Trip Advisor to allow rating of airports

[RooFlyer]

Story here.

THE website with the power to make or break tourist operations is turning its attention to airports. TripAdvisor is now encouraging travellers to rate airports, and associated infrastructure such as shops, eateries and airline lounges.
Initially 200 airports will be listed on dedicated pages, including ten of Australia’s biggest terminals.

Damn good idea!

Singapore’s award-winning Changi Airport is the first to be listed on the site. Other major airports including John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and London’s Heathrow Airport will be launched on the site by next month.

The Australian airports to be listed include Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Townsville, Cairns, the Gold Coast and Launceston.

Launceston?

 

[anat0l]

Unlike hotels and restaurants, typically when it comes to airports, people don't normally have a huge range of choice.

As for the facilities inside airports, I guess that's fair game.

At least I don't really see airports attempting to be heavy handed against TripAdvisor for critical reviews they don't like.

 

[Mattg]

I guess it's nice to have another place to vent about bad airports, but I don't see what rating them on Tripadvisor is going to achieve. When looking at accommodation, Tripadvisor reviews are useful in deciding where to stay, or perhaps more importantly, where not to stay. But when it comes to airports, nobody is going to say "I'm going to avoid going to the Gold Coast because the airport has no airbridges" etc.

I suppose this will allow Tripadvisor to come up with "world's best/worst airport" lists that they can then use to promote themselves. I can just see the headlines in mainstream media: "Manila Int'l voted world's worst airport in Tripadvisor survey" or something along those lines.

 

[seanpodge]

Obviously, like Mattg and anat0l said, airports tend to be natural monopolies and people can't really choose which airports to use, so it takes more than a few bad reviews on TA to change things. It could help things at the margins though. Maybe comparing Shop A with Shop B in an airport could encourage businesses to lift their game. Also, any bad publicity that puts dud airports under pressure to improve is good in my opinion.