TripAdvisor - code cracking!

As near as makes no difference...

As regular readers of this blog and our hotel clients will know, we keep a very close eye on what goes into making up your ranking on TripAdvisor. Up until now we haven't had all the pieces of the jigsaw, so we have had to make educated (very educated) guesses...

But this month TripAdvisor gave us a massive helping hand. How? By introducing this...

As soon as it appeared Nigel Cann and his team set to work, reassessing hotel rankings across the world in the context of their overall ranking and the new 'thumbs up' percentage; the results made very interesting reading.

We now know, with something approaching absolute certainty... 

• Volume of reviews is critical
• Old reviews are discounted (over 18 months old)
• A steady flow of positives (5*/4*) is very important
• Any 'poor'/'terrible'(2*/1*) reviews have a dramatic negative impact

All of this makes sense, but it's good to have it confirmed. It will make life so much easier for hoteliers who have, up until now, struggled to understand exactly how their ranking is established.