Considering the importance of electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) for tourism, this paper aims to identify and investigate user ratings and review differences across Booking.com and TripAdvisor. The primary objective is to determine whether there are significant discrepancies in the mean ratings provided by users of these platforms and explore possible underlying factors contributing to these differences. A dataset comprising Porto hotel reviews from Booking.com and TripAdvisor was created to achieve the objective. Ratings from both platforms were normalised, and statistical tests were employed to analyse the data and identify significant variations between them. The results from t-student test revealed a difference between the mean ratings on these two platforms, which might be considered significant and the ANOVA tests indicate significant differences in mean ratings for specific accommodation typologies, traveller types, hotel categories, and users’ locations. The discrepancies may influence consumer choice, perception, and experience even when overall ratings appear similar. Understanding these differences is essential for accommodation providers and professionals in the tourism sector. The findings from this research can help optimise their presence on tourism platforms and improve strategies and business models.