13 Feb 2012
TripAdvisor review claims 'misleading'
BY Pete Hayman
TripAdvisor's claims of "reviews you can trust" and "reviews from real travellers" have been deemed to be misleading to consumers by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA).
The ASA said it had received complaints in relation to the Expedia-owned travel website's claims from KwikChex and two hotels, which challenged if all reviews were genuine.
TripAdvisor said no review site could claim to be totally free of fraudulent content but also said it used "highly-effective" systems to detect and minimise non-genuine reviews.
In its assessment, the ASA said it had upheld the complaint on the grounds that claims of trust and honesty implied TripAdvisor users could be assured of each review's credibility.
The ASA said: "While TripAdvisor took steps to monitor and deal with suspicious activity, it was possible that non-genuine content would appear on the site undetected.
"Because we considered that the claims implied that consumers could be assured that all review content on the TripAdvisor site was genuine, when we understood that might not be the case, we concluded that the claims were misleading."
Details: www.asa.org.uk
Image: stefanolunardi/shutterstock.com
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