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StumbleCustomer may not have written that online hotel review
Steve Marcus / File photo
Travel and review-driven sites have developed methods that try to find illegitimate reviews from fake “customers” promoting their employers. Officials say hotels rated highly by travelers tend to attract more bookings than others.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.
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Sun archives
- MGM responding to online reviewers’ criticism of Aria (6-17-2010)
- CityCenter hotels’ features at your fingertips (4-5-2010)
- Interactive signs at Aria will lead to biggest jackpots (2-24-2010)
- High rollers bring baccarat boom to Las Vegas (2-22-2010)
- Will CityCenter change type of tourist in Vegas? (12-18-2009)
- Vegas tourism companies embrace social media strategies (11-11-2009)
- Casinos saving face online (10-26-2009)
- Catching the potential of social networks (6-19-2009)
The rise of traveler-generated online reviews has forced hotel managers to contend with anonymous posts from angry or disappointed customers.
For people in the business of promoting Las Vegas hotels, it has also opened the door for sneak counterattacks in the form of bogus positive reviews created to boost their clients’ image among the traveling public.
Travel websites such as Tripadvisor and Expedia, as well as generic review-driven sites such as Yelp, are well aware of such abuse. That’s why they have developed methods that attempt to pinpoint illegitimate reviews from fake “customers” who are, in reality, promoting their employers or attacking competitors.
It’s important for the sites to try to keep as many of the bogus reviews off the site because reviews have become one of the most important deciding factors for travelers choosing a hotel, says Katie Deines, spokeswoman for the travel booking website Expedia.
That’s why Expedia allows customers to search for hotels according to how other travelers have rated them, not simply by the hotels’ official star ratings, which are mostly determined by a standard checklist of services offered such as room service, valet and amenities for business travelers.
Hotels rated highly by travelers, with four or five out of five stars, tend to attract more bookings than hotels, even those with high star ratings, that get mediocre or poor traveler reviews, Deines says.
Expedia allows only people who have booked trips through the site to post reviews, so that is believed to weed out many of the P.R. flacks and bogus negative reviewers. On top of that, the site employs a team of people who read all reviews before posting them online, removing ones that look suspicious, Deines says.
At another popular site, Tripadvisor, no purchase is required to post a review, however. The site does require reviewers to register first, but although they are asked to fill out a profile, many aren’t identified by name, nor do all contributors complete all the questions, such as age, gender and location, requested for the online profiles that appear with the reviews.
As a first line of defense, Tripadvisor employs a software algorithm that filters out illegitimate reviews, spokeswoman Amelie Hurst says. The algorithm is geared toward detecting abuse on a wide scale and won’t necessarily red-flag the odd positive or negative review, she says. She declined to elaborate, citing concerns about users attempting to game the system.
Tripadvisor users — about 34 million each month — also filter comments by alerting management to fake reviews, which are reviewed by the company and potentially removed, Hurst says. Hotels caught faking reviews can be penalized by being excluded from honors afforded highly ranked hotels and flagged with red badge icons for all to see.
In general, though, a bogus positive or negative review here or there is not going to make much of a difference because Tripadvisor users generally read dozens of reviews at once. “No single review is going to sway a traveler’s opinion,” Hurst says.
Another customer review site, Yelp, also employs a software program to help the site detect and remove problematic reviews. Business profiles also feature a link directing consumers to “filtered reviews” that Yelp believes are suspect.
Such reviews are typically posted by users who frequently engage with the site by posting comments, blogs or other information about themselves and their preferences, spokeswoman Stephanie Ichinose says.
Because most reviewers are heavy users of the site, the online community is self-policing, with users “investing a lot of time and energy sharing information about businesses and experiences they love” and taking pride in the legitimacy and value of the information presented, she says.
Businesses, which must register and verify their identities before engaging with consumers, are increasingly responding to Yelp reviews by posting public comments, Ichinose adds. They may also use the site to send reviewers private messages, in addition to uploading photos and posting offers and other info.
All three sites allow hotels to post public comments, either in response to specific reviews or generic information intended to promote the hotel.
Although Las Vegas hotels have quickly embraced social networking websites in recent years by launching Facebook and Twitter accounts to engage with customers, few local properties have crossed the communications barrier on travel websites by responding to traveler comments.
That’s a missed opportunity, says Mehmet Erdem, an associate professor at UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration.
Monitoring and responding to customers, whether on property or online, is part of Service Recovery 101, Erdem says. The first step is to listen or read the complaint, the second is to empathize with the customer and tell him how you are able to fix the problem, and the third step is to fix it so it doesn’t happen again.
Review websites have grown in importance for hotel managers by offering valuable, even necessary feedback. The more reviews a property attracts, the more legitimate the feedback, Erdem adds.
Multiple research studies have shown that, in aggregate, traveler-generated hotel reviews posted online revealed ratings that were similar to those generated by professional marketing firms paid by hotels to survey travelers. On average, and over the course of hundreds of online reviews, the comments reveal core truths about the properties at issue, Erdem says.
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Extraordinary! So MGM was clearly peeved at Liz's last story in which she accurately reported on the negative comments online that the corporation has been receiving for its CityCenter properties. There is clearly no other explanation for an entire piece dedicated to questioning the authenticity of those comments.
If 90 percent of your feedback is consistent, you can't simply say it's just a few disgruntled people. I've posted reviews, both positive and negative, on both Trip Advisor and Expedia for hotels that I've stayed at around the world and although they were personal experiences and may have been a fluke they were accurate.
The quiet insinuation here that online reviews are nothing more than anonymous slander is really just appalling. MGM's advertising clout is clearly too powerful when they can pressure a writer into "reporting" a back-handed rebuttal to something they don't like.
This is really inexcusable and frankly this is why Las Vegas ranks at the bottom of everything. No one in this town can take criticism and therefore nothing ever changes for the good. If I were the head of a corporation such as MGM and was receiving the kind of comments online that they've been getting I would do more than say I was going to put in some bushes and signs. And I most certainly wouldn't take out my frustation by having my PR people phone up a newspaper and rant because I didn't like seeing the truth in print.
This is not new and I will agree that some of the reviews that get posted have had an effect on business'. I have to laugh when I read these reviews and see 8 positives then a slam on a property that clearly does not deserve to be slammed. You want to see how a bad review can effect a property go back 3 years ago when the Atlantic City Trop was going through employee matters and ownership problems, all you read about was about bed bugs, bad food, poor service etc. Being a regular to that property none of it was true and it had put the whole property in a dire situation.
There is no easy way to determine the validity of a post and to be honest the only way is the old fashion way and that is to tell the front desk or management the issues. Remember for every 1 bad review the property stands to loose potentially 10 customers.
Bad experiences do happen and it is not limited to casinos hotels or hotels in general, it is a matter of expectations for your dollar.
p
There is NO question that the bad reviews for City Center posted on Expedia and Yelp as well as right here on Sun Discussion pages are authentic and absolutely true. Jim Murren is so out of touch with the reality of how he and his counterparts have destroyed and drowned Las Vegas in corporate mire. This town that was the ultimate adult Disneyland of vice and fun, has turned into a steel and stone graveyard, and the hotels have turned into dull business type overnight stays which fleece the visitor at every turn.
In the article from Liz Benston on 6/17/10 Las Vegas Sun, she wrote "Some managers complain guests have higher expectations for what their smaller bankrolls will buy."
If this is true, the place will never be completely successful with those type of managers and attitudes in place.
@ LV Sun staff:
Please, could anybody handle that ad spam comments by xinyue555585.
I think we all know how to order at ebay or amazon.
This discussion here is so very important for any traveler to know that there is much too much marketing strategy behind many of the hotel evaluating comments here and at many forums trying to turn the competing hotels down.
Me, I have also neither experienced any bed bugs nor any roaches at any of the MGM Group's hotels/casinos.
Regards
Banana_Joe
Sporty,
The idea for Liz to write this story was not MGM's. It was mine, based on the interest shown in her previous story about customer reviews of CityCenter and my long-standing curiosity about people who try to game the system of customer reviews.
Banana_Joe,
The spammers with their ads indeed are a nuisance. When one of us on the staff crawls out of bed in the morning, we run through the comments and remove them.
When selecting hotels on Expedia.com by user review, only the Signature at MGM, Encore, Wynn and Palazzo are among the top 25 hotels with a casino attached. The Top 3? Hampton Inn Summerlin, Fairfield and Holiday Inn Express Henderson.
Why is it that well staffed and maintained regular hotels and motels score higher in guest satisfaction than casino hotels? The staffs at these places provide excellent service, generally without gratuity and still manage to serve a free breakfast every morning.
The other often cited reason for low reviews at casino hotels is the lack of value which has lately become a full bore gouge with $8 water in the mini bar and $15 resort fees. Why can't casino hotel operators seem to understand their customer's expectations are not sky high? All people want is to stay somewhere they're treated at least as good as the Holiday Inn Express in Henderson (2nd highest rating of 4.9).
Well for sure...I wouldn't trust anything EXPEDIA had to say.My personal dealings with them have been totally negative. They "repeatedly" mis-represented ads for cruises and HOTELS.I wouldn't put it past them to doctor up comments. Burnt 3 times is enough for me. After my endless pressuring to correct their false advertising,they did. Well...the ad went back to the way it was 3 mths later.Fact is, dealing directly with the property or even the cruise line affords you a chance of extra perks and/or upgrades.
Hey, times are tuff. Those lodging folks are scrambling to survive. Fluffing up some reviews seems a logical 'white lie' in their hungry souls.
Give 'em a break, pass the salt and caveat emptor to you my friends and easy marks! Be sure to check for bedbugs!
This story states a factual inaccuracy:
"Another customer review site, Yelp, also employs a software program to help the site detect and remove problematic reviews. Business profiles also feature a link directing consumers to "filtered reviews" the company believes are most useful and constructive."
Incorrect. Yelp's "Filtered Reviews" section is exactly the OPPOSITE as stated in this story. The Filtered Reviews are the ones that the site's software program REMOVES from the general review page because they do not appear to be genuine.
"methods that attempt to pinpoint illegitimate reviews from fake "customers" who are, in reality, promoting their employers or attacking competitors."
Online anonymity (such as that found in these comments - another, unique, problem) combined with the perceived "authenticity" of online reviews has actually created a cottage industry of people who produce deliberately negative reviews for payment. People are hired to visit several competitor's businesses and craft "believable" attack reviews before finally writing a glowing review of the business that hired them. This produces what Yelp's software views as an "authentic" review trail but in actuality is a long-winded smear campaign designed to effectively pass muster. Yelp thinks it is good enough to control this kind of gaming of their system, but it cannot simply because this type of attack generates exactly what Yelp thinks is the mark of "legitimacy." It will be interesting to see what they do to try to address this.
@Tom Gorman (Staff):
Thanks a lot Tom. Sorry, pal, too early in the morning for you I guess.
As an excited tourist regularly revisiting Vegas I am unfortunately commenting at GMT + 2:00 h here in central Europe and will keep that in mind in the future. Take care.
Regards
Banana_Joe
We just got back from a week at thehotel at MB. We go about 6 times a year. We have been going to Vegas since 1979. On the drive home all we talked about was going somewhere else to gamble. Vegas is dead. Shows are a fortune and packed. Try just getting a drink and listeniing to some music, impossible anymore. We spent a fortune on food and it was not all that great. The room was clean and comped. I would NOT pay those rates I saw. The people were rude. Not so much the dealers, but everyday people. You can see and hear the fustration about Vegas changes from the dealers. People were dressed like pigs. Even nice high end casinos were packed with .... scum. No manners, no etiquite. Buy-in in the middle of a craps roll. I refuse to play 6/5. What is it with al these children in and around the casinos. Obnoxious drunks, not fun drunks. Pit boss's just stand there waiting for the drunks to drop their bankroll. The rest of us have to put up with it. thehotel is fast checking in but we saw the lines at other hotels. There must have been 200 people in line at Palazzo to check in. And where are the secuirty guards checking access to floors. Anybody can just walk right in. I think the good old days are long gone. Vegas is killing the cash cow, not milking it as someone just wrote.
I generally do not post negative comments, however if I have an opposing view or counterpoint I try to be articulate and express my thoughts and encourage others not to resort to unjustified slanderous or personal attacks without merit. It is fairly easy to filter out the wheat from the chaff in terms of valid praise or warranted umbrage. Long time champion of MGM my admiration is based on personal experience. Given a choice there is no other company that inspires that such passionate loyalty to the brand.Yet I never find myself posting hurtful libelous rhetoric volleyed at competitors or posting bogus reviews.All my posting are are a reflection of actual personal perspective and experience with the company.
I was also curious about how these sites validated statements. I can see both sides. I can see the bitter old pills that lurk on the internet all day posting fake overly critical reviews of properties that have wronged them in some perceived way. I can also see the casino's posting fluff positive reviews if they think their user rating is going down.
75% of everything we read on the internet is propaganda. The other 25% was written by others who also lie for personal and financial gain. Welcome to the 21st century. Caveat Emptor people! Watch out for yourself, expect to be duped a hundred times a day by people trying to separate you from your money. No one is above it, everyone is capable of it so you should protect yourself from it by using your 'Brain'. Stop walking around in a fog and think about it before you book something or buy something. Everyone has a different perspective on a situation and different expectations about their plans and recreational activities. My wife always asks the waitress about certain dishes they serve. If the waitress does not like fish she will make a face when my wife asks about the salmon, so she wont get the salmon. Or my mom will tell me that she hated/liked a movie and I should go/not go to see it. All useless information. Like commercial advertising, it is all about making you attach a feeling to a thing so you will give your cash to get/see it. Hook, line and sinker baby. "Las Vegas What happens here stays here" ie; We want your money.
A recent WSJ article showed how some consumer ratings websites favor businesses who advertise with them and punish those that don't by disallowing good or bad reviews accordingly. A couple of them have been sued successfully. ---Maybe Yelp & Angies' list.
They (businesses of all types) all do it (post fake positive reviews on sites from Trip Advisor to Yelp to Amazon to iTunes). It's tough for automated programs to weed them all out, but pretty easy for a human reader. Same thing with competitors (or disgruntled employees) posting negative reviews.
So now, this is the second article about the impact of internet reviews on hotels.
Inasmuch as it cannot be corroborated or substantiated regarding the integrity of the reviews themselves, basically what we have is nothing.
Two stories about nothing... Basically, a he said, she said kind of thing. Believe whichever one you want because the truth is somewhere in between.
What is the point of all this? Are you retracting your original story because you now find that the basic premise cannot be substantiated?
Is there a problem or isn't there a problem at the Aria? Come on, you started all of this. In fairness to Aria and your readers, tell us what is going on...
If you don't know, say so. You shouldn't find yourselves in a position where you find that your sources are questionable. You have stirred up a lot of mess only to now say that the reviews may not be creditable.
You should have left it alone.
I wrote a review for a vehicle accessory, that was negative in nature, the site pulled the review. I wrote one that was positive, they left it up.
Looks like we need government to police Internet reviews because this is consumer fraud. Or else the website should put up a prominent disclaimer stating the reviews are rigged.
I'm calling the AG.
Most of you commenting are missing the point: There are likely just as many fake negative reviews as fake positive. Until the publishers of the online media community -- including this one -- take steps to verify the identity of every poster and the veracity of their statements, everything you read on line is suspect. How many people post here making statements intended to put negative or positive spin on an article have some kind of "interest" in doing so?
With new technology comes new ways of digesting it and adjusting. This is no different with the internet's reviewing systems. "Let the buyer beware" when reading posts or reviews from anyone. Of course the boxes will be stuffed with biased reviews. This is the way of the world. You must use your brain when reading anything printed... these rules are as old as the hills. And, yes, poor service and lower rent people are more present than ever (in my recent experiences) - but lower rent people are better than no people. So, I stay away more often than I used to.
Cyber-Media has a long history of utilizing forms of censorship to achieve desired public perceptions -- comment deletions, user prohibitions, facebook (whatever that is) requirements, in short feedback barriers used as a means of protecting the propagation of perceptions which don't support underlying agenda$.
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Regardless, these reviews are generally accurate.. check Gold Spike vs. The Golden Nugget vs. The Palazzo. Trip Advisor is most accurate because they pull user reviews from various sites. Registered users of travel sites must book the room in order to leave a review, so although there may be some abuse of the system, most of these review sites are a good general indicator of how clean a hotel is and how good (or bad) the service is. Anyone can leave a review on Yelp, so it's not as useful for hotels as it is restraunts and entertainment venues.
So Aria, you're not off the hook. If you can't provide the level of service found in a hotel near the airport, there's a giant red flag waving online AND in reality.
It must be said again, since the Sun is not correcting the mistake:
Sun Reporter Benston states:
"Business profiles also feature a link directing consumers to "filtered reviews" the company believes are most useful and constructive."
Incorrect. She has it backwards. Yelp's "filtered" reviews are the ones its "review software" moves off the main page because it finds them troubling, NOT "most useful and constructive."
Will the Sun correct this?
I've stayed at several LV "resorts" over the years. Never had a problem with a room, other than one time the room wasn't cleaned and made-up after the previous guest left. We immediately received an upgrade to a nicer room and apologies from every employee involved for our inconvenience. In my mind, they made it right and there is no reason to call that a negative issue. Negatives to me are resort fees and the famed 6/5. So we stay at Harrah's resorts (No resort fee) and play BJ elsewhere, problem solved. We've never left Las Vegas without thinking about when we will be back. Some people are just IMPOSSIBLE to satisfy. Others complain with expectations of getting something for nothing. The resorts have to sort these out from legitimate complaints (our messy room was obvious to them after they saw the room). Some bloggers on this site label every hotel that caters to the low-mid priced customers as a "dump". If you don't like it, go spend your $400 a night at the "finer" resort and have a good time! I'll see you at the Imperial Palace!
I'm surprised none of you suggested some good old investigative journalism. Pay a student journalist from UNLV to stay at the Aria and give us some feedback. Oh that's right, it would break The Suns bank account.
"the anonymity and accessability of the internet, is of course the best way, to get a realistic picture about the true perceptions"
No, actually, it isn't --- particularly when people like you think it somehow adds to the veracity of the reviews that they are anonymous. When fake reviews are successfully posted boasting either point of view (positive or negative) and with a hidden agenda (from management or competition) then the review is useless. Utterly, absolutely useless.
Hmmm....reminds me of a story some friends told me a while back. When TI was a Mirage property they were staying there. They wanted to go over to the Mirage and inquired at the Bell Desk what was the best way to get over there. The Bell Desk person told them to take a cab. This knowing that there's a free tram between the properties. I apologized to my friends.
Service isn't what you get in Vegas, it's what happens to you. Maybe some lean times will readjust that attitude...or not.
nitro & RPJ :
You two remind me of those two guys in Ocean's Eleven who constantly bicker back and forth with each other about senseless idiom!!!
@ environprotector:
LOL! Exactly! (great movie!)
Yes, folks, me, I also think it's a great movie,
but sometimes I like the original "Eee-O eleven" even more and give my respect to it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054135/
Ha! I love the idea of an undercover reporter staying at the hotels and writing a review of each.
The unfortunate thing about these reviews is that often guests will have a great experience and just consider that "what they expected", but if one tiny thing goes against the way they think it should be, well, that is when they are happy to complain. I work in the industry and our hotel has gotten bad reviews because " the wind blew the umbrella out of the stand at the pool and that ruined our whole afternoon". People would much rather complain than commend. . .if you don't believe me, just read the comments on every story ever posted here!
U.S.A., U.S.A. ... soccer world cup :)
Ok, knowledgers, here, why doesn't any sponsorship buy Herculez Gomez and his wife/friend a night on the town at a location of his choice where he'd like to party.
Why?
Because he did such great, he is from Vegas and he deserves it (same way like that Donovan guy does deserve it :).
Regards
Banana_Joe
And yet, "environprotector," despite your girl-slap at me, the Sun has corrected its story. You are terrified of facts.
I recently stayed at the Rio and Flamingo -- both comped. I then wrote reviews on Trip Advisor.com about my stays at the two properties.
My reviews for both properties noted some positives and negatives. Nothing I wrote was rude or offensive. I even noted I would stay at either hotel again. Trust me, there are some brutal reviews on Trip Advisor -- mainly dealing with room quality and customer service, especially for the Flamingo.
I was, however, critical of 6/5 blackjack, high table minimums, and tight machines at both properties. I also ripped into the lousy and subpar Flamingo Sportsbook. This is a fact and I was simply informing your average Las Vegas tourist what to expect if they plan on gambling at a Harrah's property.
My reviews were denied without explanation by Trip Advisor. I repeatedly emailed them about why my reviews were denied or what I needed to change to make the reviews acceptable. No response.
Anyway, I don't want to say there's some sort of conspiracy with Trip Advisor, but I find it very strange that my reviews of Rio and Flamingo were denied, especially after my criticisms of Harrah's gaming policies/limits.
As always, check out my Las Vegas blog:
http://jimmyhoofa-lv.blogspot.com/
"This is the end result of all the bright lights... and the comp trips, of all the champagne... and free hotel suites, and all the broads and all the booze. It's all been arranged just for us to get your money. That's the truth about Las Vegas. We're the only winners. The players don't stand a chance. "
-- Sam "Ace" Rothstein, Casino, 1995
When they get bad feedback they get paranoid.
i've not had any problem leaving reviews on tripadvisor and found the site extremely helpful--disregard the extreme reviews-both positive and negative and you'll pick up useful info. I have noticed that anything even close to non-pc tilt on any of these "comment" sections will get you deleted for sure---even if it is the truth.
Im so sick of hearing people say they dont like Vegas, or they complain that the people in in LV are trashy or rude. Its the other tourists that are rude, not the service industry. Even if 1 waiter is rude dosent mean you need to write a nasty review. This is how our economey gets killed. Its not just the strip, hospitals arent hireing nurses, when were "having a nursing shortage" (yeah right) Stop killing Vegas if you dont like it go to the Jersey Shore ans see what trashy is!!
In the last two weeks tripadvisor has removed one negative review I did of a hotel(horrible experience), and censored a review I did last week(they removed the comment I made about the coffee being bad at a hotel). I believe they are a foreign owned company. Customer service is "english is a second laguage" and they read from cards. They do not understand what they are reading. The just read it. I think they are manipulating reviews to the highest payer.
I don't understand why anyone would put a lot of credence on something said at any of these sites.
I could post a comment without ever staying at these properties, whether positive or negative, just for the hell of it.
I could tell everyone of my exploits in Africa or Europe and I've never been to either continent, if you believe what is posted on the internet or face book or twitter shame you need to get a life.
If you were victim of a fake review as hotel or traveler come to twitter.com/fakereview to report this review [tiny url + #fakereview + #NameWebSite]