The Ramifications of Mass Review Removal

This month’s Brewing Data Blog touches on the latest version of one of our hallmark recurring research reports: The Mechanics of Online Review Sites and ILSs, now in its 15th edition. This latest iteration utilizes data from over 149,000 multifamily properties across the country, and our continuous analysis of resident feedback enables us to deliver rigorous and actionable feedback.

In spite of a historic purge of 2 million reviews, our total dataset of reviews still exceeds 18 million — renters remain highly engaged in online reviews. But what caused this unprecedented mass exodus of reviews?

I present three causes for the erasure of 2 million reviews:

1. Platform consolidation
   
   Apartmentguide.com and Rent.com have both been sunset. They accounted for losses in nearly 752,000 and 697,000 reviews, respectively.
2. Algorithmic platform hygiene
   
   Facebook removed more than 315,000 reviews and Yelp over 35,000 by regular deduplication/consolidation of reviews and removal of reviews made by bot accounts.
3. Shift toward commercial monetization
   
   Apartments.com shifted towards a “pay-to-play" model; 120,000 reviews were removed from non-paying properties. Additionally, the continued decay in Modern Message’s legacy data resulted in the erasure of an additional ~136,000 reviews.
   
   

As a consequence of these three factors, Google now has a 47% share of all reviews. They also continue to be the fastest growing site. Behind them, ApartmentRatings holds a share of 21% of all reviews.

The fragility of historic data has been exposed. Operators can no longer coast on past performance – maintaining/improving current performance is more important now than ever. A steady accumulation of new, organic reviews is of utmost necessity to protect a property’s online reputation.

For further insights, please see the full 15th Edition of The Mechanics of Online Review Sites and ILSs