TripAdvisor has partnered with airlines, including Lufthansa in Germany and Jet Airways in India, to hand out airline miles in exchange for hotel reviews.
Members of Lufthansa's Miles & More frequent flyer program can write, in German, up to nine reviews per month of hotels, restaurants or attractions and, if published on TripAdvisor.de, they'll earn up to 900 award miles. See details of the Lufthansa-TripAdvisor partnership here.
And, in a 2011 program, members of Jet Airways' JetPrivilege frequent flyer program could have earned up to 4,000 base JPMiles that year and were eligible to win 25,000 bonus miles in a sweepstakes for writing hotel reviews if they were published on TripAdvisor.in. Details of the TripAdvisor-Jet Airways partnership can be viewed here.
TripAdvisor's partnerships with airline loyalty programs are not new, but they have escaped much of the media glare.
That TripAdvisor would provide incentives for the writing of hotel reviews is a tad ironic since the company bars hotels from providing incentives to their guests for writing TripAdvisor reviews.
But, there is an important distinction between TripAdvisor's and hotels' review incentives -- TripAdvisor provides the rewards through the airline loyalty programs regardless whether the reviews are positive, negative or indifferent.
That's a stark contrast with some hotels, which sometimes may attempt to provide perks in exchange for guests writing glowing TripAdvisor reviews of their properties.
Still, TripAdvisor's marketing program with airlines raises questions because awarding travelers miles based on the number of reviews they write could lead to abuse, with some travelers authoring reviews even if they haven't stayed at the property.
That's because more reviews means more award miles and more flights.
TripAdvisor spokesperson Kevin Carter says such airline partnerships have been under way for "many years" and:
Members can share their positive or negative experiences for any hotel, restaurant or attraction visited with all reviews subject to TripAdvisor’s standard terms and conditions and moderation processes.
These partnership programs simply encourage travelers to freely share their experiences and are not biased toward any particular business or business type, nor are they biased towards negative or positive reviews in any way.
By contrast, incentive programs that are likely to bias reviews, limit the ability of travelers to freely share their experiences, or simply promote one hospitality business over another are strictly against our guidelines. We investigate and look to stop any such activity.
Randy Petersen, founder of FlyerTalk, notes typically TripAdvisor -- or any other loyalty program partner -- would buy miles from the airline, which would award them to members.
The airlines, in turn, get to hand out perks to their most loyal passengers and increase their engagement with this valued customer segment.
"This is a smart move by TripAdvisor to build local language content from a typically above-average and knowledgeable traveler as, most would agree, has membership in a frequent flyer program," Petersen says.
Henry Harteveldt, co-founder of Atmosphere Research Group, likewise notes that TripAdvisor's marketing through loyalty programs should attract more reviews from business travelers.
"Having more reviews written by business travelers can help TripAdvisor increase its appeal and utility to both travelers and advertisers," Harteveldt says. "In that sense, it's a smart and logical step for TripAdvisor to take."
But, Harteveldt feels that TripAdvisor's tack may signal a weakness.
"These promotions do make me wonder if TripAdvisor has seen a decline in the volume of reviews it's receiving," Harteveldt says. "Facebook and Twitter make it easy for people to write and share their opinions on hotels, and it's possible some of those opinions and sharing is coming at the expense of TripAdvisor. As a mature, established brand, TripAdvisor has to think about ways to to generate more engagement from new users, and encourage existing users to write more reviews."
Still, as almost anything TripAdvisor does these days on the review front, these hotel review incentives are bound to stir some blowback.