Travel Sites
You see a great deal advertised on a site such as TravelZoo. The pictures look amazing, the descriptions sound great, the price quoted is more than reasonable. My personal judgment would lead me to make a reservation. However, being prudent my next step is to of course check TripAdvisor. TripAdvisor, attracting more than 53 million users a month, is one of the first tools used when making decisions on everything from a budget friendly lunch spot to a hotel in Rome. With just a few clicks you have thousands of reviews at your fingertips. According to Adam Medros, TripAdvisor vice president, in an article in the New York Times, “People have learned how to look at the good and look at the bad and then try to find threads of consistency among the comments.” This results in an information cascade wherein large groups of people influence other peoples decisions through only the inference of information from these reviews.
The hospitality industry is very aware of this influence. In an article about TripAdvisor, the Boston Globe describes how Revere Hotel employees “encourage guests to post positive reviews and hand out TripAdvisor luggage tags and other materials at checkout to remind them.” Their current ranking is 21 out of 77. Their goal for this year is to reach 18th. Every year TripAdvisor releases a “Best of” list. This list is based on the number and quality of reviews for locations. Once this list is published it only furthers the cascade effect by drawing more and more attention to these locations. One such list is the “Best Destinations” list. Is there any question as to whether making it to this list would result in a huge increase in vacations booked to these destinations based only on people’s social desire to conform. Additionally, once this list is published it only furthers the cascade effect by drawing more and more attention to these locations, resulting in even more reviews, increasing the likelihood that the location will show up on the list again next year. Also, there is a direct benefit incentive from going to popular locations, so that it can be discussed with others.
http://mashable.com/2014/04/08/2014-travel-destinations/
http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/using-tripadvisor-some-advice/?_r=0