Cornell has developed software to spot fake hotel reviews

[JBloggs]

[COLOR= rgb(68, 68, 68)]Cornell has developed software to spot fake hotel reviews: http://bit.ly/qG4WBS[/COLOR]

 

[Joey Camb]

about time lol

 

[Generic]

And it's likely better than even the humans at TripAdvisor.

 

[Generic]

PDF information from Cornell.... http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~myleott/op_spamACL2011_slides.pdf

 

[JBloggs]

PDF information from Cornell.... http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~myleott/op_spamACL2011_slides.pdf.

I would like to see more comparisons! We could pick em!

 

[seashanty]

i totally couldn't pick the fake ... read the article ... did it say which was the fake??? guess i'd need the program.

 

[Generic]

i totally couldn't pick the fake ... read the article ... did it say which was the fake??? guess i'd need the program..

The PDF does. It's the one on the right. It's the words that they are using, like staff instead of service that give it away. Using the formal name of the hotel. Being "attentive" and "Right choice", just use of marketing jargon and exclamation points.

 

[toddburme]

The crazy thing is these are not the types of reviews that are being abused. Rarely is it a company writing a dozen fake reviews for itself. It is the company getting 15 friends to beef up their reviews. Those people would not use "marketing jargon".

 

[JBloggs]

The crazy thing is these are not the types of reviews that are being abused. Rarely is it a company writing a dozen fake reviews for itself. It is the company getting 15 friends to beef up their reviews. Those people would not use "marketing jargon"..

The crazy thing is these are not the types of reviews that are being abused. Rarely is it a company writing a dozen fake reviews for itself. It is the company getting 15 friends to beef up their reviews. Those people would not use "marketing jargon".

I think these are the kind that are PAID FOR. Trying to use those "key words" and who knows, maybe these are some of those marketing calls that hound us and tell us they will make our website seen, (since no one can seem to find it!) LOL!

 

[Alibi Ike]

i totally couldn't pick the fake ... read the article ... did it say which was the fake??? guess i'd need the program..

The PDF does. It's the one on the right. It's the words that they are using, like staff instead of service that give it away. Using the formal name of the hotel. Being "attentive" and "Right choice", just use of marketing jargon and exclamation points.
.

The PDF does. It's the one on the right. It's the words that they are using, like staff instead of service that give it away. Using the formal name of the hotel. Being "attentive" and "Right choice", just use of marketing jargon and exclamation points.

Interesting. I have reviews that are written in both styles. One that mentions 'staff' (us), lots that mention the inn by name (35% in the past year) and in the same sentence, the town it's in, some that could actually have been written by either of those 'people'.
I thought it was the one on the left. Altho, that could have been written by a biz traveler instead of a vacationer. We get a lot of '!!' and '...' in our reviews. Overly punctuated. Some that are written by English majors and others written by folks who wouldn't know a verb or a comma if it bit them.
A lot of them mention the proximity to things to do and what those things are.

 

[Generic]

i totally couldn't pick the fake ... read the article ... did it say which was the fake??? guess i'd need the program..

The PDF does. It's the one on the right. It's the words that they are using, like staff instead of service that give it away. Using the formal name of the hotel. Being "attentive" and "Right choice", just use of marketing jargon and exclamation points.
.

The PDF does. It's the one on the right. It's the words that they are using, like staff instead of service that give it away. Using the formal name of the hotel. Being "attentive" and "Right choice", just use of marketing jargon and exclamation points.

Interesting. I have reviews that are written in both styles. One that mentions 'staff' (us), lots that mention the inn by name (35% in the past year) and in the same sentence, the town it's in, some that could actually have been written by either of those 'people'.
I thought it was the one on the left. Altho, that could have been written by a biz traveler instead of a vacationer. We get a lot of '!!' and '...' in our reviews. Overly punctuated. Some that are written by English majors and others written by folks who wouldn't know a verb or a comma if it bit them.
A lot of them mention the proximity to things to do and what those things are.
.

There are a number of factors, but most people stick to a small vocabulary and don't use certain words. Others do. But it's a matter of looking at the style and the jargon, etc.
To be honest, I would be suspicious of the first one for mentioning two types of travellers. Then again, I have to admit that I read a LOT of reviews and comment on a few that I see that don't seem to add up or aren't really reviews at all. You sort of get used to seeing certain things in the reviews.
We got two fake reviews in three years. One of them was from a guest who did stay with us, but just lied in the reviews to trash us. The other was written by a competitor who put up several fake reviews in a number of days. It was easy to catch, they were a married couple in one review, a Lesbian couple in another review and two sisters in a third review. Not to mention things like Thanksgiving in the wrong month, not knowing anything about flights and writing in the wrong language based on their location... twice.

 

[JBloggs]

and yet...as Eric mentioned, the reviews might not be fake reviews, but contain false information.
I saw a review with huge warning signs telling people it is a bait and switch, the website is deceptive, be warned. (A couple reviews like that). Then here comes another right on schedule - a real guest, who really stayed there and felt it was awesome. This reviewer ADDRESSed the other reviewers (that always sends a signal up imo). Did this person really believe this or did they know the innkeeper and want to smooth it out for him/her?
I know the answer, but am baffled by it. Either the pro-inn reviewer is an absolute slob and thinks a filthy B&B is acceptable, or is blind, or a liar. There were no other options.
So back to that, real opinions, and that is all they are people, opinions.

 

[Alibi Ike]

i totally couldn't pick the fake ... read the article ... did it say which was the fake??? guess i'd need the program..

The PDF does. It's the one on the right. It's the words that they are using, like staff instead of service that give it away. Using the formal name of the hotel. Being "attentive" and "Right choice", just use of marketing jargon and exclamation points.
.

The PDF does. It's the one on the right. It's the words that they are using, like staff instead of service that give it away. Using the formal name of the hotel. Being "attentive" and "Right choice", just use of marketing jargon and exclamation points.

Interesting. I have reviews that are written in both styles. One that mentions 'staff' (us), lots that mention the inn by name (35% in the past year) and in the same sentence, the town it's in, some that could actually have been written by either of those 'people'.
I thought it was the one on the left. Altho, that could have been written by a biz traveler instead of a vacationer. We get a lot of '!!' and '...' in our reviews. Overly punctuated. Some that are written by English majors and others written by folks who wouldn't know a verb or a comma if it bit them.
A lot of them mention the proximity to things to do and what those things are.
.

There are a number of factors, but most people stick to a small vocabulary and don't use certain words. Others do. But it's a matter of looking at the style and the jargon, etc.
To be honest, I would be suspicious of the first one for mentioning two types of travellers. Then again, I have to admit that I read a LOT of reviews and comment on a few that I see that don't seem to add up or aren't really reviews at all. You sort of get used to seeing certain things in the reviews.
We got two fake reviews in three years. One of them was from a guest who did stay with us, but just lied in the reviews to trash us. The other was written by a competitor who put up several fake reviews in a number of days. It was easy to catch, they were a married couple in one review, a Lesbian couple in another review and two sisters in a third review. Not to mention things like Thanksgiving in the wrong month, not knowing anything about flights and writing in the wrong language based on their location... twice.
.

I am always amazed to read glowing reviews of places I have stayed that were absolutely the dog's dinner. Every once in awhile I'll go take a look to see if anyone else has had the same experience we did. Yup, every now and again there is one. But not enough to outweigh the 5 star, best place we ever stayed, most attentive, cleanest, most wonderful breakfast ever reviews.
I just don't get it. It's like they turn it on and off for certain guests.

 

[JBloggs]

i totally couldn't pick the fake ... read the article ... did it say which was the fake??? guess i'd need the program..

The PDF does. It's the one on the right. It's the words that they are using, like staff instead of service that give it away. Using the formal name of the hotel. Being "attentive" and "Right choice", just use of marketing jargon and exclamation points.
.

The PDF does. It's the one on the right. It's the words that they are using, like staff instead of service that give it away. Using the formal name of the hotel. Being "attentive" and "Right choice", just use of marketing jargon and exclamation points.

Interesting. I have reviews that are written in both styles. One that mentions 'staff' (us), lots that mention the inn by name (35% in the past year) and in the same sentence, the town it's in, some that could actually have been written by either of those 'people'.
I thought it was the one on the left. Altho, that could have been written by a biz traveler instead of a vacationer. We get a lot of '!!' and '...' in our reviews. Overly punctuated. Some that are written by English majors and others written by folks who wouldn't know a verb or a comma if it bit them.
A lot of them mention the proximity to things to do and what those things are.
.

There are a number of factors, but most people stick to a small vocabulary and don't use certain words. Others do. But it's a matter of looking at the style and the jargon, etc.
To be honest, I would be suspicious of the first one for mentioning two types of travellers. Then again, I have to admit that I read a LOT of reviews and comment on a few that I see that don't seem to add up or aren't really reviews at all. You sort of get used to seeing certain things in the reviews.
We got two fake reviews in three years. One of them was from a guest who did stay with us, but just lied in the reviews to trash us. The other was written by a competitor who put up several fake reviews in a number of days. It was easy to catch, they were a married couple in one review, a Lesbian couple in another review and two sisters in a third review. Not to mention things like Thanksgiving in the wrong month, not knowing anything about flights and writing in the wrong language based on their location... twice.
.

I am always amazed to read glowing reviews of places I have stayed that were absolutely the dog's dinner. Every once in awhile I'll go take a look to see if anyone else has had the same experience we did. Yup, every now and again there is one. But not enough to outweigh the 5 star, best place we ever stayed, most attentive, cleanest, most wonderful breakfast ever reviews.
I just don't get it. It's like they turn it on and off for certain guests.
.

I am always amazed to read glowing reviews of places I have stayed that were absolutely the dog's dinner. Every once in awhile I'll go take a look to see if anyone else has had the same experience we did. Yup, every now and again there is one. But not enough to outweigh the 5 star, best place we ever stayed, most attentive, cleanest, most wonderful breakfast ever reviews.
I just don't get it. It's like they turn it on and off for certain guests.

YES! You nailed it Ikester. 100%.
But then, back to this...we have two rooms here at the same time, I am the same person, witty clever hospitable me and one room is sour grapes and misery on wheels and the other are deeeeelightful, leave a tip and a hug at check out! >>??
So what was different? Perspective. It always comes back to that. I am still not over that rotten woman who emailed and said all those horrible things, was she HERE? Where the heck did she stay, none of that was HERE? She was a legend in her own mind. LOL
I have been emailing a couple from Philly who will be here Sat on motorcycle and cannot decide what to do there are too many cool things to do. YES, HERE! Go figure. She read the "Unleash your inner redneck" and wants to bad!

 

[JBloggs]

PS Just got this tweet:
[COLOR= rgb(68, 68, 68)]Don't miss our free Reputation Management webinar on Aug 17, 11am. Hosted by @[/COLOR]tripadvisor4biz @tnooz & 2 guest experts.http://bit.ly/qTs12t

 

[egoodell]

But then again, we have a review on Google that absolutely to me looks fake. I don't know who wrote it, but our name is repeated too often, and the detail of all that we do is noted in such a way that to me it looks fake!!!
Riki

 

[Alibi Ike]

i totally couldn't pick the fake ... read the article ... did it say which was the fake??? guess i'd need the program..

The PDF does. It's the one on the right. It's the words that they are using, like staff instead of service that give it away. Using the formal name of the hotel. Being "attentive" and "Right choice", just use of marketing jargon and exclamation points.
.

The PDF does. It's the one on the right. It's the words that they are using, like staff instead of service that give it away. Using the formal name of the hotel. Being "attentive" and "Right choice", just use of marketing jargon and exclamation points.

Interesting. I have reviews that are written in both styles. One that mentions 'staff' (us), lots that mention the inn by name (35% in the past year) and in the same sentence, the town it's in, some that could actually have been written by either of those 'people'.
I thought it was the one on the left. Altho, that could have been written by a biz traveler instead of a vacationer. We get a lot of '!!' and '...' in our reviews. Overly punctuated. Some that are written by English majors and others written by folks who wouldn't know a verb or a comma if it bit them.
A lot of them mention the proximity to things to do and what those things are.
.

There are a number of factors, but most people stick to a small vocabulary and don't use certain words. Others do. But it's a matter of looking at the style and the jargon, etc.
To be honest, I would be suspicious of the first one for mentioning two types of travellers. Then again, I have to admit that I read a LOT of reviews and comment on a few that I see that don't seem to add up or aren't really reviews at all. You sort of get used to seeing certain things in the reviews.
We got two fake reviews in three years. One of them was from a guest who did stay with us, but just lied in the reviews to trash us. The other was written by a competitor who put up several fake reviews in a number of days. It was easy to catch, they were a married couple in one review, a Lesbian couple in another review and two sisters in a third review. Not to mention things like Thanksgiving in the wrong month, not knowing anything about flights and writing in the wrong language based on their location... twice.
.

I am always amazed to read glowing reviews of places I have stayed that were absolutely the dog's dinner. Every once in awhile I'll go take a look to see if anyone else has had the same experience we did. Yup, every now and again there is one. But not enough to outweigh the 5 star, best place we ever stayed, most attentive, cleanest, most wonderful breakfast ever reviews.
I just don't get it. It's like they turn it on and off for certain guests.
.

I am always amazed to read glowing reviews of places I have stayed that were absolutely the dog's dinner. Every once in awhile I'll go take a look to see if anyone else has had the same experience we did. Yup, every now and again there is one. But not enough to outweigh the 5 star, best place we ever stayed, most attentive, cleanest, most wonderful breakfast ever reviews.
I just don't get it. It's like they turn it on and off for certain guests.

YES! You nailed it Ikester. 100%.
But then, back to this...we have two rooms here at the same time, I am the same person, witty clever hospitable me and one room is sour grapes and misery on wheels and the other are deeeeelightful, leave a tip and a hug at check out! >>??
So what was different? Perspective. It always comes back to that. I am still not over that rotten woman who emailed and said all those horrible things, was she HERE? Where the heck did she stay, none of that was HERE? She was a legend in her own mind. LOL
I have been emailing a couple from Philly who will be here Sat on motorcycle and cannot decide what to do there are too many cool things to do. YES, HERE! Go figure. She read the "Unleash your inner redneck" and wants to bad!
.

You know the story. And every once in awhile I read that someone else has had that experience. We like them, we don't like you. They get a wonderful breakfast. You get burnt casserole. For them we will carry their bags and make reservations for them at.... For you we will tell you nothing is open and you can't sit there and drink your wine.
And I feel SORRY for the guests who write the bad reviews because they sound peevish. How could you say that about those wonderful innkeepers?

 

[toddburme]

The crazy thing is these are not the types of reviews that are being abused. Rarely is it a company writing a dozen fake reviews for itself. It is the company getting 15 friends to beef up their reviews. Those people would not use "marketing jargon"..

The crazy thing is these are not the types of reviews that are being abused. Rarely is it a company writing a dozen fake reviews for itself. It is the company getting 15 friends to beef up their reviews. Those people would not use "marketing jargon".

I think these are the kind that are PAID FOR. Trying to use those "key words" and who knows, maybe these are some of those marketing calls that hound us and tell us they will make our website seen, (since no one can seem to find it!) LOL!
.

The crazy thing is these are not the types of reviews that are being abused. Rarely is it a company writing a dozen fake reviews for itself. It is the company getting 15 friends to beef up their reviews. Those people would not use "marketing jargon".

I think these are the kind that are PAID FOR. Trying to use those "key words" and who knows, maybe these are some of those marketing calls that hound us and tell us they will make our website seen, (since no one can seem to find it!) LOL!

But the ones that are paid for that were recently discussed were offering a discount or upgraded service for a good review. Again, unlikely to use specific words etc.
This is more likely to catch the time someone asks their brother in law to post a review and "btw i wrote it for you. Here it is. " Better then nothing but unlikely to clean up reviews.

 

[Generic]

PS Just got this tweet:
[COLOR= rgb(68, 68, 68)]Don't miss our free Reputation Management webinar on Aug 17, 11am. Hosted by @[/COLOR]tripadvisor4biz @tnooz & 2 guest experts.http://bit.ly/qTs12t.

PS Just got this tweet:
Don't miss our free Reputation Management webinar on Aug 17, 11am. Hosted by @tripadvisor4biz @tnooz & 2 guest experts.http://bit.ly/qTs12t

Brian Payea was one of the speakers at the seminar I attended. DECraig spoke about reputation management. They mentioned HKHotels specifically.

 

[PurpleHope]

Who would bother to post the fake reviews? Are there the hotels themselves that do something like that? To appear more accredited ? I guess it's easier to have a really good hotel and then you would really receive the best reviews, right ? Pueblo hotels for example would never need such software, because they already have the best eligible reviews from the most real people.