TripAdvisor has unveiled an online travel review guide with useful review-writing tips based on a survey of over 100,000 travelers and hospitality business owners*.
“Reviews have become a powerful tool; travellers around the world rely on reviews to help them plan and book their holidays. In fact, more than half will not make a booking decision without reading reviews from others**, says Barbara Messing, Chief Marketing Officer, TripAdvisor. “And hospitality businesses are listening – 70% of businesses have taken steps to improve their quality of service thanks to reviews left by travellers.”
“With more than 200 million reviews and opinions and growing on TripAdvisor, we wanted to provide new and seasoned reviewers with insights from our passionate community – from what motivates them to contribute, to the top tips for writing helpful reviews,” she adds.
Why review?
Eighty-three percent of travellers say they write reviews because ‘they want to share useful information with others’ and because ‘they find reviews helpful, so they want to give back.’
Ensuring their reviews are as fresh as possible, 68% of traveller say they write reviews within two days of their trip or experience, and 70% say it takes them 10 minutes or less to write a review.
What makes a review helpful?
TripAdvisor asked the community – and the votes are in:
- The three most important things in a review are that it concentrates on facts (56%), that it provides a lot of detail (48%) and that it’s concise and to the point (41%).
- In terms of the style of the review, 83% of travellers want to read a balanced view, and 69% say it’s important to provide the context for why the reviewer liked or didn’t like something
- When it comes to the content of a hotel review, 64% of travellers want a review to mention the condition of the hotel, and just under half (49%) say it is important to mention the quality of service.
- For restaurant reviews, four out of five travellers (81%) say they want to hear about the food quality, followed by the service (66%)
- For attraction reviews, it’s all about the advice: 75% of travellers want a review to include practical tips that can improve their experience
The survey also revealed the biggest turn-offs for people when reading reviews: overly picky reviews are the #1 turn-off amongst travellers (54%), followed by a lack of detail or specifics on what the reviewer experienced (50%) and bad grammar (42%).
Brad Reynolds, TripAdvisor’s top reviewer with 3,300 reviews since 2009 says, “This campaign is a huge step in the right direction. It has the potential to make the TripAdvisor site much more valuable, with members writing more and better reviews. This will benefit all parties.”
The TripAdvisor guide to writing helpful reviews is available at: http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/TripNews-a_ctr.reviewerguideEN2
*Based on a survey of 95,608 travelers and 7,215 hospitality business owners, including 5,934 total respondents from Australia
**PhoCusWright’s “Custom Survey Research Engagement,” prepared for TripAdvisor, December 2013.
