Does anyone believe Trip Advisor?

I actually love Trip Advisor. I've found that the reviews to be really helpful and also the forums are an additional source of information.

I think people can spot the unfair reviews by the feedback left for the reviewer. Reply to this

I am a business owner and I have been burned by Trip Advisor. When we challenged a fake review, they wouldn't post our reply because they said we had gotten too personal...too personal? Isn't what was written about us personal? Since we would not let this go, we continued to contact them. Their punative action was to take 5 positive reviews off, lower us from #2 to #9 and post a message that we were interfering with their popularity rating!!!!!!!!!!! The letters we have received from them are form letters and do not address us directly (maybe so they can later say it is a mistake?)

I read about them doing this in The New York Times. The employees and reviewers hide behind anonymity but publicly bash business with the businesses having no recourse.

The hospitality industry needs to step up and take control of this situation because it is out of control. Many small businesses such as ourselves are being damaged.

Some articles have been written about this situation and some have even stated that it might make these businesses fix what is wrong ...that is of course, if the review is real.

Our situation was very unique in that this one particular reviewer wrote a wonderful review about our competitor and supposedly stayed there in July 07. This reviewer then supposedly stayed with us 4 weeks later and hated it. We know this is a fake review because it served 2 purposes...it moved the other inn to ranking #2 and moved us to ranking #3. That in itself wouldn't be a red flag, but the other inn in question is not nearly in the class of our inn. Also, the reviewer supposedly lives 10 hours away. Why would anyone stay at another inn if you liked the first one so much? Keep in mind, that we are in a very isolated area so guests do not visit several times in one season. The reviewer also waited 8 months to write these reviews and according to Trip Advisor's profile on this reviewer, never returned to the site. Trip Advisor refused to remove the review and would not post our managerial reply.

Our other incident was with an actual visitor. 2 men came to the front desk to check in. Only one man spoke and gave the details-name, reservation... so I assumed these 2 men were traveling together. The other man became very angry that I assumed they were together. Eventually, I was able to ascertain that they both had reservations and their wives (still in the cars) were with them. We noticed that these guests held hands and said prayers at breakfast but never thought anymore of it. After they left, we saw a scathing review on trip advisor. After putting all the pieces together, we realized that these people were very anti-gay and were angry that we even allowed gay people at our inn. The things this man wrote about were actually laughable...bed too small, no air conditioning, breakfast of french toast, pan cakes, fresh fruit, (I still don't know what the problem was)etc. , we didn't do anything special to the cereal...what do you do to cereal? Chances are that if you rent a room with a queeen bed, you will get a queen bed; chances are if you rent a room without air conditioning, you won't get air conditioning (some rooms do but they are more expensive) I brought them bottles of water before their doors were even closed but I guess that wasn't quick enough. We believe that we were actually victims of an ant-gay bias crime. They were able to write all these things about us and we were not permitted by Trip Advisor to reply.

By Trip Advisor posting this review thay were actually aiding in a bias crime.

I would like to see Trip Advisor stopped and made to answer to all the businesses they have KNOWINGLY dmaged. I have all the threads of our emails to them and their replies.

We feel powerless. Trip Advisor goes so far as to punish inns that ask guests to write reviews...do they only want the unhappy souls of the world to sow the seeds of discontent? Those people that stayed here wanted everyone to believe that they were good Christians, so they made a point of holding hands and praying every time my husband walked in...what kind of Christians do what they did?



Reply to this

No, I don't believe Trip Advisor either...it's a very biased site toward negativism and cheap, low-ended places to stay and I guess that now makes 4 people!! I agree totally with musicman, schotzi and br65. Trip Advisor prefers controversy and negative reviews, as people love to read about someone else's so-called "horrible place that they stayed at" and "how awful they were treated" and "how horrendous their room was and "how the staff treated them". People find this entertaining, strangely enough. Trip Advisor laughs all the way to the bank!

They benefit from more people signing up to their site to add their reviews and comments on forums. It boosts their traffic and page rank with the search engines, and helps to sell their expensive advertising spaces on their website. (remember, they are a business too!!) Their site continually sends SPAM (unsolicited emails) to your email address once they have your email address. Wonder why???
Many of their forum topics are centered around cheap places to stay, people on a budget and low ended...basically, budget accommodation. Nothing wrong with trying to save a bit of money these days, but quite often, these same people expect 5 star luxury at these places. The fact is, and always will be....you get what you pay for! If you pay for a cheap, budget place....guess what....you'll get low-end, no-frills, budget types of rooms. If you want something nicer...it will cost more and quite often, more than these people would expect! Trip Advisor knows that these same people...who want something for nothing or very near to that...love to moan about the slightest little thing and make a mountain out of a mole hill. Its in their nature, and they just can't help themselves. So, Trip Advisor exploits that idea and gives them a "soap box" to air their views. And for their trouble...Trip Advisor's website grows bigger everyday...which, bottomline, equals more profits!!! They let these people say whatever they want, without any verification or proof (afterall, its not Trip Advisor's opinion). When you do see the odd response: its always very humbly apologetic and never as descriptive as the person that virtually rips the establishments head off. That in itself is very biased, indeed. Not exactly a level playing field.

I'm waiting for the accommodation providers to get together and start a website that discusses "how people behave in hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, guest houses, etc." Now that would be real enterntainment! The stories they could tell about how people behave, how disgusting they leave their rooms, how rude they are to staff, how noisy they are in their rooms with their children running wildly down the corridors and how disrespectful they are of others. They wouldn't have to mention any names, just tell us their stories. They could have a forum and let the public add their own experiences (I have many, as I travel often) of other guests that they've encountered during their stays. Pictures would be even better. Food for thought!
Reply to this

Yes, it is offensive. Does PO5 really believe that the silent majority is not out there? There are thousands of satisfied customers,(the silent majority)who are too busy or just think TA is a joke, that don't write reviews.

Maybe PO5 is somehow connected to TA or is one of THOSE reviewers.

Anyone who believes anonymous reviewers probably would like some of my swamp property.

PO5 believes that everyone else on this blog is the same person? OOOOO...what is that about?? Reply to this

As a Hotel owner, I find that Trip Advisor publishes anything regardless of validity or truth. If you try to confront them, they hide behind the "proprietary nature of their information" garbage, and will not confront or repond to any requests for more information on a particular review. We have had several malicious reviews, which according to their "posting guidelines" should have never been published. When confronted about it, their standard response is "we will investigate and make a determination as to the validity of the review". Of course, nothing ever happens, and in the meantime, they are playing with my livelyhood. They will also randomely delete good reviews. It seems that they want to focus more on the bad than the good. This forces me as an owner, to periodically check their site, which results in more hits and more money for them. I have asked them for proof as to whether a reviewer has even stayed at our hotel, but they refuse to respond. Probably because they have no proof. As an owner, you are at their mercy. No one should be allowed to have that much power, and play with peoples livelyhoods. Reply to this

Obviously, PO5 is not a business owner! Reply to this