In an era where online reviews significantly influence consumer decisions, the credibility and authenticity of user-generated content have become paramount. TripAdvisor is a powerful beacon among the vast sea of review platforms. The site guides travelers worldwide in their quest for unforgettable experiences. Yet, as the digital landscape evolves, a problematic practice has emerged – buying TripAdvisor reviews. Have you thought about it for your business? You know, to buy TripAdvisor reviews.
With over 7 million listings worldwide, TripAdvisor real estate is difficult to pursue but lucrative when conquered. Besides ethics, buying reviews can lead to TripAdvisor taking down your listing. But what would happen if you got away with it? We thought we’d find out. Here’s what happens when you buy TripAdvisor reviews.
How to Buy TripAdvisor Reviews: A Step-by-Step Guide With Our Experience
There are no ifs, and, or buts about it; reviews are important. They can make or break your business and drive a cornucopia of new customers. Plus, sometimes it’s hard to deal with bad reviews.
However, we were curious and wanted to know if we could and how to buy TripAdvisor reviews. We also wanted to know how successful buying reviews would be. We did the hard work, so you don’t have to. Here are the steps on how we bought TripAdvisor reviews. We learned a lot from this experience, and you can too.
Buy TripAdvisor Reviews Step 1: An ‘Unreal’ Business Idea
First things first, we registered with TripAdvisor. Okay, so we didn’t use our real business name. We wanted to see what would happen to a restaurant listing. So instead of BeamBox, our trading name for WiFi Marketing, we launched our new listing under the name Bream Box. Yep, bream, the tasty fish.
When registering with Tripadvisor, we needed to add a location for our fake restaurant. We settled on the shores of Catfish Paradise Lake in Topock, Arizona. Get it? Catfish, as in to lure someone into a relationship through a fictional online persona.
Buy TripAdvisor Reviews Step 2: Set Listing to Live
Next step to buy TripAdvisor reviews, we populated our TripAdvisor listing. We created a simple menu with a ‘find us on TripAdvisor’ logo and populated it with suitably fishy dishes. This took a while. We even used our elite-level Photoshop skills to add our restaurant logo to a picture of some fish and chips. We wanted to give our restaurant a real factor. Then, we added our “business” to TripAdvisor to go live.
Buy TripAdvisor Reviews Step 3: Finding a Review Writer
Now, we had to buy TripAdvisor reviews and find a writer. We wanted to know what these reviews would be like. Also, how easy or hard it would be to find someone to create them and whether they’d last on Tripadvisor.
Googling ‘buy TripAdvisor reviews’ presented multiple forums discussing why you shouldn’t buy reviews. So we had to delve a little deeper. Trawling the dark web was a no-go, and we wanted to take the easiest route possible. After a search on Twitter, we found a link to a freelance gig site with interesting listings.
One registered user on the site replied to our request asking us not to message them directly. Instead, they requested we message them on Whatsapp to facilitate our deal. The website blocked their profile before we could consider them, and we were back to square one.
It is against the terms and conditions of nearly all gig websites to sell reviews. Therefore none of the listings we found explicitly offered the ability to buy reviews. However, some of them mentioned review site management.
We found a listing offering to ‘manage Yelp and Tripadvisor’ reviews. So, we messaged the user to see if any off-menu services were available. With no questions and a quick negotiation, the writer offered five reviews for $60. We provided a link to our page and they encouraged us to provide helpful hints about the feedback we wanted.
In the interests of our reviews appearing legitimate, we even requested a less-than-perfect write-up.
Buy TripAdvisor Reviews Step 4: The Waiting Game
Five days passed since our TripAdvisor reviews buy, and we thought maybe the writer scammed us. Nothing was live on the page apart from an initial review that our Beambox team created. A few days later we received the email we were waiting for. We launched the Bream Box profile on TripAdvisor and had six new reviews.
Our review fixer used various profiles to leave reviews originating from different locations. That would be fine, but it sends up a red flag to anyone reading through reviews. All the reviews left were from international visitors and not locals.
Two of the five reviews left mostly talked about how great the parking was. Which probably isn’t such a massive perk as it sounds. I briefed our fixer to mention that we gave our customers complimentary pirate hats, which they pointed out.
Can You Buy TripAdvisor Reviews?
If anything, our experience affirms the question, “Can you buy TripAdvisor reviews?” After all, we did receive five reviews from our TripAdvisors reviews buy. But I don’t think anyone is going out of their way to visit Bream Box anytime soon. Even with our excellent parking facilities.
If our restaurant was real, would we ever see a return on investment for our $60? Unlikely. Moreso, it was probably more effort to provide fake reviews than it would be to have real customers leave them.
Even with an established profile, buying TripAdvisor reviews is more effort than worth. Moral of the story: Just one real review is preferred to even a handful of fakes. You just can’t compete with organic traffic and authentic reviews.
Are you wondering what happened to Bream Box? In fairness to other businesses listed, we permanently closed the Tripadvisor listing.
Final Thoughts on Purchasing TripAdvisor Reviews
While you can definitely buy TripAdvisor reviews, nothing compares to actual human customer reviews. Instead of buying reviews, we urge you to play an active role in preserving the authenticity of online reviews. Learn from our experience and find other ways to entice customers to review your business. Simply try asking your customers for reviews. Marketing tactics like offering free products and geofencing are another way how to get more reviews. With good reviews comes a client base that returns to your establishment repeatedly. There’s nothing more rewarding than customer loyalty.
Sell your business effectively and efficiently with Wi-Fi marketing. You’ll gain feedback and quick access to offer your latest promos and updates. A fully customizable WiFi platform, like Beambox, allows you to provide all of these and more.
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