You may have heard of the Yelp Elite Squad. Every year, Yelp’s “Elite Council” spends “many a sleepless night” figuring out which “Yelpers” deserve to become part of the Elite Squad, which gives them “shiny profile badges” and access to “epic parties”, according to Yelp. Some of the parties seem worthy of Game of Thrones: at one point, Yelp was forced to send an email to the Elite Squad warning them that some events have “degenerated into frenzied affairs”. On one occasion, a waiter at a steakhouse was “absolutely traumatized by the rabid ferocity with which certain guests attacked his plate of hors d’oeuvres”.
Yelp provides few specifics about the selection criteria for the Elite Squad — it even says that there’s a “certain je ne sais quoi” involved. Although it stresses that number of reviews is only one factor, most elites have written hundreds or even thousands. One member profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle wrote about one review a day for 8 years.
Follow our own Elite Pete as he shows what it’s like to try to write enough reviews to maintain that elite status.
Monthly Archives: October 2015
Announcing our Expert Review API
Our mission at TripExpert is to bring the experts back into travel. For over a year, we have made professional reviews available on our own site, TripExpert.com. We are excited to now announce the start of the next phase in accomplishing our mission: opening our data to third party developers through our Expert Review API.
The API allows retrieval of about half a million reviews of hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions, sourced from over 60 publications. In addition to review data, the API also makes available the TripExpert Score and our curated review extracts and advice. For more information about the API and its features, visit tripexpert.com/api.
The API has been in private beta for several months, and during this time we’ve been working with three companies that are the first to incorporate our data into their own services:
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1. AirFi
Airfi, a Lufthansa company, has made TripExpert-powered city guides available on the inflight entertainment systems of several airlines.
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2. Citymaps
Citymaps, the mapping platform that powers NYC’s taxi cabs and the official NYC tourism app, is integrating TripExpert reviews into its app.
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3. Jetaport
Jetaport is bringing TripExpert data to its website, which streamlines group bookings for hotels.
Any travel service and any app with local business listings is a potential partner, such as travel meta search sites, mapping applications, and hotel or restaurant booking services. Here are some of the ways in which our data can help your users:
• Travel planning: aid travelers in making better decisions when planning where to go and where to stay.
• In-destination guidance: on the ground, travelers get accurate, concise information from sources they trust.
• Improving your internal ranking methodology: use the TripExpert Score as an input in determining the best places to show to your users.
We hope that developers will use the API to overcome the many deficiencies and limitations of user reviews. In addition to being unreliable and subject to abuse, it’s often difficult for new startups to accumulate enough user reviews in order to provide a satisfying user experience. Our expert reviews can fill these gaps and provide high quality ranking signals.
Here are some examples of cool things that you can do with the API:
• Find reviewers’ advice, customized to your audience: for example, ask the API to return all of the advice for the Four Seasons New York that pertains to room selection or that is applicable to business travelers.
• Find hotel and restaurant awards: want to show your users which restaurants have a James Beard award? Or which hotels have a Travel + Leisure endorsement? This data is also available through the API, and our specialized team stays on top of all our publication release dates so that you don’t have to.
• Track how critical opinion about venues changes over time: for example, use the API to quickly determine which restaurants have recently gained a Michelin star or which attractions have lost favor with a prominent guidebook.
We’d love to speak with you if you think you may have a place for TripExpert reviews. Basic use of the API is free with attribution, and we also offer premium white label solutions to select partners. Please visit tripexpert.com/api for more information and contact details and developer.tripexpert.com for technical info.