Google Vacation Rental Partners Diverge on Whether to Name Guests in Reviews
Photo Credit: Pictured is a vacation rental in Wanaka, New Zealand. Airbnb provides Google with guest reviews vacation rentals, labeling them from Airbnb.com reviewer. Airbnb
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Booking sites' guests reviews on Google have been a highly charged issue for years. The latest is that Airbnb and TripAdvisor are willingly giving Google their guest reviews of vacation rentals, but they are busy figuring out how not to give away the store in the process.
Airbnb, TripAdvisor, and Holiday Lettings are active participants in Google's year-old vacation rentals feature, but they have a curious approach to guest reviews on the platform — no usernames.
If you read a guest review of an Airbnb-provided vacation rental listing on Google's travel pages in Chicago, London, or Bangkok, all of the reviews seemingly come from what is labeled as an "Airbnb.com reviewer" instead of Hazel P. or Betty M., for instance.
That's a sterile approach to user-generated content, but perhaps it is a strategic move. Why hand Google the more personalized experience with reviewers that guests might enjoy on Airbnb or TripAdvisor?
"Airbnb and TripAdvisor's brands may be strong enough to outweigh the loss of user-generated content/trust signals," said Scott Breon, chief analytics officer and head of revenue at Vacasa. "It could also be an A/B test by the vendor within the marketplace — not coordinated by Google."
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