Planning holidays, with user generated travel content
Posted on April 30, 2008
Filed Under Featured Posts, Social Networking / Media, Trends |
The following post is a column I wrote for the Hindustan Times, a leading daily in India. You can access its web version by clicking here. It has a strong Indian context to it though.
Rohini Sharma wanted to go on a family holiday over the Easter weekend to Lansdowne, a hill station in Uttarakhand. The family was all set to go with accommodation tentatively booked at the Retreat Anand at this charming, colonial hill station, when the plan was changed to stay instead at the Bird House in Dehradun. Why? Because reviews and images posted on the Internet by other travellers did not paint a pretty picture of Lansdowne.
Instances like these are becoming more a norm than an exception as travel planning enters the Web 2.0 era. The Internet is full of reviews and opinions posted by travellers, and many people are using these as a key reference source when planning any trips. Such User Generated Content (UGC) is being seen as mostly credible and trustworthy, with the ‘authoritative’ voice of a professional writer no longer the last word when it comes to deciding one’s holiday.
“When planning a trip, I always check on the reviews and satisfaction levels of other customers. And then I also blog about my experiences so others can plan their trips. This is the future of travel,” says Rajat Nagpal, travel consultant and founder of TravelVidya.com. The result has been the phenomenal success of global sites like TripAdvisor.com and WAYN.com. UGC has seen them emerge among the most visited sites on the planet. In India too, significant investments are being made in sites like HolidayIQ.com, OkTataByeBye.com and Raahi.com. The last two have been promoted by MakeMyTrip.com and Yatra.com, both online travel service providers.
How do you choose the site that is right for you? “UGC has a cultural context to it. For example, Indians tend to travel in groups of four and above and they are seeking very different experiences compared with, westerners. You may thus want to visit sites where your unique needs are addressed,” says Hari Nair, Founder and CEO of HolidayIQ.com.
As reviews by fellow travellers become more ubiquitous, covering the remotest of locations and obscure properties, it is not always a simple exercise to use such content. How do you grapple with issues of data overload, credibility, half-baked postings and quality? Here are some tips to get reliable advice from the Web.
- Do not rely on only one source. Look for multiple perspectives, use your commonsense and follow your intuition. If there is one bad review about a hotel, take it with a grain of salt; if there are many within a short period of time, it is best to seek another.
- Start bookmarking sites and writers whose words you find trusted and credible. Sometimes, lesser known websites and personal blogs may be better than the bigger brand names. Be sceptical; this will help you spot posts written in sheer anger or out of a sense of revenge, as well as those ‘goody-goody’ ones posted probably by those with a vested business interest.
- Look out for pictures. These convey a lot because many reviewers do not have the gift of expressing themselves lucidly through the written word, even with the best of intentions. In fact, after reading mixed reviews, it was the images posted on the Internet that finally convinced Sharma not to go to Lansdowne.
- It may also be a good idea to check out the “blogosphere” for traveller experiences. These are often written with a greater effort than if one were writing for a third party UGC site; after all, the credibility of the reviewer is at stake on a personal blog. Of course, there is no guarantee that these reviews are the final word; the opposite can also be true, as Ruchi Tandon, a manager at ICICI Bank, discovered. “I have tried referring to sites like oktatabyebye.com, but the reviews can be misleading or biased sometimes. For instance, one review strongly dissuaded me from visiting the small seaside town of Guhaghar, for reasons including bad food at the resort the reviewer stayed at. But I still visited the town, and found it to be very nice with good clean beaches,” she says.
- Even if the reviews cannot be very descriptive, they are very useful for getting tips and basic information on weather conditions, the right clothes to wear, local culture and social behaviour, modes of travel, costs, security issues and other small points always invaluable to a traveller, suggests Tandon.
“I get a good sense of a place by reading reviews from people who have been there; I have found such content to be useful guiding points to what to look for,” says Shashaank Awasthi, an entrepreneur.
Who does not want a little publicity? But when public relations professionals cannot exercise at least a certain degree of control and restraint on what gets written about their companies, like in the case of UGC, then it can be a challenge in itself. With everyone having unrestricted freedom to write what they like, how do you keep the bad news away? “It’s worse when there are half baked reviews on halfbaked sites,” says Nair.
While blocking views may not be possible in a free world, this also means an opportunity for the travel trade in many ways. A negative post can be read as an early warning sign, and those who care for their customers can take corrective measures in time. If a bad review is without justification, or a result of a misunderstanding, companies can join in the conversations on forums where the travel notes are posted to present their view before such opinion can become common belief. This also means a closer bonding with customers, leading to increased loyalty and sales.
Of course, when feedback is positive, then companies can actually show them off. And even when these are on not-so-known blogs or websites, the power of the Internet kicks in. All such content is indexed by search engines like Google and Yahoo, and thus made accessible to prospective customers seeking such information.
For smaller businesses, engaging with customers online can offer benefits that traditional communication may not offer. This could be in the form of setting up groups on social sites like Facebook, publishing blogs, responding to posts on other blogs and websites and even writing on third party Web properties. “Smaller hotels are beginning to realise the value of such reviews,” says Nair.
All this means travel related businesses need to keep a track of themselves on the Internet. Surprisingly, few have fathomed the power of UGC. “We are trying to build trust with the travel trade too, and telling them we have no axe to grind when we allow user content to go up on our site. We invite them to react to reviews, but they have yet to start doing so,” adds Nair.
Some of the comments below from LinkedIn users are responses to a question I had posted on LinkedIn on the subject of this post before writing it, and may be read keeping this context in mind.
Comments
23 Responses to “Planning holidays, with user generated travel content”
Leave a Reply
Hi Ajay, yes while planning a trip or vacation or booking a hotel room, I “always” check on the reviews of other customers who have used similar product and what is their satisfaction level. This is also the future of travel.
I being from the industry is not advocating the use of it, but it has actually played a vital role in giving me a good experience on my vacation. Recently I traveled to South Africa and have used Trip Advisor to check for the review of a particular hotel I was booking at and looking at the experience of other users, I have decided on buying hotel rooms in that property for my stay and I was really very satisfied with all this information.
After my stay, i then blogged my experience so that i can help people plan their trip.
In India, there are so many sites like OkTataByebye and Raahi, but the user interface on both these sites is not good. For me, Trip Advisor rules the world when it comes to community building in travel space.
The response below was an answer to a question I had posted on LinkedIn about travel related UGC. It has been added here to add to the discussion.
I have two major concerns about user reviews…
1) The revenge review for a bad experience which doesn’t reflect the norm.
2) Someone with a vested interest (or working on behalf of someone with a vested interest) posting a positive review to increase sales.
Bottom line is good or bad I have to question the motives of the poster of any review. While they have nothing to lose from not being unbiased I’m very sceptical other than as a source of potential good or bad things I can factually verify elsewhere.
And there lies the problem with the Internet. When publishing was expensive this acted as a quality filter. As the cost decreases so does quality filtering and that pushes more responsibility back onto me. Perhaps the future of publishing is no longer in content creation but content and content provider vetting?
We always seem to come back to the idea that the most valuable commodity is trust.
I do use sites such as tripadvisor and timeshare sites such as tug to get a flavour of the “wisdom of the crowd” for certain hotel/vacation property choices. I do not take any single review into account but rather browse a number of reviews to get a flavour for the property in question. The one significant flaw I find in tripadvisor is that people will carpet bomb your review and mark it not helpful if they do not agree with your review or they have a problem with the property themselevs. The helpful should be, was this review helpful to me in making my decision, and not be whether the poster agrees with my view or not.
I tend to not use professional advice except as a broad guideline for travel - after all I know my preferences and expectations and tolerances better than anyone else.
I do post content on tripadvisor under my own full name and I post content on other boards (timeshares, vacation boards etc. under a username as these tend to be forums of exchange where people sometimes get a little too excited and I would prefer in such cases to not have attribution back to me in case someone wants to get “personal”).
Cheers,
Jason
If you are looking to go somewhere and are down to a few choices, punter reviews can be most useful. I checked out some reviews of the place I went on my honeymoon and they were in fact completely accurate.
I almost always look up hotels before booking now. And the reviews have changed my decision a number of times.
I try to use common sense when evaluating the reviews, when they are bitter revenge or promotional. I have my own standards and needs and I compare the reviews to that, trying to find the best fit for me personally.
TripAdvisor is the one I always check and sometimes Google or blogsearch to find reviews elsewhere.
I have just recently started to post on TripAdvisor and I’m setting up a travel blog for a trip I’m going next fall where I will post my reviews.
I have almost always used Trip Advisor when planning a trip with my wife.
I go by the standard that majority rules. Not everyone is going to love or hate any particular place, so if at least 75% of the reviews were favorable, then that is good enough for me. What I like to do also is after my trip is to not only post my own review, but re-read the reviews that I had read weeks previous to my trip since I now have experience of my own.
I’ve seen people on LI ask their network to recommend a restaurant or hotel and I think LI can be used for a good tool in this respect.
I rely on the expereince and recommendations of my family and friends.
I find trip reports from personal blogs to be more valuable than the reviews at the travel sites. If somebody spends a week somewhere and writes extensively about the experience, where they stayed, what they did, etc., it tends to be more useful than a 4 line review of a single hotel.
The hard part is finding those trip reports - it usually takes some time playing around with Google to find the right search queries.
In my case, it helps to know more than usual about the place. Including the information like low-budget accommodation, great eat outs and all.
But for it one has to invest a lot of time because generally people post the popular stuff. Also you have to cross check before relying on the information.
I feel, after reading about 7-10 blogs one can plan a better trip.
Having traveled extensively in Mexico and South America, I have at times viewed the travel tips, but have at times found them unreliable. There are times that I have truly enjoyed my stay at a particular resort hotel, yet have read negative reports by other travelers…and visa versa.
I believe that it is all in the eye of the beholder, but do your homework and then take your best shot. Above all, even if the hotel room is not exactly what you had in mind, hopefully you are only in your room for rest at night…get out and enjoy the sites, beach or other attractions and enjoy yourself.
Good Traveling,
Dennis
I will take a look at Trip Advisor when booking a trip. I find this useful when I want to find out what others say about a hotel stay before I make a reservation. Usually, the information provided is enough to sway my decision either way.
I haven’t added my personal information yet, as I prefer to lurk and read.
I will weigh all reviews and take into consideration the “revenge factor” as noted by one of your respondents. Sometimes people have an ax to grind and will plant false information, in my opinion.
Regards,
MattK
Forums that include actual traveler reviews are far better and up to date than traditional travel guides.
I use Tripadvisor (www.tripadvisor.com and Thorn Tree (in LonelyPlanet.com , publisher of travel books)
Yes, we do use websites for checking out hotel information or what places to see when going for a trip. The one we used for hotels in singapore was tripadvisor.com and we also found that it was very accurate in terms of experiences shared by people.
For other info, we usually google them.
cheers,
Shweta
Yes! blogs and reviews on travel do matter! I usually google on what I need to know and check the search results.
Air tickets status,Hotels and budget. The climate and holiday also affect my travel planning
I always read reviews of hotels when planning a vacation. If there’s only one person with a bad review, I take it with grain of salt as that was probably an isolated event. On the other hand, when multiple posters complain of similar issues in a very short time period, I wont book there.
it all depends on what I’m trying to achieve. to be honest, I don’t travel a lot. but when I do usually i look for recommendations for restaurants (it’s important) and sometimes hotel reviews. my favorite place to hit is Las Vegas because i love the food there, especially the buffets. there’s a funny website that I’ve linked which has comments from all walks of life. but generally speaking, i think most of the remarks are on target. you have to look at the number of reviews and get a general feeling. for instance, some people knocked the Wynn Buffet as being awful, but I considered the food to be some of the best I’ve ever eaten. So you have to examine the source as they say.
in terms of sites that i rate higher than others, i like the other one i’ve listed below. i’ve put a few ratings up there myself and tips. i figure some day, some person is going to have it harsh so hopefully if they read my tips they can avoid a messy experience.
And this sudden outburst in number of websites with user generated content has been due to a demand for such content and good prospects of making money from such websites! But to get an unfair advantage in this game of high traffic(& thus more money via ads) is also leading websites to steal content from others & quickly assemble their information portals. Raahi.com is one such site indulging in content theft. How? I’ll be writing on that sooner!
I will be very curious to read about your findings Amit. Do alert me when you have written about it.
Thanks for referencing me, Ajay. I am a strong believer in user input, particularly customers who have first hand knowledge of a particular hotel, inn, airline, travel service, etc. If the post makes sense and is instructive, I will take what is written into consideration when I make my plans.
hi ajay
i liked the article on travel, look forward to more such articles.
Ajay,
You missed to mentioned the most trusted among the travelers indiamike.com. Even if you are lazy to go through the vast information on it already and post a query on the forum, the response is fast, personal and really trustworthy.
Thanks for alerting me to his Nitin, did check it out and it does look good.