Journals / Balıkesir Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi / 2026 / Cilt: 7 Sayı: 1

Classification of Fake Hotel Reviews Written in Turkish: A Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning and Deep Learning Methods

Türkçe Yazılmış Sahte Otel Yorumlarının Sınıflandırılması: Makine Öğrenmesi ve Derin Öğrenme Yöntemlerinin Karşılaştırmalı Analizi

İsmail Öğütçen(BALIKESİR ÜNİVERSİTESİ, BİGADİÇ MESLEK YÜKSEKOKULU, FİNANS, BANKACILIK VE SİGORTACILIK BÖLÜMÜ)0000-0002-5597-7842
Ümit Yılmaz(BURSA TEKNİK ÜNİVERSİTESİ)0000-0003-4268-8598
Pages
185–210
Publication Date
2026-06-30
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AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

Experimental results demonstrated that hybrid deep learning architectures consistently outperformed standalone models and traditional classifiers.

📌 3 Key Takeaways

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Objective & Hypothesis:Online hotel reviews significantly influence consumer decision-making, yet the growing prevalence of deceptive reviews poses a serious threat to their reliability.
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Key Findings & Data:A balanced dataset of 1,889 Turkish hotel reviews was constructed by combining 945 genuine TripAdvisor reviews with 944 synthetically generated reviews produced via a pre-trained Turkish GPT-2 language model.
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Conclusion & Impact:Experimental results demonstrated that hybrid deep learning architectures consistently outperformed standalone models and traditional classifiers.
🔬Design:Review & Systematic Survey
📍Scope:Comprehensive Sample
⚙️Variables:Türkçe doğal dil işleme · sahte yorum sınıflandırması · sentetik veri üretimi

Abstract

Online hotel reviews significantly influence consumer decision-making, yet the growing prevalence of deceptive reviews poses a serious threat to their reliability. This study addresses the challenge of fake review classification in Turkish, a morphologically rich and low-resource language for which labeled datasets and classification frameworks remain scarce. A balanced dataset of 1,889 Turkish hotel reviews was constructed by combining 945 genuine TripAdvisor reviews with 944 synthetically generated reviews produced via a pre-trained Turkish GPT-2 language model. Eight classification models were systematically evaluated and compared, encompassing traditional machine learning algorithms, including SVM, Random Forest, and CatBoost, and deep learning architectures, including CNN, BiLSTM, DNN, CNN-BiLSTM, and CNN-BiLSTM-DNN. Experimental results demonstrated that hybrid deep learning architectures consistently outperformed standalone models and traditional classifiers. The proposed CNN-BiLSTM-DNN model achieved the highest overall performance, with an accuracy of 0.9339, precision of 0.9385, F1-score of 0.9361, and AUC of 0.9810. As far as the authors are aware, no prior work has attempted to apply synthetic data generation via a Turkish GPT-2 model for fake hotel review classification. This approach represents a methodological contribution with broad applicability to other morphologically rich, low-resource languages.

Özet

Çevrimiçi otel değerlendirmeleri tüketicilerin karar verme süreçleri üzerinde önemli bir etkiye sahip olmakla birlikte, yanıltıcı ve sahte yorumların giderek yaygınlaşması bu değerlendirmelerin güvenilirliğini ciddi ölçüde tehdit etmektedir. Bu çalışma, etiketli veri setleri ve sınıflandırma çerçevelerinin sınırlı olduğu, biçimbilimsel açıdan zengin ve düşük kaynaklı bir dil olan Türkçede sahte yorumların sınıflandırılması problemini ele almaktadır. Araştırma kapsamında, TripAdvisor platformundan elde edilen 945 gerçek kullanıcı yorumu ile önceden eğitilmiş bir Türkçe GPT-2 dil modeli aracılığıyla sentetik olarak üretilen 944 yorum birleştirilerek toplam 1.889 otel yorumundan oluşan dengeli bir veri seti oluşturulmuştur. Çalışmada, Destek Vektör Makineleri (SVM), Rastgele Orman (Random Forest) ve CatBoost gibi geleneksel makine öğrenmesi algoritmalarının yanı sıra CNN, BiLSTM, DNN, CNN-BiLSTM ve CNN-BiLSTM-DNN mimarilerini içeren sekiz farklı sınıflandırma modeli sistematik olarak değerlendirilmiş ve karşılaştırılmıştır. Deneysel bulgular, hibrit derin öğrenme mimarilerinin hem tek başına kullanılan derin öğrenme modellerinden hem de geleneksel sınıflandırma algoritmalarından daha üstün performans sergilediğini ortaya koymuştur. Önerilen CNN-BiLSTM-DNN modeli, %93,39 doğruluk (accuracy), %93,85 kesinlik (precision), %93,61 F1 skoru ve %98,10 AUC değeri ile en yüksek genel performansa ulaşmıştır. Yazarların bilgisi dâhilinde, daha önce Türkçe GPT-2 modeli kullanılarak sentetik veri üretimi yoluyla sahte otel yorumlarının sınıflandırılmasına yönelik herhangi bir çalışma gerçekleştirilmemiştir. Bu yönüyle çalışma, biçimbilimsel açıdan zengin ve düşük kaynaklı diğer dillere de uygulanabilecek nitelikte özgün bir metodolojik katkı sunmaktadır.

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Cite This Article

Öğütçen, İ., Yılmaz, Ü. (2026). Classification of Fake Hotel Reviews Written in Turkish: A Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning and Deep Learning Methods. Balıkesir Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi, Cilt: 7 Sayı: 1, 185–210. https://doi.org/10.53424/bauniibfd.1968350

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