Three quarters of people writing reviews on TripAdvisor do so because they want to share a good experience, rather than rant about it.
The user review service carried out a study with Phocuswright earlier this year but has only just released the findings.
The sample size? A hefty 15,000 travellers from a broad range of countries including the UK, France, Germany, US, India and Japan, using a pop-up module from the TripAdvisor
Some of the results are reasonably self-serving (ta-da!), but with a sample of that weight and active users, certainly worth sharing here:
- Two most important things for users when reading reviews are recency (42%) and quantity (30%).
- Majority of users want one place where they can read reviews, compare prices and book (63%) [there's a light shining right there on why TA has dived into meta-booking].
- 70% of users wrote a review because they received good ad vice from reviews and wanted to give back to the community.
- Over three quarters (76%) agree that user photos influence their decisions.
- 85% of users consider a thoughtful management response to a bad review improves overall impression of a property.
- Seven out of ten think aggressive/defensive response from the hotel will make them less likely to book.
- 80% agree that seeing a hotel respond to reviews makes them believe that the hotel cares.
- Over nine out of ten users consider hotel reviews to be an accurate summary of the actual experience.
- Over half (54%) will not book a hotel if it does not have any reviews.
- Users will read at least six-to-12 reviews before choosing a property.
- Nearly nine out of ten will consider at least four-to-six hotels, whilst two-thirds will consider the same for a number of restaurants, and 56% the same again for attractions to visit.
- TripAdvisor has become "site of choice" because of its large volume of reviews (66%), descriptive reviews (64%), covers broad of content (62%), reviews from experienced travellers (61%).
- Eight out of ten users say TripAdvisor helps them plan better trips.
NB: Good vibes online image via Shutterstock.