Reading guest reviews has become a standard process in the travel shopping journey. 95% of travelers read travel reviews when planning a trip and 76% of travel shoppers believe that online reviews provide valuable insight. When looking for hotel reviews, most travel shoppers turn to TripAdvisor.
According to comScore, TripAdvisor is the most visited travel website in the world with almost 67 million unique monthly visitors. And new content is constantly being uploaded to the site; users write an average of 280 new reviews every minute!
TripAdvisor is therefore an important channel for hoteliers to keep an eye on. But more than that, there are certain things you can do to ensure your hotel ranks higher and attracts more guests. In this article we outline how TripAdvisor’s Popularity Ranking algorithm works and what you can do to improve your ranking.
TripAdvisor Popularity Ranking Algorithm
Last year, TripAdvisor made changes to their Popularity Ranking algorithm in an attempt to improve fairness and accuracy. Due to the speed at which travelers are sharing their experiences on the site, it had seen many new properties skyrocket to the top of the rankings based on a relatively small number of 5-bubble reviews. Over time, these “fast risers” would settle into more stable, accurate rankings as more reviews were submitted. However, during this transition period, consumers may not have been seeing the most accurate rankings for their destination. So it changed things.
Like all tech giants, TripAdvisor won’t divulge all the details of how their algorithm works, but we do know the 3 main factors that determine your ranking.
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Quality
All other things being equal, the hotel with higher review scores will rank higher. TripAdvisor uses a 5 bubble rating system, instead of stars. Hotels with 4 & 5 bubble ratings will appear higher than hotels with 1 & 2 bubble ratings.
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