The world's largest review site 'Tripadvisor' is no longer allowed by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to claim that the reviews on their platform are real, honest and reliable. But that will not stop the rise of reviews. Consumers like to read the 'independent' opinions of other consumers. And they believe that they can judge for themselves whether a review can be used in their purchasing decision. What do consumers look for to determine the reliability of a review?
For my (Jolijn's) thesis, at the end of the Management Tourism program at the NHTV in Breda, research was done into this reliability of reviews in the travel industry. Based on desk research, interviews and an online survey (n=100) it appeared that a number of factors are important for the reliability of reviews: the number of reviews, reference groups, relevant content, authenticity, and the independence of the platform.
1. Number of reviews
For reliability, it is first important that there are a large number of reviews. According to research by brother cell phone list EuroPNstyles, almost half of the Dutch believe that the more people rate a product with a number, the more credible the average number of an online rating is. According to the same research, almost 80% of the Dutch read a review before making a purchase, but only 20% also attach value to it. This is still more than the trust in information from company or product websites (13 percent). However, this 20% is an average and will be higher or lower depending on personal characteristics such as age. Young people are less suspicious of reviews . In addition, the percentage is influenced by the factors we mention below, which are related to the review itself.