Booking accommodation is no longer just about comparing price and location. It also involves deciding whom to trust. In a market where online reviews influence the tourism economy and where pressure against greenwashing is increasing, a key question arises… which signals are truly reliable?

In this article, we aim to analyze the parallel between the guaranteed reviews promoted by the European Union’s Code of Conduct and the growing demand for verifiable evidence in the field of sustainable tourism. A reflection that invites travelers and businesses to move from perception to proof.

Fake reviews, AI-generated content, and booking decisions based on incomplete information.

For years, the tourist accommodation market has faced a problem that erodes traveler trust. Online reviews have become one of the most influential factors when choosing accommodation, but they have also become vulnerable to deceptive practices, from fake or incentivized reviews to ratings published without having actually experienced the stay.

In recent years, the emergence of artificial intelligence tools capable of generating convincing texts in seconds has added a new layer of complexity to the online review system. This technological evolution has increased the risk that booking decisions are based on incomplete, manipulated, or difficult-to-verify information.

In response, the Code of Conduct for online reviews and ratings promoted by the European Commission seeks to bring order through a set of best practices aimed at strengthening transparency, authenticity, and complaint management across booking platforms and the tourism digital ecosystem.

The European regulation that introduces specific rules on consumer reviews, including the prohibition of fake reviews and the obligation to inform users whether and how their authenticity is verified, is Directive (EU) 2019/2161, also known as the Omnibus Directive, which amends, among others, Directive 2005/29/EC on unfair commercial practices and entered into force on May 28, 2022.

In this context, it is appropriate to analyze what changes, what guarantees it provides to travelers and tourism operators, and how this new framework aligns with the role of sustainability certifications and verifiable seals in the field of sustainable tourism.

All of this takes place in a scenario marked by significant structural changes in the way we have understood sustainability until now. We are witnessing a gradual shift away from generic or merely declarative narratives, accompanied by a growing demand for evidence, verification, and transparency from the market, regulators, and consumers themselves.

Additionally, growing regulatory and reputational pressure against greenwashing practices is encouraging the adoption of comparable frameworks that enable more rigorous communication and demonstration of sustainability.

In this regard, references such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ESG criteria are increasingly gaining prominence as common languages to evaluate, communicate, and verify the sustainable performance of tourism businesses and destinations.

Why online reviews have become a critical system in tourism.

For a traveler, an online review is no longer just an opinion. It has become data that directly influences the price they are willing to pay, the neighborhood they choose to stay in, their perception of destination safety, and ultimately the quality of their tourism experience.

In the digital tourism ecosystem, reviews function as an informal reputation system that helps reduce traveler uncertainty. Before booking, millions of people consult ratings published on platforms, compare other users’ experiences, and use that information to decide where to stay, what activities to do, or which destinations to visit.

For tourism operators, the impact is equally significant. Reviews directly affect visibility on booking platforms, ranking in search results, conversion rates, and, of course, the construction of digital reputation.

The problem is that this system has become increasingly strained over time. Practices have emerged that distort the reliability of online reviews, such as so-called “review farms,” conflicts of interest, hidden incentives, or the publication of reviews without having actually experienced the service.

More recently, the expansion of AI tools capable of generating convincing texts has added a new dimension to the problem. The ease of producing seemingly credible reviews increases the risk of system manipulation and makes it even more difficult to distinguish authentic experiences from fabricated content.

When the market cannot clearly differentiate authenticity from manipulation, everyone loses. Travelers make decisions based on unreliable information, and operators who work rigorously and provide quality service must compete at a disadvantage against less transparent practices.

Therefore, the issue is no longer whether reviews matter, but what mechanisms allow us to trust them and ensure they reflect real experiences. This is where the European Union’s approach becomes relevant, seeking to strengthen transparency, authenticity, and traceability of online reviews in the tourism sector.

What the EU Code of Conduct on online reviews is.

The European Commission has promoted the Code of Conduct for online reviews and ratings in tourist accommodations, an initiative developed with booking platforms, hotel operators, and consumer organizations to strengthen transparency in the digital tourism ecosystem.

Its purpose is clear: to create a more reliable environment for online reviews, ensuring that ratings reflect real experiences and contribute to strengthening consumer trust and fair competition in the tourism sector.

In a market where booking decisions increasingly depend on digital reputation, ensuring the reliability of reviews becomes a key element for the proper functioning of the tourism market.

It is important to note that this Code of Conduct is not a law in the strict sense. It is a voluntary instrument, but in practice it functions as a standard of due diligence, defining what can reasonably be expected from a booking platform or tourism operator when it claims to publish reliable reviews.

In other words, the Code establishes a set of best practices aimed at improving authenticity, transparency, and traceability of online ratings, thereby strengthening market trust.

The Code of Conduct is structured around four fundamental principles designed to ensure the integrity of the review system:

• Ensuring that the person publishing a review has genuinely experienced the service. Reduce the risk of false or manipulated ratings.

• Clearly explaining which reviews are published. Determine which may be removed, and what criteria determine their order on platforms.

• Moderation and detection. Applying control mechanisms to identify, prevent, and remove fraudulent or misleading reviews.

• Complaint handling and traceability. Establishing clear processes for travelers and operators to challenge suspicious reviews and ensuring traceability of decisions made.

What guarantees it provides travelers when booking tourist accommodations.

For travelers, the promise of this new approach is simple: less noise and more verified information when making booking decisions.

The goal is not to eliminate negative opinions, which are often useful in understanding the real experience of an accommodation, but to reduce the likelihood that booking decisions are based on fabricated, manipulated, or biased information.

In an environment where online reviews directly influence accommodation choices, improving reliability allows travelers to compare options with greater confidence and discernment.

Among the main improvements introduced are the following:

• Reviews linked to verified stays. Platforms can identify ratings stemming from actual bookings, allowing travelers to distinguish between verified opinions and unconfirmed comments.

• Greater clarity in ranking criteria. Increased transparency regarding factors that determine accommodation positioning in search results, such as average score, popularity, price, or availability.

• Identification of incentivized reviews. When a rating is published in exchange for benefits or discounts, users should clearly be able to identify this context.

• Clearer reporting channels. Platforms must provide simple mechanisms to report suspicious or potentially fraudulent reviews. 

• Contextual information about review periods. Offering temporal context by distinguishing recent reviews from older ones helps interpret service evolution.

Together, these measures improve the quality of information available to travelers, reinforcing trust in the digital tourism ecosystem and enabling more informed and secure booking decisions.

What changes for tourism operators.

From a business perspective, the Code of Conduct also introduces relevant improvements for tourism operators and accommodations operating on digital platforms.

The aim is to build a more balanced market where actual service quality, customer experience, and transparent reputation management carry more weight than the ability to manipulate ratings.

In this context, the new approach seeks to strengthen fair competition and provide tools for managing online reviews with greater legal certainty and transparency.

Key changes include:

• Clearer appeal procedures. Operators must have clear channels to request review examination when a rating does not correspond to a real guest.

• Reduced unfair competition. The system seeks to limit the impact of coordinated fake review campaigns through anomaly detection and preventive blocking of fraudulent content.

• Improved reputation management. The focus shifts from confrontation to strategic experience management, responding transparently and using reviews as a source of continuous improvement.

• A clearer compliance and communication framework. In particular, claims regarding quality, sustainability, or accessibility must be supported by verifiable evidence.

In addition, regarding this last aspect, we believe it is particularly important to highlight everything related to sustainability communications within the tourism sector. Claims such as “the most sustainable hotel” or “the most eco-friendly accommodation” can pose reputational or regulatory risks if they are not supported by verifiable criteria.

In this context, sustainability certification seals and independent verification systems become essential tools for providing credibility and reducing greenwashing risks.

The reliability of online reviews and changing market expectations.

In this new scenario, particularly in the field of sustainability, we observe a clear shift in market expectations. Just as travelers are beginning to demand online reviews with guarantees—that is, more verifiable and traceable—there is also a move away from generic environmental messaging toward comparable evidence that helps reduce greenwashing.

For this reason, alongside the technical controls that enhance the reliability of reviews (verification of stays, moderation systems, or traceability of ratings), another dimension emerges that we consider equally relevant for the tourism industry and the sectors that complement it.

Because once the functioning of the verification mechanisms applied to online reviews is understood, it becomes easy to identify an interesting parallel with the current debate on sustainability, particularly in the tourism sector.

The same demand for reliability applied to online reviews is now extending to other promises made within the tourism sector, especially those related to sustainability. In both cases, verification becomes the key element.

In this regard, 2026 marks the consolidation of a significant shift in how sustainability is understood. The market is beginning to move beyond narratives based solely on declarations of intent and toward requiring verifiable proof.

It is no longer enough to communicate good practices. There is a growing demand for transparency, independent verification, and comparable frameworks—such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or ESG criteria—that allow for a more rigorous evaluation of the sustainable performance of tourism businesses and destinations.

In other words, sustainability ceases to be a promise and becomes a demonstrable process.

For this reason, alongside the technical controls that enhance the reliability of reviews (verification of stays, moderation systems, or traceability of ratings), another dimension emerges that we consider equally relevant for the tourism industry and the sectors that complement it. We refer to the role of sustainability seals and certifications, such as Biosphere Sustainable and the other certification bodies integrated into the Tourism Sustainability Certifications Alliance (TSCA), as well as sustainability management methodologies endorsed by specialized institutions, such as the one developed by the Responsible Tourism Institute (RTI).

Tourism sustainability certifications and verifiable evidence.

This shift is also reflected in traveler behavior. More and more people are seeking accommodations labeled “eco,” “responsible,” or aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. However, just as with online reviews, these claims can be confusing if they are not supported by verifiable evidence.

This is where tourism sustainability certifications come into play. Distinctions such as Biosphere Certified provide an additional layer of trust by translating promises into evaluable criteria, documented evidence, and, where appropriate, independent verification processes.

In this regard, it is worth noting that, in the field of certification, international frameworks such as ISO/IEC 17065:2012, applicable to the certification of products, processes, and services, which establish the requirements that certification bodies must meet and help reinforce the independence, impartiality, and consistency of these processes.

In this way, the traveler not only perceives that an accommodation “appears sustainable,” but can also understand what is being evaluated, how it is evaluated, and with what level of rigor.

In this context, there is a clear complementarity between two sources of information that are essential for travelers.

Online reviews, which reflect the experiences of guests, including aspects such as service received, cleanliness, accessibility, or consistency of service.
Sustainability seals and certifications, which provide verifiable evidence of responsible management related to aspects such as energy, water, waste, responsible purchasing, local impact, governance, or continuous improvement.

Together, they offer a much more comprehensive picture of the real performance of a tourist accommodation.

Ultimately, trust in the tourism sector is no longer built solely on perceptions or generic messages. It is increasingly based on data, processes, evidence, and independent verification.

For this reason, verified reviews and sustainability certifications respond to the same market demand, each within its own scope, and together they allow travelers to gain a more complete and reliable understanding of the tourism experience.

Trust is designed and verified.

In this context, trust ceases to be a matter of perception and becomes a matter of system design. As regulatory and reputational pressure against greenwashing increases, so does the need for mechanisms capable of supporting what is communicated. This involves working with clear criteria, well-organized evidence, comparable frameworks such as the SDGs or ESG criteria, and verification processes that prevent sustainability from remaining a merely declarative exercise.

The European Union’s Code of Conduct on online reviews moves precisely in this direction. If reviews influence the tourism economy and shape the booking decisions of millions of travelers, their management must be based on integrity, transparency, and verifiable processes.

For travelers, this translates into safer and better-informed decisions. For tourism operators, it means moving toward a fairer market that is less vulnerable to manipulation.

When this logic of transparency is complemented by certification and verification in sustainability matters, the trust system becomes complete. The customer experience, reflected in online reviews, is combined with verifiable evidence of sustainable management and, where appropriate, independent auditing.

In this way, trust in tourism is built on three complementary pillars: experience, evidence, and verification.

From a practical perspective, this implies a shift in approach for all sector stakeholders. For travelers, it means learning to identify reliable signals when choosing accommodation, such as contextualized reviews, consistency between comments and service, and sustainability seals with clear and transparent criteria.

For tourism businesses and destinations, the challenge in the coming years will be to move from declaration to demonstration. This involves structuring monitoring systems, organizing evidence, and communicating consistently within comparable frameworks such as the SDGs or ESG criteria. Thus, sustainability ceases to be a promise and becomes a manageable, measurable, and verifiable process.

At Biosphere, as we have been doing for more than thirty years, our purpose is to continue supporting tourism businesses and destinations along this path, promoting certification systems focused on continuous improvement and aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The objective is clear: to transform sustainability into a verifiable process that generates real trust in the tourism market and contributes to building a more transparent, responsible, and sustainable tourism model.

Ultimately, trust in tourism also depends on the everyday decisions of those who participate in it. Travelers can contribute by consulting reviews critically, valuing real experiences, and paying attention to verifiable signals such as sustainability certifications or transparent accommodation information.

At the same time, tourism businesses have the opportunity to strengthen that trust by committing to transparency, managing reviews with integrity, and supporting their sustainability commitments with verifiable evidence.

Applying the principles of the European Union’s Code of Conduct in practice—both from the traveler’s perspective and from business management—helps build a more reliable tourism ecosystem, where experience, information, and sustainability become pillars of a more responsible and conscious tourism model.

After all, the future of tourism will not depend solely on how many travelers move, but on how much trust we are able to build among those who travel, those who host, and those who manage destinations.

EU Code of Conduct >> Download the document here.