Agendas Barely Hidden

One of the Internet's beneficial developments is the review of products and services by users. Many people, including your humble observer, always try to check out what people are saying about a restaurant, contractor, appliance, etc. before making a purchase.

(Image from legalreputations.com)

Of course, if there are only a few ratings--and they are extremely positive or negative--we become suspicious about whether it originated from a friend, relative, owner, or rival.

Yale professor Judith Chevalier looked at hotel ratings [bold added]:

The researchers hypothesized that people who work in owner-operated hotels are more likely to write fake reviews than people who work in big hotel companies....fake reviews are easier to post on TripAdvisor (which lets anyone post) than on Expedia (which only allows reviews from people who’ve booked a room through the site).

They found that owner-operated hotels have more positive reviews on TripAdvisor, relative to Expedia, than company-owned hotels—and the competitors of owner-operated hotels have more negative reviews.

Takeaways:
1) Trust Expedia reviews more than TripAdvisor's.
2) Don't automatically switch your reservation from the Big Chain to the small bed-and-breakfast because of a cursory glance at the ratings. Dig deeper.
3) Revelation: you can't always trust what you read on the Internet.