Some of travel’s biggest companies are joining forces with other major players that rely on online customer reviews to launch a global coalition for trusted reviews to help ensure consumers can make informed purchase decisions.
The coalition includes Booking.com, Expedia Group and Tripadvisor, which helped organize the effort. Joining the travel companies are Amazon, job and recruiting website Glassdoor and business review website Trustpilot.
"The trust that consumers and partners have in our platforms and businesses is a top priority for the members of this coalition, all of whom agreed to join together to fight fake review content on the internet,” said Becky Foley, vice president for trust and safety at Tripadvisor. “To further maintain the credibility and authenticity of reviews on our platforms, we aim to make it increasingly difficult for fraudulent actors who try to deceive our customers to operate online.”
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The companies met in October 2022 in San Francisco for a conference organized by Tripadvisor. Experts in government, academia and the industry spoke on common challenges and potential approaches to detect fake reviews. The conference ended with the establishment of a formal coalition, which will next meet in Brussels on December 5-6 for a second conference, organized by Amazon.
"Customer reviews are an important part of the shopping experience, and the goal of this coalition is to ensure every review reflects customers' actual experiences," said Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon's vice president of Worldwide Selling Partner Services.
The group has agreed to focus on key areas to protect consumers and partners from fake reviews, including:
Industry Alignment. Developing common standards and definitions for use throughout the industry around what constitutes a fake review and other content moderation nomenclature and measurement.
Best Practice Sharing. Defining best practices for hosting online reviews and sharing information on updated content moderation process and methods of fake review detection.
Information Sharing. Sharing information relating to how fraudulent actors operate, such as companies selling fake reviews to businesses seeking to unfairly and improperly improve their reputations.
Advocacy. Engaging with academics and public policy leaders to promote the benefits to consumers of review content and support industry efforts to combat fake reviews from being published.
“Combating these operators, particularly those attempting to sell fake reviews to companies looking to improve their online reputations, will be an immediate area of focus,” Tripadvisor’s Foley added. “These actors often operate outside of jurisdictions with a legal framework to shut down fraudulent activity, making robust cooperation even more important.”
In April Tripadvisor revealed that about 4% of its 30 million reviews were deemed fake or fraudulent in 2022. The company said its detection process turned up 72% of submissions before they were published on the platform, up 5 percentage points from its most recent reporting rate in 2020.
In an effort to curtail the market for fake reviews, the United States Federal Trade Commission in June proposed a set of rules that, if approved, could carry fines of up to $50,000 for each time a consumer sees a fake review.
“It’s really important to deter the practice up front, so that the people or businesses that engage in these practices know that they could face a really heavy price,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, told the Washington Post at the time.
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group was among the consumer advocacy groups calling for stiffer rules, noting that without a more transparent marketplace consumers had no way of distinguishing legitimate reviews from fakes.
“Not only does this harm consumers who are trying to make informed buying decisions, fake reviews also hurt honest businesses who make sure their online reviews are genuine,” the group said in a letter to the FTC. “When people lose confidence in reviews, legitimate positive reviews don’t mean as much. So consumers lose. Honest businesses lose. Dishonest businesses win.”
Trustpilot chief trust and consumer officer Carolyn Jameson said her company is always searching for different ways to take on fake review sellers and businesses that try to manipulate feedback.
“Greater collaboration and sharing of ideas across the reviews industry through the Coalition for Trusted Reviews will undoubtedly be a major boost in the global fight against fraud and deception as we work to combat those who seek to undermine trust online,” she said.
Yet while the coalition members emphasize the importance of collaboration, that doesn’t mean they expect to begin doing things the same way.
“Each platform has different standards and requirements around review submissions, but we all agree that fake or biased reviews have no place anywhere on our websites,” Tripadvisor’s Foley told PhocusWire in response to written questions. “We believe there is an opportunity to combat fraudsters as a common enemy while maintaining our own approaches to content moderation.”
She said the group couldn’t comment on specific areas of focus, though when asked if artificial intelligence might be employed more widely she said Tripadvisor continually looks at the impact of generative AI in its practices.
“We see potential benefits in terms of enhanced detection and management of fraudulent reviews, along with challenges from businesses and individuals attempting to use generative AI to manipulate content on the platform,” she said. “This year already we’ve removed over 65,000 AI-generated reviews from our platform.”
The Shiji Reviewpro Guest Experience Benchmark provides a snapshot of how big customer reviews are in travel, at least for hotels. Its report for the second quarter of 2023 analyzed more than 3 million reviews and 9 million review comments for 9,500 hotels globally in 53 review sources and online travel agencies.
The report found that Booking.com generated more than 39% of hotel reviews over the period, while Google was next at 32%, followed by Tripadvisor (10%) and Expedia (5%).
“With more than 300 million verified reviews from real guests on our platform, we are actively invested in ensuring the ongoing credibility of our program, both for travelers and our partners,” said Spencer Mott, chief security officer at Booking.com. “From machine learning fraud detection models to custom-made tooling for our teams of experienced moderators, we are continuously enhancing our efforts, including through collaborating with this coalition of like-minded platforms. Together we can explore best practices and learn from each other, thereby increasing awareness across the industry to the benefit of an even wider array of consumers and businesses.”
Expedia Group vice president for marketplace experience and trust CJ Allen said the company uses technology not only to detect fake reviews but also to help validate their integrity and transparency.
“Authentic reviews are crucial for travelers when booking accommodations, destinations and experiences,” Allen said, adding, “Expedia Group takes pride in participating in this coalition to combat these fake actors, who pose a direct threat to our industry's most valuable asset: trust.”