Long and controversial discussion on the effect TripAdvisor has on businesses, opinions on both sides.
A couple weeks ago a court ruled in the U.S. that sites like Tripadvisor, Yahoo HAVE to make known the person who made libelous statements. I have requested from Tripadvisor the name and IP address of the person who made a false statement - did not stay at our establishment - they even included a picture that is not of our establishment. So, if they do not produce - I will sue them in small claims court - that should dump them in expenses by setting up attorneys for a small insignificant little case - and see what happens
Reply to this Merlek it would be great if you have more details of this case? Sorry can't put urls on this site but if you twitter trip advisor rant it should come up. TA keeps closing me down on their forum site. Anyone who has had a problem with TA should post on the forum under Trip advisor help.
Reply to this I have not had time to look up this case to read it in its entirety - but it was discussed on CNN no more than 3 weeks ago, where a model in NYC won her case against Yahoo to reveal who the anonymous poster was who was posting slanderous and libel against her - Yahoo then produced the name of the poster. The model then did talk to the poster, another woman, and asked her, why did she do it - they did not even know one another - and the poster apparently had no good answer as to why. I have also lodged complaints against TA with MA Attorney general and BBB and am getting ready to do so with the FCC also - but as we all know - they's just dogs without teeth! It basically does not get you very far.
Maybe we should all get together and consider a class action.
Reply to this On lawguru.com I found someone who asked an attorney a similar question as to those that we have: this is where to find the question and the name of the attorney -( I am still trying to find the ruling of a few weeks ago that the facilitator must produce the name of the slanderer) His answer to the person who asked the question was BEFORE the court ruling, however.
http://www.lawguru.com/legal-questions/new-york-computer-technology-law/internet-slander-website-freedom-speech-429875263/a
Reply to this It is not much consolation to folk out there to say ignore TP reviews but in fact it is probably the best advice you can get. The people who read this crap and believe it you really do not want them staying at your establishment. Jusy try to look at the percentages of reviews against throughput of your establishment in a year. Point it out in your responses to enquiries and in any response to TP. Good genuine people will understand what a load of rubbish this site is and book with you. I run a hotel with 63 bedrooms and total of 40 reviews have been posted over the last 2 years 50% good and bad. We average 80 guests per night 7 days a week 52 weeks a year. You do not have to be a mathmatician to see the odds and show what a con TP is. My establishment offers a full refund if any guest is not satisfied with this hotel. In 2 years i have made 7 yes SEVEN refunds. The last part TP will not print in a management response which i find strange as they are the truth seekers. You know they are crap I know they are crap and if any guest out there doesnt you do not want them as a guest at your business. It used to really bug me but as i tell people we offer a value for money holiday to our best ability with a money refund if we fail. If it is not enough please please please go SOMEWHERE ELSE.
Reply to this Hi forgot to mention if everyone writes emails phones the BBC WATCHDOG prog it might just get on to the tv and at least let the public know what a bunch of con artists TA are.
Tidno
Reply to this Well Tidno - I think we have all taken the previous advice of filing a complaint with the BBB, MA attorney general and the FTC (which I am now in the process of doing). Talk about tv - I was shocked one Saturday afternoon when Clark Howard of the CNN Money show mentioned what a WONDERFUL sight Tripadvisor was! There you could get REAL reviews of people who have actually stayed at hotels! I immediately emailed him at CNN - but the email came back. Can you imagine the huge free advertising TA got? I would not be surprised if Clark Howard was paid by TA for that plug.
On the other hand - the general public has the ability to complain about us - where do we go to complain about them? Trashing our rooms, malicious damage, verbal abuse, charging back charges that they are
clearly liable for - who is on our side??! I guess nobody like the way we make a living!
Reply to this I have found the contact infor for Clark Howard which does the 4 pm ET show on CNN on Saturdays and he also has a radio show - this is the link to contact him and other information about him - I am sending him a letter to the address listed about TA - and you should also call or send a letter - then TA has a slight chance of being exposed on tv:
http://www.wsbtv.com/station/3961511/detail.html
Reply to this So much for the Better Business Bureau!! Following is the complaint I lodged - and TA response!!
Did anyone else have a better response?
**********************************************************************
My Complaint on 9/07/09:
Brief description of problem: This company allows travelers to our establishment to post false and slanderous comments on their web site. they "allow" management response - but then blocks the response to say it does not meet their guidelines. Disgruntled customers and people who never stayed at our establishment post total untruths and slander - facilitated by tripadvisor.com
BUSINESS RESPONSE
Response Date: 09/14/2009
Problem Adjusted: No
Adjustment Type: No Adjustment
Response Details: TripAdvisor is a travel research website and this property owner is not a customer of use. He has not paid TripAdvisor for any services, therefore we ask the BBB to close this complaint.
Reply to this That's interesting Merlek, because what Tripadvisor might be saying there is if you *had* paid them, then they would have a duty not to allow the false reviews.
In fact, some of those hotel owners who join their commission program have been known to have their bad reviews magically vanish.
Tripadvisor is a scam.
Reply to this Oh really - well that sounds like black mail! Pay us and we remove the improbable and bad reviews!
Reply to this Just to keep you updated: I received a letter from the Massachusetts Office office of the Attorney general stating: This office will not be able to assist you in the resolution of your complaint. It also goes on the say that the complaint is recorded in the Att. Generals Public Inquiry and Asstance Center. " If the problem you describe should develop into a case involving a large number of injured consumers, we will be back in touch with you, seeing further details..."
It would be neat if the thousands of other hotels could also complain to the AG - that should give them enough ammo!
Reply to this Why isn't everyone complaining to AG? Businesses need to become proactive and stop being victimized by TA.
Reply to this It's comforting to know that I am in such a large community of hoteliers who have these problems with Trip Advisor. The way I see it Trip Advisor's parent company Expedia has a lot to gain from negative reviews appearing about hotels that don't allow them to sell availability and positive reviews from those do. Whether or not they deliberately steer things this way there is surely enough potential for them to abuse this situation to warrant a thorough investigation by the authorities.
Reply to this You are right - who is going to make reservations through Expedia or any GDS hotel when they read bad TA reviews! I went to boston.bbb.org and filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau of Boston - TA replied that we were not a customer - why don't you go and do the same - and point out that you ar in fact a customer because they are using your information without your consent on their website. I also filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Attorney General - who said they needed more complaints from the public to make a case false and misleading statement. Go to their website - and just file a complaint. They did say they would keep everyting on file until they had enough complaints to warrant an investigation.
I request from TA that they remove a statement about our hotel which stated: bugs and no service - I knew exactly who it was - the person never stayed here - but forfeited their deposit because they were a no show. There was no reponse from TA - until they day they received an enquiry from the BBB - the next day that "review" was removed from their site.
Reply to this TA has now disabled my account with them which means I am unable to respond to any reviews or amend the information which they have published about our hotel. I am very very shocked at this. I have e-mailed them and asked for them to remove our hotel. Will wait and see if they reply. In the meantime I am going to contact the British Hotel association and make a complaint and also contact my local MP and trading standards.
Reply to this Rebecca - they absolutely refuse to remove our hotels from their site. Here in the USA they hide behind the 1st amendment that they can say what they want - although the law does not allow anyone to slander or spread falsehoods. I do not see how they can use our name and trademark without our consent - but that is basically what they are doing. In the UK you may have a better chance by making your case than what we have here - since trade laws here are lenient. Bottom line: file complaint after complaint at as many places as you can - there just may be someone that hears you sometime. And if you do not hear back from them, follow up - the squeeky wheel gets the oil.
I do not see how they can REFUSE you to rebut a complaint about your property. You might want to look up an internet attorney in your area - send an email and see what your rights are.
Keep us posted!
Reply to this Hi Rebecca
I have had TA refuse to include my owners response on 2 negative comments saying that my comments do not meet their posting criteria. Having questioned them on how they allow libelous and slanderous comments to get through and why when I have stated and proved that a commenter did not even stay with me they now refuse to answer my emails so in effect blocking me from having any redress.
The British Hospitality Association have asked for accommodation providers to contact them with their experiences of TA as many members have complaints. I don't really know what they can do as Trading Standards have told me that as an American Company, our laws do not apply in the same way as if they were a British company. They suggested that I contact a solicitor who deals with libel cases but being a small 8 bedroom guest house, I do not have the finances.
I have also been in touch with the Attourney General, Mass the BBB and the FCC but they just add your name to a long list of other establishments who are unhappy with TA.
Until something is done about this company, we are all at the mercy of spiteful and malicious folk who have nothing better to do that slate perfectly good and in many cases excellent accommodation providers. It is true that a number of negative comments come from establishments in direct competition with us. These are the same people who have 5* and wonderous reviews written by themselves, their staff and friends. While TA allow this to happen and refuse to allow owners responses we seem to be stuck.
I would love to know the answer but in the mean time I am going to carry on my fairly successful business in the way I have run it for the past 9 years, try to ignore the comments from these sad people and focus on the true and positive reviews I have been given.
If you manage to get any positive feedback from your MP or anywhere else, please would you let us all know. There is power in numbers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope everyone has had a reasonably good season ( what with the crunch - does anyone know where the 'staycation' people stayed ? ) and that things improve for us all soon
Jas
Reply to this I just found an interesting little tool on the web - it allows you to actually pull the "good" reviews from TA and post it on your website - ofcourse without a link to THEIR site. I do have some good reviews (also)! so I put the code into my guestcomments - and it looks pretty good there. This little tool is free, you download it right away and can put it on your website immediately.... there is also an article concerning tourism in the U.K. which should be interesting to you - you will find the tool at: http://www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/free_widget_enables_filtering_of_tripadvisor_reviews_on_hotel_website/
You can view how it looks on my guestcomment site: daytonamotel.com/guestcomments
I just feel maybe I'm using them for a change - instead of the other way around. I'm getting ready to cancel my GDS anyway, with Expedia, Orbitz hotels.com etc. too expensive.
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