Interesting findings of a new study “the Tripadvisor effect”. I do not agree on some conclusions but it’s worth reading:

“…Stars are Important: There is a relationship between the number of stars a hotel has and the revenue it will receive per transaction. A five Star hotel on TripAdvisor will make more per transaction per room than a three Star hotel.

The Amount of Reviews Matter: The more reviews a hotel has the more money it will generate per transaction. More reviews may suggest more opportunities for those reviews to be positive. Because the numbers of reviews are important, hotels shouldn’t just focus on ranking or stars, but in encouraging their guests to write about their experiences at the property.

Hotel Rankings Do Not Equal More Revenue Per Booking: A hotel’s ranking on TripAdvisor did not have a conclusive impact on revenues. While the research looked at the relationship between a hotel’s ranking and revenues per transaction, it could not prove that there was a correlation. This may be due to the fact that TripAdvisor does not publically share its ranking algorithm, so there is no clear way to determine how hotels receive their rankings. Nonetheless, this could not be proved. ..”