Can you trust the Booking rating — a cunning scheme revealed

Hotel guests have reported a practice where they are allegedly offered compensation for deleting negative reviews. This calls into question the reliability of the ratings.

An Israeli news report reveals a scheme in which hotels allegedly offer guests compensation for deleting negative reviews on Booking.com. Channel 13 aired a recording of a conversation between a representative of the Leonardo Club Dead Sea hotel and a guest who left a negative review. During the conversation, compensation and a request related to the review were discussed. The guest refused to delete the review but agreed to soften it. A former employee of a large hotel chain, who worked there for six years, said that staff weekly searched for negative reviews, contacted guests, and offered improved conditions or compensation in exchange for deleting or replacing the review with a positive one. This, she said, could affect the hotel's overall rating. The report's authors urge not to rely solely on the Booking rating and recommend comparing data from several sites. Booking stated that it uses special teams and technologies to identify and prevent the publication of reviews that do not comply with the platform's rules.