TripAdvisor has issued an official statement following the UK Advertising Standards Authority's upholding of complaints against the company concerning the authenticity of its reviews.

TripAdvisor admits that it cannot provide 100 per cent certainty that every single review on the site was written by a real traveller and could be trusted, but says the ASA ruling “flies in the face of common sense and is unrealistic in its expectations from sites like ours."

The TripAdvisor statement says “the average traveller reads dozens of reviews before making an informed decision, not just one or two. The ruling has no bearing on our commitment to providing a trusted resource for travellers with valued advice and insights from the TripAdvisor community, based on the wisdom of the crowds. We know that our users approach TripAdvisor with common sense, and make an educated decision based on the opinions of many.”

It adds: “We continue to maintain our industry-leading standards in managing the integrity of our site, because it is fundamental to our success. It’s because of the usefulness that the traveller reviews and opinions on TripAdvisor provide that we enjoy such user loyalty.”

According to a recent study commissioned by TripAdvisor, 98 per cent of respondents found TripAdvisor hotel reviews to be accurate of the actual experience. The survey of  was based on answers from 3,641 respondents solicited at random through a pop-up invitation link on the TripAdvisor website.

See our interview with hotel guru Robert Cole: Faking it? Good and bad hotel reviews