It Seems a Third of Tripadvisor's Reviews are Fake - Is Cruise Critic Just as Bad?

Just read this article that claims that one third of Tripadvisor (Cruise Critic's parent company) reviews are fake. Makes me wonder if the same is true for CC. My gut says no. What do you think?

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/09/23/one-in-three-tripadvisor-reviews-are-fake-with-venues-buying-glowing-reviews-investigation-finds.html

Just as with TA, it’s easy to determine if a CC review is fake. Check the posting history of the poster. If a poster just joined and has very few posts, but yet takes the time to write a very negative or very glowing review, those posts should be suspect as fake.

Thanks for the link. Read the article.

Yes, there are likely to be some reviews that are glowing throughout their report and you wonder if someone wanted them to write that report -- especially if the person had made only 1 or 2 posts here. Poor reviews, maybe the person was hoping to get a free cruise thinking that the cruise line would sympathize with them about their poor cruise/excursions, experience, etc.

Yelp is the same way....your business gets listed and reviews start to come in. Yelp reaches out to you to ask you to help pay for advertising on the site that has glowing customer reviews of your establishment. You say no thanks. Yelp starts to withhold new positive reviews so your rating drops.

Review sites are manipulated in many ways. I take most of them with a grain of salt. If it's all positive, probably a little hyperbolic. If it's all negative, probably a little hyperbolic.

Yelp is the same way....your business gets listed and reviews start to come in. Yelp reaches out to you to ask you to help pay for advertising on the site that has glowing customer reviews of your establishment. You say no thanks. Yelp starts to withhold new positive reviews so your rating drops.

 

Review sites are manipulated in many ways. I take most of them with a grain of salt. If it's all positive, probably a little hyperbolic. If it's all negative, probably a little hyperbolic.

I have been posting on trip Advisor for many years without a problem. I gave up on YELP because they were not printing my reviews.

The only thing I cannot understand about CC is people who have over 100,000 posts .Are they on line 24/7 ?

I read very few CC reviews, but I am sure some are less than accurate. Whether they are intentionally fake? Pretty sure some are but I would not be able to prove it.

I do agree with some of the linked article especially about B&Bs. Had friends who managed a B&B and EVERY review (glowing!!! perfect!!! best ever!!!) of the B&B was traceable back to mutual friends/former co workers.

The problem, as I see it, with Trip Advisor, is that they will take down a bad customer review, if the reviewed business complains, or disputes the claims in the review. This happened to a member of our roll-call, several years ago. She had organized a private shore excursion for a group of us. It was just a tram ride around the pier area of an Island in the Turks & Caicos . But, the tour operator totally flaked, on us. (Fortunately, we had not paid anything, in advance.) To make matters worse, the tour operator was rude to our friend, who organized the tour. He basically had a "What are you going to do about it, Lady?" attitude.

So, when we got home, our organizer friend (also a very active member, here on CC) posted some very specific (none too flattering) reviews of this particular tour operator -- here, and on Trip Advisor. The reviews and comments on CC were well received. But, when the tour operator read the TA review, and loudly protested, the review was immediately pulled. Fortunately a bunch of us saw what happened, and contacted TA, with our own reviews of this shady operator. ONLY after we did that, did TA put our friend's negative review back up -- along with some of ours.

So, for me, the big difference is: Cruise Critic will not take your review down, it someone protests -- but, TripAdvisor seems all too willing to give the complaining business the benefit of the doubt, over the customer. I don't know anything about 'fake reviews' -- good or bad -- but I'm sure that they do exist.

CC will remove reviews if proven to be fake

it happened not long ago in the Oceania reviews

Done some head scratching and have concluded cruise critic reviews are all I'll need.

Done some head scratching and have concluded cruise critic reviews are all I'll need.

You still need to be suspect on CC especially when it comes to tour operators. The Russian tour operators especially have been very brazen with their false reviews. Going as far as stating one long established and popular tour operator is shut down and she’s in jail.

You still need to be suspect on CC especially when it comes to tour operators. The Russian tour operators especially have been very brazen with their false reviews. Going as far as stating one long established and popular tour operator is shut down and she’s in jail.

Was she ??

I see her business is still there

The problem, as I see it, with Trip Advisor, is that they will take down a bad customer review, if the reviewed business complains, or disputes the claims in the review. This happened to a member of our roll-call, several years ago. She had organized a private shore excursion for a group of us. It was just a tram ride around the pier area of an Island in the Turks & Caicos . But, the tour operator totally flaked, on us. (Fortunately, we had not paid anything, in advance.) To make matters worse, the tour operator was rude to our friend, who organized the tour. He basically had a "What are you going to do about it, Lady?" attitude.

 

So, when we got home, our organizer friend (also a very active member, here on CC) posted some very specific (none too flattering) reviews of this particular tour operator -- here, and on Trip Advisor. The reviews and comments on CC were well received. But, when the tour operator read the TA review, and loudly protested, the review was immediately pulled. Fortunately a bunch of us saw what happened, and contacted TA, with our own reviews of this shady operator. ONLY after we did that, did TA put our friend's negative review back up -- along with some of ours.

 

So, for me, the big difference is: Cruise Critic will not take your review down, it someone protests -- but, TripAdvisor seems all too willing to give the complaining business the benefit of the doubt, over the customer. I don't know anything about 'fake reviews' -- good or bad -- but I'm sure that they do exist.

There are always two sides to every story. If a business can prove the review is bogus, it absolutely should be removed. It's like trying to look up a review on Amazon, and it got 1 star because it arrived damaged in shipping. Helps no one.

Either way, reviews are mostly a joke anymore. Too many paid reviewers, idiot opinions, cheerleaders, etc. When I ask anyone I personally know about cruises, I get a bunch of garbage responses. The reason I enjoy reviews on this site is because I get to see photos of the boats, food, islands, excursions, etc and sometimes learn about something new. It gives me ideas, and makes me almost feel there. The opinions, I could do without.

I thought the opinions were what the Critic part of Cruise Critic was about. Everyone sees things differently. Read two or three reviews on a ship, and see if there’s a common list of likes/dislikes

Was she ??

 

I see her business is still there

No. And Cc immediately took down the fake reports.

The fundamental problem with reviews is that they are written by people - paid or otherwise. You can read two reviews of the same cruise here, and one person had the finest cruise of their lives, and the other was forced to row the ship for bread and water. Opinions are just that - there is some level of fact, but it is heavily covered by prejudices, stereotypes and expectations.

I read the reviews because I find the negative ones amusing. I don't really put much weight into them.

I have a c0up1e 0f 1etters n0t w0rking 0n my c0mputer , p1ease excuse the weirdness 0f impr0vising

I am a Seni0r c0ntributer 0n Trip Advis0r and I read the reviews f0r anything I am researching I never take a new reviewer ,,,aka,,,1 p0st w0nders seri0us1y EVER!!!! I 0n1y be1ieve the 10ng time c0ntributers

:o:o:o:o:o:o

The fundamental problem with reviews is that they are written by people - paid or otherwise. You can read two reviews of the same cruise here, and one person had the finest cruise of their lives, and the other was forced to row the ship for bread and water. Opinions are just that - there is some level of fact, but it is heavily covered by prejudices, stereotypes and expectations.

 

I read the reviews because I find the negative ones amusing. I don't really put much weight into them.

To a certain extent, yes. However, company policies get in the way as well.

Not exactly the same as the issue here, but my wife and I had an issue with Amazon. We have a friend that self published a book. My wife bought the physical book and I bought the Kindle version. We both tried to place a review and Amazon deleted them both. We discovered from the author that Amazon's policies state only one review per household. There is a flaw in this policy.....2 items were purchased, it's pretty obvious there could be different reviews/opinions on a book....rather than reaching out to the members of the household to let them know of the policy and see if we wanted one to post, both were deleted.

I understand why that policy is in place, but it's not beneficial to the product/company. Reviews have to be taken with a grain of salt.

I usually depend on Trip Advisor reviews for a hotel, restaurant or area that I have not been to before.

I don't read just one. I read at least five pages worth, so if there are some bogus reviews they sort of blend in, or stand out.

Trip Advisor also has a "boards" section that I go to once n a while. Many of the posters are from Europe, but there are some people from the US. I go there if I want to ask a question about a certain travel agency. It's strange, but it's allowed there.

Agree need to read multiple reviews, on this board I know more than a few people, who I would trust there opinions

No. And Cc immediately took down the fake reports.

Good to hear

The TripAdvisor review thing has been known for quite a while. It's one reason why a lot of folks say to read the reviews but discard the outliers at either end. If you can read critically, you can still garner a lot of useful information. For example, hotel reviewers can give you a good idea of whether there's a good restaurant nearby or a place to buy a few groceries...

On CC, I put more faith into reviews that are published on the actual forums -- with names attached that are recognizable and folks willing to come back and clarify/answer questions.

Tour operators are very sneaky. Having been around CC a long time, I've seen a lot of things, including tour operators posting on roll calls as passengers to recruit for their agency's tours, and tour operators providing their own glowing reviews. :mad:

Even people who write frequent trip advisor/cc reviews may not be reliable. When somebody writes a very negative review of a place/ship I know to be much better, I sometimes read what else this reviewer writes. I found one person who was widely travelled and only wrote negative reviews; one was very negative about the Bund in Shanghai, a promenade with a wonderful view of Shanghai's newest architecture.

But I think that most of the time reviews are useful.

Just read this article that claims that one third of Tripadvisor (Cruise Critic's parent company) reviews are fake. Makes me wonder if the same is true for CC. My gut says no. What do you think?

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/09/23/one-in-three-tripadvisor-reviews-are-fake-with-venues-buying-glowing-reviews-investigation-finds.html

This is interesting because Expedia owns Tripadvisor

Just read this article that claims that one third of Tripadvisor (Cruise Critic's parent company) reviews are fake. Makes me wonder if the same is true for CC. My gut says no. What do you think?

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/09/23/one-in-three-tripadvisor-reviews-are-fake-with-venues-buying-glowing-reviews-investigation-finds.html

Seems like the long arm of the law is aware of it too. This is from the Yahoo finance site.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/man-jailed-italy-writing-fake-175145565.html