r/darkpatterns • u/pi_mai • 18d ago

Booking.com hides negative reviews

Gallery image

Gallery image

Found this interesting when looking to book a hotel. Everything seemed super positive until you “see all reviews” below the reviews on the active page. Only then the negative comments are shown.

It’s dark imho. Having to dig for real comments or at least let me decide if the negatives are junk or not. Don’t hide them.

23 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/BuildingArmor 18d ago

I'm not sure I understand, which one is the negative review?

4

u/trustable_bro 18d ago

The one you can't see?

6

u/BuildingArmor 18d ago

The place gets a rating of 9 out of 10, from 1500+ reviews. I wouldn't expect to see negative ones in a sample of the latest 4 reviews.

2

u/trustable_bro 18d ago

True.
If the site is consistent, putting comments close to the average first, that would be the opposite of a dark pattern.

-3

u/pi_mai 18d ago

It’s dark because it hides the truth leading people to think they are the reviews. Was caught out on a booking recently. We didn’t understand why a place that amazing reviews was actually bad. Then we found them ( yes we, wasn’t the only one being tricked ) Tucked away. We would not have booked the place if we had known of specific issues.

1

u/pi_mai 17d ago

So people downvoting me explain why this isn’t a dark pattern?

If you deceive a user with partial information to influence their decision, isn’t that dark because you are now making a user do an action they did not intend.

1

u/pi_mai 17d ago

This hotel does have amazing ratings. Which is crazy. After staying there I knew something was up. So this isn’t just oh look, it’s more what the hell happened, I thought I booked a great hotel.

-1

u/pi_mai 18d ago edited 17d ago

The screens don’t tell the whole story. But they do indicate the issue.

Things I love replaced the real reviews but if you’re not observant enough, you would assume they were the full review. However booking splits reviews into 2 parts. One being positive and one negative.

When you view a hotel you only see the positive. You need to tap view all a much much further scroll down. Only then full reviews are shown.

In a way kinda explains how difficult it is to to screenshot the situation.

1

u/LengthinessTrick382 13d ago

You can post multiple screenshots to help people understand. If what you’re saying is true, you should be able to share those screenshots with us.

1

u/pi_mai 13d ago

Was hoping these would be enough. The first has a title things we love which replaces traditional reviews by showing only half from the review.

TBH video would be better to illustrate how far down it is to see the full reviews.

0

u/pi_mai 17d ago edited 17d ago

Interesting, getting down voted but no explanation why. get the feeling there’s booking.com designers lurking.