How Much Do You Trust TripAdvisor?

The brand and reputation

Both online and offline are without any doubt the best asset a company, especially in the service industry, can have. This is why, we at Dive Funatics continue to strive to build strongly and protect our brand and reputation by delivering the service, as we advertise and offer, as outlined in our terms and conditions.

Online reviews influence purchase

Guest reviews can make or unmake a company. Surprisingly, about 85% of consumers say that they read up to 10 reviews before they can trust a business, 72% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a business more, 92% of users will use a local business that has at least a 4-star rating, and finally, 86% of people will hesitate to go with businesses that has negative online reviews.

Reviews from different platforms collectively is far trustworthy and reliable than just from TripAdvisor alone…

Our customer reviews are proudly spread across different places and not just from TripAdvisor. Weirdly, this fact may be hurting us more than it is helping us as more travelers continue to rely only on TripAdvisor reviews as means to sway their decision in favor of those on top of the list!

Reviews from different platforms collectively is far more trustworthy and reliable than just from TripAdvisor alone, at least in an ideal world. Search engine results employ complicated algorithms to distinguish authoritative and relevant sites based on a lot of factors, reviews from different sources are taken into consideration so we take pride in knowing that we got ourselves mostly in the first page of Google Search for locally targeted keywords for scuba diving training, certification and lessons.

Thus, we maintain reviews from different industry-related review platforms to reflect the honest, unbiased, independent tenor of these comments and reviews given in our favor, which has consistently garnered us a 5-Star or excellent rating.

TripAdvisor Relevance

There have been a good number of articles written to suggest that TripAdvisor is no longer as reputable as most of its readers think is. An article from Medium and NYPost.com are good places to start.

I have personally observed new listings soaring to the top of the attraction classification in as quickly as one can blink. What’s even questionable are the kind of reviews written, some very self-serving, probably even monetized in exchange of discounts & freebies.

TripAdvisor ranking is heavily based on quantity, based on comments that are not relevant to the service being offered, and with little validation as to the authenticity of these sources, thus we cannot deny the fact that we ourselves are no longer trusting and believing comments and reviews made in favor of those who are on top of the TripAdvisor list.

As one operator told me, TripAdvisor is his main source of revenue stream and he was all too concerned about losing ranking to another operator offering much cheaper courses than him to get the bigger share of the market, which gives rise to his eventual dominance in the TripAdvisor ranking.

Clearly, TripAdvisor influences price war and cut-throat competition more so than it drives service quality. It drives companies to drop prices at least to capture enough responses and more people to write positive reviews about them, again to out rank the other.

We refuse to be part of the price war and cut-throat competition. We refuse to cut corners and lower the quality of our service, even break standards just so there is still money to be had. We refuse to get into the wholesale approach as that is detrimental to the service, tourism and dive industry that we are in.

The bottom line

We have enough social proof to sway your decision to go with us. We have priced our services and courses reasonably to be sustainable. We continue to be consistent & relevant as we engage in activities to promote awareness and wage a serious war against underwater debris and against irresponsible tourism. Most importantly, we continue to produce competent, responsible and disciplined divers who continue to make us proud.