Tripadvisor report reveals strong growth in review submissions and improvement in fraud detection rates

Rhea-AI Summary

Tripadvisor's third Review Transparency Report reveals significant trends from 2022, highlighting a 20% increase in total reviews to over 30.2 million and a 16% rise in business listings, reaching 11.1 million. The report notes that 1.3 million reviews were identified as fake, with 72% of these being caught prior to posting, an improvement from 67% in 2020. The ongoing global recovery has encouraged engagement, with business owners responding to over 10 million reviews and community members engaging in more than 940,000 questions. Tripadvisor continues to enforce measures against fraudulent reviews, applying ranking penalties to over 33,000 businesses. Additionally, safety measures are strengthened, with listings linked to serious incidents receiving additional scrutiny.

Positive

• Total reviews increased by 20% to over 30.2 million.
• Business listings rose by 16% to 11.1 million.
• 72% of fake reviews were prevented from being posted, up from 67% in 2020.
• Over 10 million responses from business owners to reviews.
• Ranking penalties applied to over 33,000 businesses for fraudulent activity.

Negative

• None.

• Third edition of Tripadvisor's Review Transparency Report analyzes full year of community contributions from 2022 to reveal review submission trends
• Total reviews increased by +20% to more than 30.2 million, while business listings hit 11.1 million, up +16% from the previous report in 2020
• 1.3 million reviews were identified as fake and removed, with 72% of these caught before being posted, up from 67% in 2020

NEEDHAM, Mass., April 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Tripadvisor^®, the world's largest travel guidance platform, released the third edition of its Review Transparency Report, revealing detailed trends around review contributions and the steps taken to ensure the integrity of user-submitted content.

The report, which is published biennially, analyzed a full year's worth of community contributions - over 73 million reviews and opinions in total - to give readers a deep dive into global submissions. The report also reveals how review trends have shifted since 2020, when the previous edition of the report was published. Key trends include:

Strong growth for reviews and business listings

The report reveals a significant increase in the volume of reviews left on the platform during 2022 - up +20% from 2020 levels to 30.2 million - as the world's explorers returned in force following two years of lockdowns, and restrictions. During 2022, Tripadvisor also saw business owners respond to over 10 million reviews, while community members asked and answered more than 940,000 questions from fellow users.

As global recovery continued in 2022, the platform saw an influx of new listings created, with 1.3 million new businesses added to the site, leading to a record 11.1 million listings at year end, up +16% from 2020's total of 9.6 million. Regionally, two out of five newly listed businesses were located in Europe, while Asia and North America each accounted for about 23% of the total.

Success in combating fake and paid reviews

Only a fraction of total review submissions from 2022 (4.4%) were determined to be fake or fraudulent, totaling just over 1.3 million. Of these, Tripadvisor's robust detection and moderation processes prevented 72% of submissions from ever making it onto the platform, a significant improvement on the 67% prevented during 2020.

Reviews from paid review companies represent an even smaller proportion of fraudulently submitted content, but have the very real capability to negatively impact consumer trust. In total, Tripadvisor removed 24,521 reviews associated with paid review companies in 2022. Nearly half of these originated from just six countries: India, Russia, U.S., Türkiye, Italy, and Vietnam.

Once fraudulent content has been identified and removed, Tripadvisor takes a range of actions against offending businesses, including content bans, ranking penalties and for the most severe cases, red badges. The Review Transparency Report reveals that Tripadvisor applied a ranking penalty to more than 33,000 businesses for fraud and issued 341 red badge warnings in 2022, each of these enforced with a ranking penalty.

"Tripadvisor is built on trust, and we will never stop improving our systems to ensure our community has access to reliable content and the businesses listed can compete on a level playing field," said Becky Foley, Vice President, Trust & Safety at Tripadvisor. "The findings from this report show that our approach is working; we're catching a higher proportion of fraudulent content before it is published, with nearly three-quarters of fake reviews never even making it to the platform."

Progress in helping to keep travelers safe

During 2022, almost 600 reviews were posted by Tripadvisor's community that described a serious safety incident during a travel or dining experience. Listings associated with these types of reviews, are subject to additional measures, aimed at increasing awareness among travelers.

Tripadvisor is able to place additional filters on listings associated with reviews that contain warnings or serious allegations, helping users more easily identify potentially problematic businesses. And this approach is clearly working, with reviews that reveal a serious safety incident over 10 times as likely to be read, than reviews that do not.

"I'm incredibly proud of our efforts to shine a light on the more troubling review content submitted by our community," added Becky Foley. "Sharing details of distressing incidents requires courage and all those who have been brave enough to share their experiences will hopefully take heart from the fact that their reviews are being seen by others and are making a real-world difference."

The 2023 Tripadvisor Review Transparency report can be viewed in full at this link: http://tripadvisor.com/TransparencyReport2023

About Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor, the world's largest travel guidance platform*, helps hundreds of millions of people each month** become better travelers, from planning to booking to taking a trip. Travelers across the globe use the Tripadvisor site and app to discover where to stay, what to do and where to eat based on guidance from those who have been there before. With more than 1 billion reviews and opinions of nearly 8 million businesses, travelers turn to Tripadvisor to find deals on accommodations, book experiences, reserve tables at delicious restaurants and discover great places nearby. As a travel guidance company available in 43 markets and 22 languages, Tripadvisor makes planning easy no matter the trip type. The subsidiaries of Tripadvisor, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRIP), own and operate a portfolio of travel media brands and businesses, operating under various websites and apps.

* Source: SimilarWeb, unique users de-duplicated monthly, January 2023
** Source: Tripadvisor internal log files

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SOURCE Tripadvisor

FAQ

What were the key findings of Tripadvisor's Review Transparency Report 2022?

Tripadvisor's report revealed a 20% increase in reviews to over 30.2 million and a 16% rise in business listings to 11.1 million, with 1.3 million fake reviews identified.

How does Tripadvisor handle fake reviews?

In 2022, Tripadvisor identified 1.3 million reviews as fake, with 72% caught before being published. They applied penalties to over 33,000 businesses for fraudulent activity.

What is the significance of the 2022 Tripadvisor Review Transparency Report?

The report shows strong growth in community engagement and improvements in fraud detection, crucial for maintaining user trust on the platform.

How many business listings does Tripadvisor have as of 2022?

As of 2022, Tripadvisor has reached a record total of 11.1 million business listings.

What actions does Tripadvisor take against businesses with fraudulent reviews?

Tripadvisor enforces ranking penalties and bans on businesses identified with fraudulent reviews, impacting over 33,000 businesses in 2022.