Report: Most online hotel reviews are fake or skewed

Traveling this weekend? Take those hotel reviews you read with a grain of salt, says one company in the hospitality business.

Ragan Insider Premium Content
Ragan Insider Content

There’s just something about it: The language is too precise, the praise too nuanced, the grammar errors too easy.

You know what I’m talking about.

Before you suggest I’m just being paranoid, Metrics Marketing, a San Francisco-based hotel research marketing firm, released a report showing that as much as 40 percent of hotel reviews are made up by the establishments or commissioned by them.

According to a Los Angeles Times story on the report:

“And even if those online comments are genuine, the study said the reviews could be skewed because hotel guests with bad experiences are three times more likely to write a review than those who had a good or neutral experience.

To read the full story, log in.
Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content.
Sign up today

Already a member? Log in here.
Learn more about Ragan Insider.