Integrity of Hotel Reviews May Have Been Compromised

Can too much of a good thing be bad? It is, if these “good” things are actually based on lies and misinformation. Similar to almost all industries in the world, revenue managers are not immune to the temptation of tricking people in an effort to boost hotel profitability. For example, some have resorted to posting fake reviews on popular web portals to increase their web popularity. It isn’t so bad if they can live up to these promises. But the problem lies mostly in principle.

As if that’s not bad enough, some hotel revenue management staff has even resorted to bad-mouthing their competitor online. This unethical practice undermines the credibility of user-generated content available on the internet. People used to trust to feedback of their peers but with these kinds of developments. However, as more people find out about the unethical practices of certain firms, they might start to think twice before looking into hotel reviews online again. It is possible that they might simply revert back to their old networks for information.

There are many other reasons why faking reviews should not be done for the purpose of increasing RevPAR and boosting hotel sales. Popular portals such as TripAdvisor.com are now cracking down on unscrupulous hoteliers. In fact, the site has already posted a warning as well as a disclaimer telling users to be careful about the practices of certain establishments.

Tripadvisor.com is not alone in its quest to clean out fraudulent reviews. Beyond the hospitality revenue management industry, technology companies like Apple are also utilizing certain measures to preserve the credibility of its site. For example, the tech company had required customers to download or purchase its products first before they get a chance to review it on the site.

These developments should serve as a warning to yield management teams not to engage in misleading practices. Technology is fast catching up and soon, they will not only be penalized, their reputation will also be destroyed if they get caught.