Study Reveals That Travelers Prefer Summarized Review Content Over Full Text Reviews

by February 2, 2015 11:22 am In The News

Consumer research identifies how travelers trust hotel websites.

Munich, Germany and New York, USA – February 2, 2015 – New York University and TrustYou, the inventor of the Meta-Reviews and global online reputation management leader, have released the results of a study on the role of reviews in the travel planning process. The study examined the preference of consumers when using reviews to make travel purchases, evaluating their time investment, confidence/trust, and mobile experience. Specifically, the study compared user experiences with review summaries versus traditional full text reviews.
The study was conducted by Donna Quadri-Felitti, Academic Chair and Clinical Associate Professor at NYU, School of Professional Studies Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism in conjunction with TrustYou.
“Travelers want a quick way to make their booking decisions while still getting all of the information that they need from review content. The findings from this research give both hotels and travel intermediaries clear direction in how to structure their websites so that travelers can make such decisions,” says Donna Quadri-Felitti, Academic Chair and Clinical Associate Professor at NYU School of Professional Studies Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism.

“This research shows that summarized review content increases consumer trust while substantially decreasing the amount of time travelers need to read and digest review content. This trend is even stronger on mobile where time and space is even more limited. Travelers have clearly articulated how they want review content to be delivered in the future,”

- Margaret Ady, Vice President of Marketing at TrustYou.

Key takeaways for intermediaries and hotels to increase conversions:

Traveler’s Review Habits
  • 95% of respondents report reading travel reviews prior to booking
  • Leisure travelers reported reading an average of 6-7 reviews prior to booking and business travelers reported reading an average of 5
  • Leisure travelers spend an average of 30 minutes reading reviews prior to booking a hotel and 10% of travelers spend more than one hour
How to Present Travel Reviews
  • 52% of respondents said summarized review content is the most user friendly way to read reviews
  • 80% said summarized reviews are time efficient, while only 59% said that of full text reviews
  • 72% say summarized review content is mobile friendly, and 61% said they prefer to see only a review summary during their mobile bookings
The study was conducted using an online survey panel of 510 travelers, all of whom traveled during the last 12 months for leisure, business, or both. Respondents were evaluated two different presentations of reviews and described their user experience with each, rating their confidence level in making a booking decision.
About TrustYou

TrustYou’s mission is to positively influence travelers’ decisions. Reviews and user-generated content now rank #1 in influencing travelers’ hotel selections and industry reputations. Digesting all of these opinions, however, is beyond any one person’s capacity. Each day things become more complicated because millions of new opinions in thousands of formats and dozens of languages enter the fray. TrustYou searches, analyzes and distills hundreds of millions of opinions scattered across this vast, fragmented market. Our products are extensively used by suppliers – hotels, accommodations, restaurants – to provide travelers with better services and enhanced offerings by monitoring, surveying and acting upon all worldwide guest feedback. Travel intermediaries – OTAs, meta-search, destination marketers – use TrustYou’s Meta-Reviews™ to help travelers purchase wisely. TrustYou’s Meta-Reviews™ are based solely on verified travel reviews. They do not include data from TripAdvisor. To learn more, visit trustyou.wpengine.com. 

 

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