14 years
Analysts say that clients are in any case more likely to post complaints than praise.
Utter bollocks. What´s a "reputation management company" anyway??? If you can´t manage your reputation yourself, you probably don´t have one.
TripAdvisor Lawsuit
Hostel Trends and News
TripAdvisor is being threatened with a lawsuit by hundreds of hotels:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/7994817/TripAdvisor-faces-legal-action-from-upset-hoteliers.html
It faces the prospect of legal action, after more than 400 hotels and restaurants approached KwikChex.com, a firm which helps companies manage their online reputations.
Chris Emmins, the co-founder of KwikChex.com co-founder said he was proposing to bring a possible "group defamation action", and will present a sample of the worst grievances to TripAdvisor next week.
...Mr Emmins said he was keen to avoid legal action if possible, and his aim was for TripAdvisor to take down reviews that were proven to be false, defamatory or malicious. "We hope common sense will prevail," he said.
It looks like a reputation management company is putting reputation pressure on TripAdvisor, the "World's most trusted travel advice(tm)" -- either you take some bad reviews off-line, or we are going to drag your trusted reputation through a media circus. :)
It would be interesting to look at some of the hotels involved in the lawsuit. A quick look at the reviews might show whether the complaints are legitimate or not.
Originally seen here.
What you think? Have you ever had fake reviews posted about your hostel on TripAdvisor or been unable to respond to a bad review?
- Comments
14 years
If you can´t manage your reputation yourself, you probably don´t have one.
It would be interesting to take a close look at the reviews of the hotels that are planning to sue TripAdvisor :)
...though maybe writing fake bad reviews about competitors is more common in the hotel industry(?)
I would be surprised if this lawsuit goes forward, because the quality of the hotels would come under a lot of scrutiny. It looks like it's partially a publicity stunt.
There are some interesting comments here:
http://www.gadling.com/2010/09/13/hundreds-of-hotels-plan-potential-lawsuit-against-tripadvisor/
14 years
maybe writing fake bad reviews about competitors is more common in the hotel industry(?)
When I worked in hotels the Director of Operations or his assistant would frequently post fake positive reviews for our property. They never posted any negative ones to the competition that I know of.
In the hotel industry you don't have a customer review system on the booking engines like the hostel industry does, so sites like TripAdvisor are a lot more important for them. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot more mud slinging between competing hotels, given that anyone can post reviews about any property without any proof that you ever stayed there.
14 years
Almost a year ago we took over a small hotel property in Mexico. Things have been great ever since, and we haven't had one bad review since we took over. However...
I noticed two bad reviews, and we did some investigating to see who could have possibly written the reviews. When we dug a little bit further and looked at the reviewers profiles, we realized that they had stayed at the hotel three years prior, before we had taken over and made substantial renovations.
I made several attempts to get the reviews removed, or at the very least move them into the correct chronological order of when the guests actually stayed at our hotel. Tripadvisor and the staff were totally useless. We reiterated that all they would have to do is look at the reviewers profile and they could see, when the guest actually stayed at the hotel, compared to when they wrote the review, but to no avail.
I for one am happy to see someone stick it to Tripadvisor. It's too easy for the service providers to get the shaft, and no consequences for Tripadvisor or the people writing the reviews.
14 years
I made several attempts to get the reviews removed, or at the very least move them into the correct chronological order of when the guests actually stayed at our hotel. Tripadvisor and the staff were totally useless. We reiterated that all they would have to do is look at the reviewers profile and they could see, when the guest actually stayed at the hotel, compared to when they wrote the review, but to no avail.
That's not good. Did you ever get it removed?
14 years
We never got them removed. The best we could do was write our own response to the review, which probably helps, but who knows. The most frustrating thing is that it made me realize how helpless we are if someone did blatantly trash us.
14 years
I can only agree with crhostel. It is a nightmare to deal with the so called "owners center" at Tripadvisor. If you ever get a fake mean review (for example saying your hostel has bed bugs) good luck with getting it removed (almost impossible). But even replying to it is painful and very difficult since Tripadvisor has all kinds of odd rules what you are allowed and not allowed to write in your response. (In contradiction to the nonexisting rules they apply to people writing reviews about your place) And then it is very difficult to figure out what word you maybe have used what will keep them from publishing your response. I went through the procedures in their so called owners center several times in the last years and it is unbelievable how you get treated by them. We still dealing with the same issues as crhostel described them. People post reviews about our place before we bought it and there is just no way that Tripadvisor would remove these reviews even though it is very clear these people stayed with a different management/owner. I wouldn't really care that much but all these reviews show up on your Google listing as well and sometimes stick around for months or years. I can only encourage everybody attempting to sue Tripadvisor since I feel strongly that it is not right that somebody is allowed to publicly publish all kinds of lies about your place and is not even required to remove it if it is a proven fault statement. Everybody disagreeing with this has not yet experienced what it means to deal with them. And I hope you never have to! I personally wished I could just remove my listing from Tripadvisor and keep them from ever listing me again!
14 years
Another article from today:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1317864/Top-online-alternatives-TripAdvisor-trusted-hotel-reviews.html
14 years
Well, I'll keep you updated on this one: I just contacted Tripadvisor through the 'owners center' with regards to a bad review I received ("we're just in it for the money" apparently... lol... I'd like to see him live off of the income from a smalltown hostel!). Oddly enough the review states the person stayed with us in December 2009.... We did not HAVE any guests in December, or November, or the January, February or March... We'll see what tripadvisor does....
14 years
Oddly enough the review states the person stayed with us in December 2009.... We did not HAVE any guests in December, or November, or the January, February or March...
I've noticed that guests sometimes get confused about where they actually stayed and then write a review for the wrong property...
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