2. What are Travel Peer
Reviews ?
Reviews, ratings and rankings for airlines,
hotels, tours, restaurants and other travel
services that are written by non-professionals
Common features include:
Reviews segmented by categories (e.g. trip type
and budget)
Reviews ranked by popularity and price
Reviewer’s profile, date of stay, type of trip, the
number of reviews he/she has written
Trip planning and online booking
3. Where To Find Travel Peer
Reviews
Peer Review Web • TripAdvisor
Sites • Skytrax
General • Epinions
merchandise sites
Online travel • Travelocity
agencies • Expedia
Travel guidebook • Frommers
sites • Lonely Planet
4. Social Media Trends
Reasons that U.S. Executives Use Social Media
(July 2009)
Brand-building
Networking
Customer Service
Project Documentation
Competitive Monitoring
Sales Prospecting
Research
Other
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Source: www.emarketer.com
5. Comparison of Peer Reviews and
Professional Reviews
Peer Reviews Professional Reviews
Written by unpaid amateurs Written by paid professional writers
Time-specific and condition-specific General focus
focus
Online only Online and print
Based on individual users’ criteria Based on a standard set of criteria
May cover a wider range of hotels May cover only well-known hotels
and service providers and service providers
Loose controls Strict controls
6. Quality Control Methods for Peer
Reviews
Keep only the most recent reviews online
Employ human editors to read and approve
user-submitted reviews
Depend on the user community to flag
inappropriate comments
Allow hoteliers and other service providers to
respond to reviews
7. Impact of Peer Reviews
On Travelers On Service Providers
Influences purchasing Provides a direct channel
decisions to consumers
Affects consumer Need to monitor what
perception and trust consumers are saying
Empowers consumers about them online
Offers collaboration tools Need to respond quickly
such as trip itineraries specially when negative
comments are posted
8. Conclusions
• Better online experience for travel planners
• Broader range of sales and marketing
opportunities for travel suppliers
• More empowered consumers, better informed
businesses
9. References
The pros and cons of peer reviews
Let Your Fellow Travelers Be Your Guide
Travel 2.0: Social networking takes a
useful turn
9 Social Networking Sites You Can’t
Afford to Miss
