Want to try a new restaurant or spend a night in that highly rated hotel on Google? To avoid any unpleasant surprises and to be able to distinguish the real from the fake, here is the key element to look for.
Google announces a 5/5 for this little café opened last month! What if the reality was completely different? Indeed, some glowing reviews can sometimes turn out to be dubious. So, how do you avoid the tourist trap? What is the detail that will tip you off? We tell you everything.
In 2023, Google blocked or removed 170 million fake reviews while the site TripAdvisor has blocked two million. You will therefore see that scams are extremely numerous and particularly in the hotel and catering sector. As we know, many cafes, hotels, campsites and restaurants appropriate glowing comments on the quality of their services, when in fact these comments were generated by artificial intelligence software or come from people who have never set foot in the company.
Fortunately, the artificial intelligence experts of the AIPRM group have revealed the trick to unmask “fake” reviews. They say that the most alarming criterion is none other than the use of generic jargon, that is to say, if the sentences in the comments seem too universal, such as “The place is great. Everything works. I recommend it”, you are likely to be faced with an AI-generated review.
Experts point out that a real commentary usually includes details with a sense of experience. This can be, for example: “I stayed at this lovely inn for a weekend and the garden views were breathtaking! The local coffee was a delight, although the WiFi could do with some improvement.”
But that’s not all, there are other points that deserve to be studied to identify misleading reviews. It may also be interesting to look at the profile of the author of the comment. If it turns out that he has left several glowing comments on the same day for several different spots, there is no doubt that he is a fraudster. Similarly, if the establishment in question has received a horde of positive reviews on the same day, this is not a good sign.
Finally, experts advise to cross-reference different platforms such as Google, TripAdvisor or Facebook to analyze the variations between ratings and comments. A quality hotel or restaurant will have relatively similar reviews on all sites. So, keep your eyes open!
