TripAdvisor, given its eye-watering size these days, has plenty of milestones to shout about - not least this week when it announced 150 million reviews are now on the site.
The company says this is a 50% increase year-on-year, with around 50 million added during 2013 - this is around 90 reviews submitted every minute.
Other facts to gulp over momentarily include:
- around 25,000 members have submitted more than 100 reviews.
- the most photographed hotel is the Majestic Colonial Punta Cana (16,300!).
- the Eiffel Tower in Paris is the most reviewed attraction (24,400).
- the Luxor Las Vegas has the most reviews (13,700).
Milestones aside, hoteliers have often wondered about the gradual increase in the number of reviews and what happens over time to the content.
Here is a timeline of activity:
- within five years of the company's launch (2005) it had one million reviews
- this then increased to 20 million by 2008...
- 50 million was reached by 2011...
- the 100 million barrier was hit in 2013...
- and now, TripAdvisor has 150 million reviews
TripAdvisor says that the 150 million figure announced this week relates to all the current reviews on the site (imagine the content management system!).
When asked is there some kind of formula to dispose of old reviews (remember: some of these are coming up to 14 years old), an official says:
"Any reviews that may have been previously removed for reasons such as a listing coming down because of a business closing, would not be counted towards that number [150 million]."
So there, maybe for the first time (it's never really said if or how older content is deleted over time) - some of the reviews on TripAdvisor, which perhaps count towards a property or attraction's overall rating, could be almost a decade and a half old.
NB:Review image via Shutterstock.