What are the most important review sites for hotels?

For hoteliers, TripAdvisor and OTA reviews have always had a higher mind share. According to ReviewPro, TripAdvisor’s 2022 share of reviews hovers around the 10% mark. Close to 73% of all hotel reviews come from Google and Booking.

Let us zoom out a bit because the review ecosystem is much larger than just hotels. According to a recent Reviewtrackers report (link in the comments section), 88% of business reviews (not just hotel reviews) are found on just four websites.

Google (73%).

Yelp - 6%

Facebook - 3%

TripAdvisor - 3%

👉🏼 Thanks to Android phones and Google Maps, Google can prompt users to write reviews based on the locations they visit.

👉🏼 It is part of a much larger ecosystem of reviews for all types of businesses, which users find habit-forming.

👉🏼 Users who read zero-click reviews do so directly from search results rather than visiting review websites.

Everything in a customer's path to purchase has an impact on their decision. Because of the sheer size of their ecosystems, some have a greater influence. Not that TripAdvisor is not important at all, but it is nowhere near as influential as it was, say, 10 years ago.

So, have the hotels shifted proportionally to Google Business Profile or Google Maps?