Tripadvisor’s Chinese ‘super-reviewers’ post 51 hotel reviews a month

Credits: The Sydney Morning Herald
By: Jolyon Attwooll

The authenticity of TripAdvisor reviews is under the spotlight again after new research revealed thousands of suspect postings on the Chinese version of the website.

The study, carried out by Kwikchex, an “online reputation management” company that has been a regular critic of TripAdvisor, uncovered what it called “alarming patterns” on daodao, the site’s Chinese domain. Chris Emmins, Kwikchex co-founder, cited “amazingly prolific” reviewers on the site, including one member who had posted 2633 reviews since 2010.

He highlighted instances where these so-called “super-reviewers” seemed to follow similar patterns of travel, posting reviews about the same businesses in the same parts of the world. Another reviewer, who had posted 1361 reviews since October 2013, claimed to have stayed in 51 Paris hotels in a single month in 2013 – while also posting reviews on 50 other hotels in several other countries.

Above excerpts and read the full article on www.smh.com.au