Total Media’s MD Thomas Laranjo talks to the BBC about TripAdvisor
Posted by Judith Schunke,
Feb 02, 2012
Those of you who watch BBC1 may have seen our very own MD, Thomas Laranjo, appear on air yesterday to talk about the travel industry, a subject that’s very close to our hearts.
Why? Well, TripAdvisor has been under attack this week for posting some extreme reviews (some positive, some very negative) about the hotels and resorts featured on its site. The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that these reviews aren’t as trustworthy as they make out, as there’s no way to prove that reviewers have actually visited the places themselves. Since reviews like these can potentially make or break a business, TripAdvisor has been ordered to rewrite some of its marketing claims to avoid what the ASA says amounts to ‘misleading’ members of the public.
Total Media’s Thomas Laranjo appeared as a guest on BBC Breakfast, and then BBC News, to talk about what this means for the future of travel review sites and their credibility. Tom began by pointing out that filtering out these extreme reviews may not be the answer. In fact, Total Media’s own research into the travel industry has shown that online reviews have become a vital source of information for consumers when it comes to choosing a holiday destination, almost on a par with recommendations from friends and family members. If sites such as TripAdvisor start to filter out overtly negative reviews, Tom told the BBC, the results could be disastrous: “all you are going to see are positive reviews, and [the result is] you start to lose trust in that platform to deliver genuine opinions.”
So what does this mean for the future of TripAdvisor, a site which sets out to serve its users with a range of genuine, user generated reviews based on first-hand experiences? The answer lies, as always, with the consumer. Whilst users might be less likely to trust the validity of some of the more extreme views, we must also recognise how media-savvy the public can be at times like these: “this is just one form of opinion,” Tom says, “and people are able to apply their own natural filters to all this information.” It seems for now at least, the fate of TripAdvisor lies firmly in the hands of its users.