TripAdvisor-owned Holiday Lettings has included user reviews on the site from today, but with an important twist: homeowners can verify the guest stayed at the property.
On the one hand the addition of user reviews against products (in this case, 46,000 holiday homes in 116 countries around the world) is nothing new, a feature of countless other travel sites and pretty much to be expected given TripAdvisor bought Holiday Lettings in June last year.
The TripAdvisor reviewing system has been tailored for the rental site, Holiday Lettings says, but from the outside is essentially the same type of process where users can add a review to any of the properties featured on the site.
There is one significant difference which will no doubt cause a stir among critics of user reviews (or at least those that eye every move by TripAdvisor): owners will be asked to confirm that the guest actually stayed at the property before a review is made live on the site.
Once again, many other services elsewhere on the web have included similar verification processes to try and eradicate bogus reviews from competitors or PR companies - but this is the first time a TripAdvisor-run system has included such verification protocols on reviews.
Hoteliers, of course, may well be looking for the mothership to add similar verification functionality to the main TripAdvisor hotel site.
Unfortunately for them, a TripAdvisor official was quick to dash any such hopes in an email statement:
"We have no plans to change our current system for hotels."