Did you know that 20-40% of travel reviews are fake!

If you’ve been scouring websites looking for the best weekend away spot then be careful of the reviews you believe. It’s difficult to put an exact figure on how many reviews are fake but latest research from University of Illinois at Chicago, shows that between 20-40% of travel reviews are fake. This even surprised me.

If you think about it, reviews make and break the travel industry. Because of this a whole "review farm" industry has sprung up. Businesses can pay to have to glowing recommendations posted about their venue. You need only type "buy reviews" into Google and you’ll see what I mean.

Digital Literacy skills have never been more important. Learn the skills yourself and if you’ve got children of the right age, then teach them too. These tips are applicable to any shopping site that has reviews.

Here are 3 travel digital literacy tips

Tip 1: When to believe star ratings

Yes and no. The more reviews there are, the more likely it is that the star rating will have some validity. It's much harder (and more expensive) to manipulate the star ratings when there are more reviewers.

My tip: If a place has 3000 five star ratings then those rating are more likely to give an accurate picture of the venue that if a place has 15 five ratings.

Tip 2: Words in the reviews are a clue to it being fake

Studies by Cornell University found that truthful reviews use words specific to a hotel experience, like "price" and "check-in." Fake ones use more generic words like "vacation," "family" and "experience" accompanied by a lot of commas and exclamation marks. Fake reviews are also likely to include generic scene-setting, as in, "My partner surprised me with a romantic weekend away ..."

My tip: Notice the wording of the reviews. Could that review be used to describe any accommodation or does it describe that particular locations.

Tip 3: Look at the date of the reviews.

If a business has 300 reviews and 200 came in one month, they are more likely to have been purchased than reviews that have gradually been posted over time. purchased.

Another hint is if the posts are timed just before heavy travel dates, when hotels and restaurants know people are most likely to be shopping. Research tells us that there is often a bump in fake reviews right before any travel season.

My tip: Notice the dates of review. Fake reviews are bought in bulk so 50 five start reviews within 2 days is a red flag.

There are more tips to read in this article which I found really insightful. How to spot fake reviews on travel websites