Travel sites driven by consumer reviews like Tripadvisor are common vacation planning tools, but users need to read these reviews with a critical eye.  Buzzfeed reports that while around 2% of all online reviews are fake, 4% of Yelp’s reviews are fabricated, and for the very popular Tripadvisor, the number of phony reviews increases to 6%.  Consumer advocate Clark Howard suggests not relying on just one site for advice and offers the following suggestions to help weed out scam reviews.

— Products or services that have a lot of reviews are far more trustworthy. There is safety in numbers in this case.
— Reviews that are completely one-sided — either glowingly good or glaringly bad — should be taken with a grain of salt. The best reviews examine all sides of the issue.
— Sometimes, consider the source: For example, Clark tends to dismiss hotel reviews from those who live in New York City or London, as they are so accustomed to sub-par housing, any hotel where the paint isn’t peeling off will get a great review. 

For further help, there’s a new tool available to help spot fake reviews called Review Skeptic.  Developed based on research from Cornell University, simply cut and paste an online review onto the site and it will tell you whether it is an authentic review or not.

Do you use online reviews when planning your vacation?