Earlier this month TripAdvisor released figures for a survey of over 100,000 respondents of an online review, which gives incredible insight into the importance of reviews to the online booking ecosystem.

Of all respondents, 85% agreed that online review sites have a positive impact on service standards. The impact of online reviews on businesses can be potentially devastating, and such impact can be seen in the recent #chavgate social media storm which quickly went viral for a Manchester based restaurant.

“Reviews have become a powerful tool; travellers around the world rely on reviews to help them plan and book their holidays. In fact, more than half will not make a booking decision without reading reviews from others”, said Barbara Messing, chief marketing officer at TripAdvisor.

Nearly three quarters (73%) of UK businesses have admitted to taking steps to improve their service as a result of an online review, and 59% check their reviews “whenever a new one comes in”.

The survey polled 95,608 travellers and 7,215 business owners globally, of which more than 23,462 were UK travellers, and more than 1,603 were UK business owners.

Source: TripAdvisor