelty.
They discovered that while review scores in Las Vegas remained relatively stagnant, ratings for Irish hotels improved significantly, and manager responses tripled. Their reasoning: managers were forced to respond to reviews by changing – and improving – their hotels.
A number of reports have examined the impact that TripAdvisor reviews (115 are added every minute) have had on the industry.
Cornell University's Center for Hospitality Research found that RevPAR is improved by 1.4 per cent per each positive percentage point.
Hotels can raise prices by up to 11 per cent to reflect positive reviews. An internal study by Tripadvisor found that bookings can go up by 20 per cent if managers reply to customer reviews.
TripAdvisor boasts a yearly revenue of over $1 billion, with over 60 million members reviewing nearly 900,000 hotels in 45 countries.
