{"id":92198,"date":"2018-11-14T15:50:10","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T20:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=92198"},"modified":"2026-04-01T15:56:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:56:31","slug":"watch-fake-online-reviews-busy-holiday-travel-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/watch-fake-online-reviews-busy-holiday-travel-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch out for Fake Online Reviews During the Busy Holiday Travel Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Travelers looking to book hotels or try out a new restaurant<\/a> while vacationing this holiday season should be wary of fake reviews<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to new research from the University of Central Florida\u2019s Rosen College of Hospitality Management, social media has created a rich resource for travelers, but it has also created a field of fakers posting negative reviews. Reviewers expect they might get compensated if they post a negative review, so they do it and after they are compensated they take the post down and businesses avoid the negative buzz a bad review can create.<\/p>\n

The authors of the study recently published their findings in The International Journal of Hospitality Management.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

When travelers search sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor they are looking for helpful advice on booking their business trip or vacation. Instead, they may be subjected to a deceptive review that was posted to harass the hotel, restaurant or attraction into compensating the reviewer, says Saba Salehi-Esfahani, a doctoral student who co-wrote the study with associate professor Ahmet Bulent Ozturk.<\/p>\n

“The power of negative \u2018word of mouth\u2019 is evident as individuals will disclose their negative experience to an average of 8 to 10 more persons than they would share praise for a product or service.\u201d \u2014 Ahmet Bulent Ozturk, UCF associate professor<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cFake negative reviews are harmful to the hospitality industry,\u201d Salehi-Esfahani says. \u201cWith the advancement of technology and social media, individuals have gained power and are not alienated from companies anymore. They now perceive themselves as powerful enough to take monetary advantages of companies by indirectly threatening the company with negative reviews that the world can read and take as fact. The worst part, however, is that this behavior is contagious.\u201d<\/p>\n