One-way is the old way. The latest trend in e-commerce and internet marketing is the two-way rating system whereby the seller and the buyer rate each other. In theory this should hold both sides accountable and in most cases it does. But is it skewing results? Take the travel industry for example. On TripAdvisor, which uses a one-way rating system, the average hotel rating given by users is 3.8. Airbnb, on the other hand, uses a two-way rating system and its average ratings are higher. Significantly higher. "95% of Airbnb properties boast an average user-generated rating of either 4.5 or 5 stars (the maximum); virtually none have less than a 3.5 star rating", according to First Look at Online Reputation on Airbnb, Where Every Stay is Above Average. ( source ). So why are these results so much higher? Fear of retaliation. When your reputation is on the line, you're more likely to go easy on the review in the hopes that they will do the same for you.
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