Easy Ways To Spot Fake Tripadvisor Reviews

Travel reviews are to the modern traveler what stars were to the ancient explorer. Today, hearing from others in the travel community helps us map our way across the globe — in fact, one of the most common mistakes when booking a hotel is failing to check reviews from trustworthy sites. One such platform the world turns to is Tripadvisor, where millions of users converge to exchange thoughts and ideas about all things travel, ranging from hotel bookings to city tours, restaurant choices, and everything in between. While the forum thrives on this collective passion for travel that nearly 300 million of its users share, it is also plagued by a strange trend messing with travel reviews — overhyping locations. In an age when online reputation can make or break a business, all sorts of fabricated posts are thrown into the mix to either pull up or drag down listings.

For everyday users planning a trip with help from the best travel tips found on Tripadvisor, this poses a genuine risk. While the company has multiple layers of checks and balances to weed out the fakes, many inauthentic posts manage to slip under the radar. According to Tripadvisor's Transparency Report, about 8% of the 31.1 million reviews submitted in 2024 were flagged as fake. "We are the first to admit that we're never going to reach absolute perfection ... We might not catch [a fake] the first time, but we'll catch it eventually," Becky Foley, senior management at the travel company, told CNBC. Here are some easy ways to spot fake Tripadvisor reviews so you can make your next booking with confidence. 

A reviewer's activity history can reveal a great deal about the authenticity of their posts. Before placing any trust in a Tripadvisor review, it's a good idea to click on the poster's profile and review their account. A genuine user will typically display a consistent posting pattern without any dramatic gaps between reviews. Most real travelers will not create an account just to rave about one restaurant or bash another and then disappear. By scrolling through their profile, you should ideally be able to find a trail of their travel history with reviews across various experiences at stays, tourist attractions, or destinations over multiple months or years. 

If an account pops up out of nowhere, drops a single review, and then vanishes forever, that's usually a sign that something's off. The opposite extreme can be just as concerning. Hyperactive posting from a single account can signal a major red flag, especially in the age of paid reviews. A real, human Tripadvisor reviewer will generally take time to talk about their various travel experiences, putting some thought and nuance into the writing. Against that context, profiles that churn out reviews at lightning speed are rarely believable and could be bots. Look at the dates, times, and locations of each review posted, and how close together (or far apart) they appear on the account's posting timeline.

In the age of AI-generated content and mass marketing, it is not uncommon for the same review to show up on multiple travel forums. More often than not, it is a paid marketing gimmick to bump up reviews and ratings for a particular posting across platforms. Here's an easy way to check if a post on Tripadvisor is unique: Copy a sentence or two from the review, and search for it online. If it appears on other travel forums, blogs, or platforms, there's a strong chance it was not written from firsthand experience. Long, identical chunks of text are a clear warning that the content may have been generated for promotional purposes.

At the same time, it is also true that many small or family-run businesses need social media visibility today and, with good intentions, urge travelers to engage with their pages on various travel platforms to push business. Therefore, travel reviews from the same user for the same listing on websites beyond Tripadvisor are not always an indication of inauthenticity. The difference between a real and fake review is in the details. In cases where repeat reviews are genuine, travelers might rephrase their feedback or tailor it slightly to each platform. Paid or mass-generated reviews, on the other hand, tend to follow a pattern and often appear across several platforms at the same time, with duplicated writing that seems almost robotic. 

A dead giveaway of a fake Tripadvisor review is language that feels too dramatic or excited to sound real. When a review is flowing with over-the-top praise or excessive use of intensifiers, it is worth stepping back and reading between the lines. Yes, travelers do love places and experiences to the extent that they often gush too dramatically about them, but an honestly appreciative Tripadvisor review will not sound like a tourism commercial. There's a balance of both the good and bad sides of an experience without laying it on too thick. 

Fake enthusiasm, on the other hand, comes with an overwhelming amount of superlatives and exclamation marks (per ScienceDirect) that give the impression of a meaningful travel review but, in actuality, have no substance. It's a good idea to be wary of reviews that appear to be eulogizing a place with too many adjectives that range between the boring spectrum of "amazing" and "incredible. An authentic travel review will also have some variation throughout the narration and not be a repetition of the same detail written 10 different ways. It's also easy to weed out a fake review from real ones by comparing an overly enthusiastic post with other balanced ones on the page. That contrast will tell you what you need to know.

Nowhere is the old "pics or it didn't happen" axiom more applicable than on Tripadvisor. The significance of travel pictures on travel forums like these transcends the like-mongering purpose of posting them on social media. Accompanied by reviews, photos serve as a watermark of authenticity, conveying that the user actually visited those places with proof to show. Of course, they aren't the ultimate measure of authenticity, especially in a time when AI-generated photos have begun to confuse even the most seasoned internet residents.

However, when a Tripadvisor review contains photos — the less professional-looking, the better — it acts as an immediate anchor that (somewhat) reliably draws the reader into considering the post, according to a study by Full Frame Insurance, as reported by Peta Pixel. Unlike Instagram or TikTok, where filters and aesthetics reign supreme, amateur photography that captures imperfect but real frames is equally (if not more) credible. The problem isn't just with Tripadvisor; Airbnb listings suffer from fake photos, too.

For many Tripadvisor users, adding photos to a review can feel like extra effort when posting, so they simply choose to skip. And while that is understandable, the lack of any visual evidence in reviews can raise doubt, especially when combined with other suspicious factors, such as vague or overly polished descriptions. 

An unprecedented spike in postings from a single account — both good and bad reviews — could point to something sinister on a platform like Tripadvisor (per a study by Emerald Insight). Think of it this way: Would you, as a traveler, write down all your thoughts about multiple places at once in one concentrated burst online? Most people post reviews gradually, as and when they travel, with experiences spaced out over days or weeks. A sudden surge, however, breaks that natural pattern, and both extremes are concerning. If a Tripadvisor user drops multiple glowing reviews for listings across the website or shares one negative review after another, then it could be externally motivated, which is why it's a good idea to be wary of taking travel website ratings at face value. 

Travelers rarely develop strong feelings about a long list of hotels or attractions overnight, so a surge in targeted activity could be a sign of a paid push to either boost a business or drag another down. It's also important to pay attention to where this kind of surge is directed.  For example, if a suddenly hyperactive account is focusing all its energy on one particular hotel, restaurant, or tour with a single-minded approach that is either too positive or too negative, you can call a bluff. Ultimately, the goal is to look for organic balance and natural pace. A spike in reviews that feels too rushed or too conveniently timed is probably rooted in some ulterior cause. 

A telltale sign of a fake Tripadvisor review is the lack of any solid detail in the writing. If the description feels vague to the point that it could apply to absolutely any hotel, restaurant, or tour anywhere in the world and still fit, it's not worth relying on. A key part of what makes real human travel reviews so exciting is the richness of details in the story, even if they are tiny ones — the view from a hotel balcony, the service of a particular restaurant waiter, a funny anecdote, or even a minor inconvenience they faced. Such details only come about when the review is written from real experience, not an AI-generated template. 

Fake reviews will lack any such personal touches and draw straight from boilerplate lines that make generic statements about the service or atmosphere of a place. If a Tripadvisor user appears to be talking about an experience instead of truly describing it, don't put too much faith in it. Hyper-specific details about the bedsheets in a hotel room or the lighting in a restaurant may not be the most interesting parts of a Tripadvisor review, but they're usually where the truth lies, and tell a story that's real.

When considering a travel experience or outing through Tripadvisor, it is always a good idea to scroll through the various reviews on a page instead of looking at any single post in isolation. Most properties and expeditions, especially those that have been around for a while, develop a pretty consistent rhythm when it comes to customer feedback. The compliments could be similar and so could the complaints, but overall, the commentary typically carries a sense of consensus that gives a fair, big-picture view of what the listing is truly like. So when you stumble upon a review that sounds wildly out of sync with all other responses — either expressly favorable or aggressively negative — it should raise a red flag. 

That said, an odd review doesn't automatically become fake, considering that two travelers might very well experience the same place differently. And it is always a good idea to take into account all perspectives before making a decision. But the key here lies in observing how far the outlier review strays from the baseline opinion about a certain place. For example, if a hotel consistently receives praise for its cleanliness and maintenance but one lone review stands out for making a dramatically opposing claim that the property is dirty, it should prompt caution. The reverse is also true: A glowing review for a poorly rated spot could point toward a planted or paid post.

Travelers from every corner of the world share their travel experiences and ratings on Tripadvisor, with many writing in second or even third languages. Naturally, this means reviews can include nonstandard English, faulty grammar, or the occasional misspelled word. But these aren't signs of inauthenticity. What truly raises a red flag, however, is when the formatting of a travel review feels off compared to user behavior. Think huge blocks of paragraphs that read like a press release or a post that seems so perfectly formatted that it almost looks auto-generated. Ironically, on travel forums like Tripadvisor, poor formatting doesn't equal messy writing; in fact, it can come about as writing that looks a bit too well packaged to be true.

That is because real humans don't talk like machines. They often write in a stream-of-consciousness style that mirrors how we speak on the internet; such reviews may comprise a few short lines or a story-like narration that reads and feels human. A lack of punctuation here and there or imperfect sentences doesn't always point to a bogus review — as long as the post conveys meaningful feedback. That is not to say that extremely sloppy writing, comprising erratic spacing or overuse of punctuation or repetition of phrases, is immediately credible. It should be readable, coherent, but most importantly, human.

It's a no-brainer that someone who has actually stayed at a hotel or visited an attraction will get at least the fundamental details right. So when a Tripadvisor review about a place describes details that simply aren't there, it's a glaring warning sign to doubt the veracity of the post. To that end, the easiest first step in weeding out inauthentic feedback is to match the amenities or features mentioned in the official description of the destination with the claims made in the suspicious review. For instance, if a review complains about a hotel's swimming pool being dirty or shut when the property hasn't advertised a pool at all, it should be your cue to disregard that post altogether.

Sure, subtle inaccuracies about the finer aspects of a place can sometimes be chalked up to human error. It is not uncommon for people to misremember details or mix up two spots while traveling, and neither is it unusual for properties to undergo renovation and not update their Tripadvisor listings, leading to a seeming mismatch between official claims and traveler accounts. But when a reviewer delivers inaccurate claims with a tone of absolute authority, it may well be phony. Again, the key is to see how far these details drift from what other guests are consistently saying. 

A dormant Tripadvisor account suddenly springing to life after months or years of complete silence may well be a sign of something suspicious. Genuine travelers who leave reviews during or after their travels usually follow a natural rhythm of posting that neither comes in quick succession nor is very delayed. As they move through different destinations, they share feedback about their travels in a staggered, organic pattern that mirrors how their trip may have unfolded — a hotel review for a weekend, a tourist attraction visit the next day, or a restaurant they may have dined at that evening. A real reviewer won't produce a flurry of posts, especially if their account hasn't made a peep in ages.

If you see such a cluster of five-star reviews or poor ratings for multiple Tripadvisor listings crop up in one go, then scroll past. A timeline like this could point to a coordinated attempt at manipulating ratings rather than honest engagement. As a general rule, legitimate posting activity is neither too abrupt nor too concentrated around a certain business.

Do not trust Tripadvisor reviews that sound like they may well have been written by the hotel or restaurant itself. The use of stiff language or marketing jargon is almost always a dead giveaway that a review is not trustworthy. Real humans, especially travel reviewers, do not talk like AI bots or brand managers. Human speech often flows conversationally while describing a travel experience, with natural-sounding recollections of what they saw or how they felt. But if a review feels like it has been lifted from a travel brochure, reporting on a "state-of-the-art establishment" or the "world-class hospitality" of a place — which is how brands typically communicate — then it could be inauthentic. 

A fake review will also suspiciously wax on and on about the facilities of a place rather than the user's actual experience of it. Genuine customer feedback contains a mix of personal observations and anecdotes that make a trip memorable, with descriptions of amenities seamlessly woven into the story. For instance, an unreliable review might rattle off the options of drinks available at a rooftop bar in Bangkok, but a reliable one could describe what it felt like to watch the sunset from there with a drink in hand. A good check is to read the review aloud in your head and see whether it sounds like something a real person would say to you in person while describing their travel experience. If a review sounds promotional, then it probably is.