A recent study conducted by TripAdvisor, in partnership with Ipsos MORI, revealed the huge impact online reviews have on travel booking. The survey was conducted in Australia, China, France, German-speaking countries, India, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the United States among 23,000 users of the server.
The study showed that across the globe, TripAdvisor is the number one most-visited site and app respondents use prior to booking their trip (72%). When it comes to booking accommodation, the ratio is even higher as 81% of respondents frequently or systematically read the reviews before booking a hotel room. In addition, nearly 8 in 10 respondents (79%) are more likely to book a hotel with a higher rating when they hesitate between two identical facilities. More than half of respondents (52%) would never book a hotel without reading the reviews.
When researching their trips, respondents also state that the reviews need to be recent to be considered legitimate; 39% of respondents say they ignore extreme reviews, and more than half (55%) read multiple reviews over multiple pages to get a general sense of what travelers think.
