TripAdvisor reaches one billion contributions

TripAdvisor has heralded reaching one billion contributions from its users.

The US-based travel guidance website, founded 22 years ago, said it hit the milestone due to a combination of reviews, tips, photographs, likes, comments and forum posts.

The London Eye is the firm’s most-reviewed UK attraction, with more than 87,200 opinions shared.

It has an average rating of 4.5 out of five.

The UK hotel with the most reviews is Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, while Aqua Shard – on the 31st floor of The Shard skyscraper – is the country’s most-reviewed restaurant.

TripAdvisor chief executive Stephen Kaufer said: “We are so grateful for the contributions that the TripAdvisor community has made over these last 22 years.

“Trusted reviews and opinions from travellers are the heart and soul of the platform and help make everyone a better traveller, enabling millions of businesses to flourish and drive trillions of dollars in economic value across the globe.”

TripAdvisor marked the milestone of one billion contributions by highlighting some reviews from travellers who failed to fully appreciate landmarks around the world.

This included a review of Wiltshire World Heritage Site Stonehenge, in which someone described their visit as “the biggest waste of time I’ve ever experienced”.

The reviewer added: “Why people come from all around the world to see a pile of stones, I will never understand.”

Consumer group Which? accused TripAdvisor in September 2019 of failing to stop a “flood of fake and suspicious five-star reviews” from artificially boosting hotels’ ratings.

TripAdvisor claimed the analysis was based on a “flawed understanding of fake review patterns”, and it has an “industry-leading team of fraud investigators who work tirelessly to protect the site from fake reviews”.