This project report examines the impact of guest reviews on TripAdvisor hotels in Kochi, Kerala. The report aims to understand how reviews affect hotel performance and reputation. It also seeks to determine the effectiveness of online reviews and prevent fake reviews. Data was collected through surveys of hotel managers and reviews on TripAdvisor. Key findings include that the majority of respondents trust TripAdvisor reviews, though some hotels have faced financial losses due to fake reviews. The report suggests verification of reviewers and responses to reviews to ensure reviews are genuine.

1. PROJECT REPORT ON “THE IMPACT OF
GUEST REVIEWS ON TRIPADVISOR
HOTELS”
PRESENTED BY ABDUL RAZAK R
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
MR. TM. SSURESH KUMAR
(FACULTY)

2. INTRODUCTION
 Online reputation has become a major factor in the choosing of a hotel.
 Nowadays, most travelers will use online sources to review hotels and other
tourism operators during their decision making process.
 TripAdvisor.com is a travel website providing directory information and
reviews of travel related content.
 Many consumers consult online trip advisor reviews before making travel
and accommodation choices in hotels.
 In the world of online reputation, Trip Advisor branded sites make up the
largest travel community in the world, reaching out to 375 million unique
monthly users in 2015

3. INDUSTRY PROFILE
Trip Advisor
 Trip Advisor, headquartered in Needham, USA.
 Trip Advisor was founded in 2000 by Stephen Kaufer, Langley Steinert,
and several others.
 It is the largest travel site in the world, with more than 315 million members
and over 500 million reviews and opinions of hotels, restaurants, attractions
and other travel-related businesses.
 Trip Advisor operates websites internationally, in such places as Austria,
Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, India,
Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, the
U.K., and the U.S.

4. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
“THE IMPACT OF GUEST REVIEWS ON TRIPADVISOR
HOTELS” In this report I investigate whether a direct correlation between
hotel performance and its online reputation really exists, in particular with
relation to its ranking on Trip Advisor as the leading global travel review
site. The report focuses on the impact of reviews on Trip Advisor
registered hotels located in Kochi, Kerala.

5. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
 Online reviews, or the electronic word-of-mouth are, at present, a
trustworthy source of information which travelers refer to, for forming a
better picture of the destination they plan to visit
 Consumers rely on a number of sources of information when deciding on
purchases. These sources include personal recommendations from friends
and family, company websites and other related communication materials,
feedback from other consumers who have purchased the good or service,
and reviews by peers.
 Online reviews are an essential source of information for travelers while
booking a trip and accommodation online.
 Some hoteliers still see reviews, especially negative reviews, as a burden
and are coming to terms with their usage to improve their business.

6. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
 To understand how the reviews affect hotels and their booking
figures.
 To understand how the reviews effect the reputation of hotels.
 To find the effectiveness of online reviews in Trip Advisor hotels.
 To prevent fake reviews on website.
 It helps to ensure that hotel reviews are trustworthy and not
abused.
 To provide an overview of Trip Advisor registered hotel reviews in
Kochi.

7. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
 The study is only to a particular location and very small sample
respondents. Hence the finding cannot be treated as representative of the
entire Trip Advisor listed hotels.
 The busy schedule of respondents ( Managers and owners of the hotels)
also makes the collection of information a difficult one.
 As the study is done within a limited period, we could not select a large
sample for the study.

8. SOURCES OF DATA
SOURCES OF DATA
Data are the raw materials in which the research works. The task of data collection
begins after research problem has been defined and research design chalked out.
The data collection is classified into two types there are:
 Primary data
 Secondary data
PRIMARY DATA
Primary data is first had information it was collected from the respondent by using a
structural questionnaire. The researcher has got the primary data through survey method.
SECONDARY DATA
The secondary data was collected through the secondary sources like company
records, company websites, magazine, and Newspaper.

9. DATA ANALYSIS
Chart showing the trustworthiness of Trip Advisor as a website
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Excellent Good Average Poor Very poor
Trustworthiness of Trip
Advisor as a website
40% of respondents have good trust in
TripAdvisor and 26% of respondents have
completely trust in website.

10. This chart showing Approaches to ensure that hotel reviews are
trustworthy and not abused
Identity of reviewers
Verify that reviewers actually
stayed in the hotels
Verify the information provided by
guests in reviews
Others
The above chart shows that 40%
respondents want to identity of reviewers
approach and 25% respondents want
verification of reviewers.

11. This chart showing financial loss or other damage as a result of
fake hotel reviews.
Yes
No
The above chart shows that 11% of
respondents are suffered financial loss or
other damage as a result fake hotel
reviews.

12. FINDINGS
 From the study 40% of respondents have good trust in TripAdvisor and
26% of respondents have completely trust in website.
 41% respondents are stated that identity of the reviewers are best method
to ensure that hotel reviews are trustworthy and not abused
 45% of respondents states that their competitors are the main reason for
posting negative reviews
 57% of respondents don’t have awareness about the Trip Advisor activities
against fake reviews.
 Lack of verification of reviews and reviewers- consumers are able to post a
review directly on websites without creating an account or using a link from
an email.

13. CONT…
 Hotels may sometimes post fake reviews to counteract negative
reviews about their service and to mitigate the impact of online
reputation and ratings systems
 Consumers themselves can be a source of misleading and/or fake
reviews in a number of ways, including:
I. When they have unrealistic expectations;
II. When incentives have been offered to provide a review; and
III. When reviews are used as a means of blackmailing hotel
operators.

14. SUGGESTIONS
 Verification by the service provider, which provides the hotel operator with
the possibility to verify whether consumers providing reviews stayed at the
hotel.
 Compulsory provision of the ‘dates of stay’ at the hotel by consumers posting
reviews;
 Allowing reviews to be posted using questionnaires/links sent only to the
email addresses provided when the hotel was booked.
 Providing the possibility (and alerts) to hotel operators to respond to
negative reviews.

15. CONCLUSION
The revolution in digital media has changed the way consumers shop
for travel and hotel bookings. It has democratized the way people share their
opinions online.
 Hotels can take advantage of guest reviews and use them in their marketing
mix.
 Good reviews not only push up hotel’s rankings and visibility. Increased
visibility means more exposure to business and better reputation that pushes
up both bookings and revenue.
 Sometimes Negative reviews affect the credibility of the hotels. So the
review website should have the awareness about such kind of fake reviews.

16. THANK YOU