This year, as many as eleven million Dutch people on vacation. We stay in our own country or travel en masse to France and Spain. A nice break from the daily grind, to relax or in search of a new adventure. But how do we decide what are the best things to do at a vacation destination?

I go with Tripadvisor on vacation. All I have to do is tell them I'm going to Valencia, Spain, and the most beautiful beaches, coziest terraces, most reliable bike rentals and best restaurants are laid out for me. And it all includes directions from my apartment. I open the app, I read a few reviews and I know where to go.

User-defined content

Tripadvisor is the largest travel website in the world and has more than 315 million members. The originally American website allows you to book a hotel but also read and write reviews about restaurants, local events, boat trips, scooter rentals, among other things. You name it. Tripadvisor is one of the forerunners where the content of the website is user-defined. On average 60 reviews per minute posted and meanwhile there are more than 500 million reviews and opinions on travel-related issues online.

So you would say that Tripadvisor shows an honest opinion of your predecessors on which you can base your choice. The ultimate outcome for many businesses. Without doing much effort yourself, your hotel or restaurant is recommended by people all over the world.

Or not, of course. A bad review can do enormous damage to a business. Tripadvisor has therefore developed a business account where you as a company have the power to manage reviews yourself. Within this account, ‘Profile Ownership’ it is possible to remove reviews that would potentially damage the company's reputation. Obviously, no one wants a bad review on his or her name. But besides that, no vacationer wants to eat at a restaurant where the fresh fish seems to come from the freezer and the service is unfriendly....

Where is the importance of a review?

In whose interest is writing and publishing a review? With a company that wants to be at the top of Tripadvisor with five stars in every category? With the vacationer who assumes to eat at the best, cheapest and coziest restaurant? Or at Tripadvisor to attract as many visitors to the site as possible?

As far as I am concerned, as a Tripadvisor user, the interest lies with the vacationer who has a right to an honest review. But knowing that reviews can be removed makes the Social Proof effect less reliable. Social Proof is a well-known and well-used technique of Cialdini by which one is convinced of a product/company/service because there are others who have had a previous, good experience. This effect also works the other way around. People avoid products/companies/services when others have had a bad experience. If all negative reviews are removed, the remaining (positive) reviews present a potentially unfair picture.

What are we looking for in a review?

Not only the tone, but also the number of reviews affects the vacationer's choice. The more reviews the better we consider a restaurant, bike rental or hotel. I look for good reviews myself and thus am sensitive to Social Proof. I would rather rent a bike from a company where reviews describe a pleasant bike with good lock than from a company with a review about unfriendly service and limited opening hours. But what if the “pleasant bike with good lock” also had some reviews about no lights, broken luggage rack and retained deposit? Then my choice of bike rental company would have been very different. But if we never get to see those reviews, we can never know if we are making a good choice.

Can we really trust the reviews posted online? Tripadvisor describes companies as the wicked stepmother of Snow White asking her mirror daily who is the most beautiful in the land, and tolerating only the answer “you.” This is also what companies like to hear, at least, that which they like to see shared publicly. Because as mentioned earlier, a bad review can do enormous damage to a company.

Of course, everyone wants to take advantage of the positive effects of Social Proof. But in an honest way, and that's where Tripadvisor wants to go. In the end, no one benefits from the outstanding review but a lousy experience. That very likely only creates more work for the business in question to manage the reviews. Tripadvisor gives advice on how a business can drag in as many honest reviews as possible. And how to deal with less positive reviews.

Company based on Social Proof?

Social Proof is so strong that a big company like Tripadvisor can exist based on this psychological effect. A review is the best form of Social Proof you can have. It is stronger than just knowing that others have been somewhere or booked somewhere.

Social Proof is a hugely well-known effect within CRO. We also apply it a lot at Online Dialogue, and you may be familiar with Booking.com's posts like ‘55 others went before you. Time and again, in various A/B tests within different industries, we see that Social Proof produces positive results.

Think to yourself, do you use Tripadvisor or similar websites? Did you know that companies have the power to remove reviews? Why is it that we are still willing to walk more than a kilometer for a well-reviewed joint? Why don't we just step into the next nearest café?
I am very curious!