Review sites rarely trusted

Travel Review sites rarely trusted, as we have said in the past..

After all its so easy, for hotel owners to pose as a holidaymaker to promote his hotel and then post unfavourable reviews on competitors hotels, sometimes its so obvios…

Only a tiny minority of the 5.5 million holidaymakers Thomson and First Choicehandle a year fully trust what they read on online review websites.

Yet as many as 71% cited independent travel websites such as ourselves, as their top method of researching their holidays.

Only two per cent said they fully trusted independent review sites such as TripAdvisor.

But of that tiny 2% only 83% said they ‘mostly trusted’ these type of reviews, according to research..

One per cent said they don’t trust any reviews while 14% trust ‘very little’.

However, more than 6O% of the two operators’ customers said they always or regularly consult sites, yet they dont trust what they are reading when researching a holiday.

Less than eight per cent said they never consult review sites as part of the holiday research process.

Yet word of mouth remains a powerful influencer of holiday choice, with the study finding that more than half of Thomson and First Choice customers ask friends and family when considering their holiday plans, just behind the 71% reading online travel forums.