Want to try a new restaurant or spend a night in this highly rated hotel on Google? To avoid any unpleasant surprises and succeed in distinguishing the real from the fake, here is the key element to spot.
Google announces a 5/5 for this little café opened last month! What if the reality was completely different? Indeed, some laudatory comments can sometimes turn out to be dubious. So how do you escape the tourist trap? What is the detail that will alert you? We tell you everything.
In 2023, Google blocked or deleted 170 million fake reviews while the site TripAdvisor has, for its part, blocked two million. You will therefore notice that scams are extremely numerous, particularly in the hotel and restaurant sector. We know that many cafes, hotels, campsites and restaurants claim laudatory comments on the quality of their services, when in truth these have been generated by artificial intelligence software or come from people who have never set foot in the business.
Fortunately, the artificial intelligence experts from the AIPRM group have revealed the solution to unmasking “fake” reviews. They say that the most alarming criterion is none other than the use of generic jargon, that is to say that if the sentences in comments seem too universal such as “The place is great. Everything works. I recommend it”, you have a good chance of being confronted with an AI-generated review.
Experts point out that a real commentary generally includes details with a real-life feel. This can be, for example: “I stayed at this lovely hostel for a weekend and the garden view was breathtaking! The local cafe was a delight, although the Wi-Fi could do with improvement.”
But that’s not all, other points deserve to be studied to spot misleading reviews. It may also be interesting to look at the profile of the author of the comment. If it turns out that he left several laudatory comments on the same day for several different spots, there is no doubt that he is a fraudster. Likewise, if the establishment in question received a horde of positive reviews the same day, that’s not a good sign.
Finally, experts advise crossing different platforms such as Google, TripAdvisor or Facebook to analyze variations between ratings and comments. A quality hotel or restaurant will have relatively similar reviews across all sites. So, keep your eyes peeled!
