UP to one in seven hotel reviews on TripAdvisor have the “blatant hallmarks” of being fake, a study by Which? says.
The watchdog analysed almost 250,000 comments on the top ten hotels in ten hotspots.
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Which? reported 15 cases to TripAdvisor and claimed the site admitted that 14 had been caught with fake positive reviews in the last year.
Six had been penalised for breaking guidelines while two had warnings for suspicious activity. But this was not made clear to travellers, said Which?.
Almost half of the hundreds of five-star reviews at two London Travelodges came from first-time contributors who had never reviewed anywhere else.
A hotel rated the best in Jordan had a “hugely suspicious” pattern of reviews. The hotel denied wrongdoing but TripAdvisor removed 730 of its five-star ratings.
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Which? said: “TripAdvisor’s failure to act risks misleading millions of travellers.”
But the site claimed crucial data was missing from Which?’s analysis. It added: “We are very aggressive in catching fake reviews and pursuing the fraudsters.
Travelodge said it had been slow to react to an irregular pattern of reviews at its Wembley Central hotel.
