TripAdvisor launches new initiatives to 'support hospitality and tourism'

Set to take place on Tuesday 3 May, Write a Review Day calls on all travellers who have visited a hospitality setting or booked an experience in the past year and have not yet left a review, to share their memories and constructive advice on TripAdvisor and using #WriteAReviewDay on social media.

As well as supporting consumers on how best to express opinion and information as part of their reviews, the Better Review Initiative aims to support the tourism and hospitality industries with regards to how to manage their reputation.

The initiative aims to do three things over the next year:

• Help hotel operators, restaurants, and experience providers to understand the right way to ask customers to review their business.
• Help travel and hospitality operators understand the benefits of responding to reviews written online in a constructive way, and the positive impact that can have on their brand reputation.   
• Support travellers with guidance on how to write better reviews which are helpful for businesses and other travellers alike.

Doing the right thing 

This comes as last week saw the Government announce plans to make it “clearly illegal​” to pay someone to write or host a fake review with fines potentially issued to those who do.

According to the Government, the average UK household spends around £900 a year influenced by online fake reviews.

The legal changes to reviews are expected to come into effect following a parliamentary review.

Consumer and small business minister Paul Scully said: “We have some of the best pubs, restaurants and cafés in the world and customers rightly expect to be able to trust reviews they read before visiting.

“I know our great hospitality businesses that are doing the right thing will be behind this move to improve transparency to protect their reputations from the few dodgy firms doing their sector down.”

Fairness for consumers and businesses 

In October last year, analysis from review site TripAdvisor claimed it had identified 3.6% of review submissions in 2020 as fake​​, with the majority being rejected before they were posted.

The website, which claims to have more than a billion reviews and opinions on its platform, has previously been criticised by pub operators for reasons such as people using fake names and the ability for people to post reviews without having to prove evidence of using the venue.

UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said: “As 70% of hospitality businesses are small and medium enterprises (SMEs), that a clear right of appeal is put in place that is accessible to operators big and small.

“Fairness for both businesses and consumers, particularly when it comes to offering refunds, will be crucial and any new measures must also be made in the context of a sector facing an onslaught of challenges after a difficult two years.”