Saturday, September 27, 2014

The Problem with TripAdvisor - Don't Get Fooled

Here at HD Chauffeur Ride Pty Ltdwww.harleyrides.com we have a TripAdvisor rating that would be the envy of any other tour company. But, lately I have noticed an anomaly that doesn't seem to sit quite comfortably with the TripAdvisor philosophy of recommending the "right" to the "best quality" attraction.

Take a close look at this and you will see what I mean:


TripAdvisor Ad
To my great shock, I recently noticed that there seated in the middle of my TripAdvisor page is a Google Ad that takes the reader straight to my nearest competitor. I am left to wonder how much business I am losing because someone clicks on this link, thinking that its my company they will be booking with.

I have nothing to do with Adrenaline. We do know something about the company who supplies Harley Rides for them - but its not our company and we know that they don't have a TripAdvisor rating.

So, don't be fooled by the ads you see on TripAdvisor. They are not endorsed by them, they are chosen by Google. The quality of the companies in these ads isn't measured by TripAdvisor - but TripAdvisor do get paid every time someone clicks on one of these ads.

Just a thought that we would let you know about :)


And who are Adrenaline? What is their Trip Advisor Rating? I found this example on Trip Advisor, who have a terrible rating for one of their product listings:



And it would seem that HD Chauffeur Ride are not the only victims, as can bee seen in this example. I checked to see if there was a relationship between Peek Tours and Tours to Go - and there is none:



1 comment:

Ken said...

very good alert. Trip Advisor and Google should be more consumer oriented but they have long made money from competitor paid listings. That makes it hard when their is not a lot of product differentiation but the actual business name. Common with Activities like Sydney Harbour Cruises and Phillip Island daytour coach companies - and Harley rides in Melbourne.