TripAdvisor Warning
TripAdvisor: Fake hotels reviews alert
The hotel review may sound too good — citing obscure details like the type of faucets — or perhaps one stands out as the only negative rating of an otherwise popular location.
The influential travel Web site TripAdvisor has been quietly posting disclaimers to warn customers of hotels writing fake reviews to improve their popularity rankings or hurt competitors.
The red disclaimers near the names of hotels show that TripAdvisor has a problem with fake reviews, travel bloggers and industry experts say. One blogger, Jeff Tucker, warned that without changes to restore credibility to the reviews the site is "going to come crumbling down behind them."
But TripAdvisor said the disclaimers have been used since 2006 and involve a small fraction of the 400,000 hotels reviewed. The company, based in Newton, Mass., said it has a successful system to root out inaccurate reviews.
"The 23 million reviews and opinions are authentic and they're unbiased and they're from real users," spokesman Brooke Ferencsik said. "The vast majority of hoteliers, they understand the risk to their business and reputation if they attempt to post fraudulent information to TripAdvisor."
The problem of policing online reviews is not limited to TripAdvisor.
Last fall, Apple required that consumers purchase or download an application before they can review it online in the App Store. A plastic surgery company, Lifestyle Lift Inc., agreed to pay $300,000 to resolve an investigation into positive online reviews written by employees, the New York attorney general announced Tuesday. And the Federal Trade Commission is revising guidelines on testimonials and endorsements to reflect the growth of online marketing.
TripAdvisor, which is part of Expedia Inc., was the third most popular travel information site in June, with about 9.2 million unique visitors, according to the tracking firm comScore.
The company ranks hotels according to how well they have been reviewed, and loyal users say it is the best place to find accommodations, from ritzy resorts in major cities to mom-and-pop inns far off the beaten path. Users are directed to other sites such as Expedia to book rooms.
But last month travel Web sites and blogs began to log and discuss the red warnings, which read: "TripAdvisor has reasonable cause to believe that either this property or individuals associated with the property may have attempted to manipulate our popularity index by interfering with the unbiased nature of our reviews. Please take this into consideration when researching your travel plans."
One industry Web site, BeatOfHawaii.com, said it found 92 hotels with the label in June, from a boutique hotel in Hawaii to a Radisson in Fort Worth, Texas. The disclaimers drew a lot of attention that month and by Monday, only 16 remained, said Tucker, co-author BeatofHawaii.com.
The disclaimers have an expiration date that varies with each hotel, Ferencsik said. He said TripAdvisor works with hotel owners to get the warnings removed, often after they promise to stop breaking the site's rules.
"Not only does it give our travelers fair warning," he said. "But also it should be a deterrent for any property that's thinking about trying to game the system."
The company has policies to weed out suspicious reviews, screens reviews before they are posted, and uses automated tools to identify attempts to corrupt the system, Ferencsik said. Users can also report reviews they find not credible.
Ferencsik declined to describe how the company decides a post is not legitimate, saying that could help fake posters subvert the rules.
But experts say manipulated reviews can be overly positive, citing features — such as the brand of faucet fixtures — regular travelers rarely notice. Or they can be extremely negative, with a competitor bashing a hotel that generally has more favorable reviews. Fake posters often have only one or a few reviews, whereas many regular TripAdvisor users post numerous reviews.
The disclaimers show TripAdvisor is taking threats to their credibility seriously, said Lisa Klein Pearo, an adjunct marketing professor at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration who has researched word-of-mouth marketing.
"I think this is TripAdvisor's way of cracking down on them and, in some ways, standing up for the consumer," she said. "I think it could work in TripAdvisor's favor."
But she and others say TripAdvisor could do much more to eliminate fake reviews. Steven Carvell, the associate dean of the Cornell school, said other opinion sites verify that consumers stayed in the hotels or bought the products they review.
On TripAdvisor, "there isn't an actual connection between a verified reservation and a payment and who's writing those things," Carvell said. "People early on were not playing games with it. Now there are lots of games."
Tucker said travel industry insiders — but often not casual travelers — understand the financial incentives hotels have to artificially inflate their rankings on the site. Some offer discounts or freebies to patrons who write positive reviews or hire public relations companies who say they can improve the reviews.
"I'd really like to see TripAdvisor deal with the public in kind of an openhanded way, talk to people this issue," he said.
But Arthur Frommer, founder of the Frommer's travel guides, said travelers should rely on the advice of experts, such as guidebook writers or journalists.
Frommer said he had to discontinue a popular feature in some of his guidebooks that included readers' selections, largely because he could not be certain they did not come from businesses.
"Find write-ups by professionals whose judgments you trust and rely on that," Frommer said. "I would never rely on the judgment of amateurs."
Comments
This is the Reply made by tripadvisor !!!! What "Criteria do they have? They publish anonymous defamation and they don't accept our reply (NOT Anonymous!)
Dear Giloc,
Thank you for taking the time to write a management response on TripAdvisor.
Unfortunately, we cannot publish your response because it does not meet our posting criteria. We look forward to receiving your edited and resubmitted response through our management response form.
Please see the management response guidelines posted on our site at:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/userrev_mgmt_rsp_rules.html
We do not post management responses that contain quotations from reviews "Anonymous Traveler .you wrote that Hotel Facilities are fine (free pick up, good breakfast, place, free Palermo tours, Free trekking tours and Free day trips we add) but "it was the worst experience you had"Pity you didnt write your name so we could check if you really stayed at xxxxx or you just looked at our website.
Anyway we have a huge photo guestbook that shows the happiness of our Guests :o)".
Please let us know if you have further concerns.
Best regards,
Dan
TripAdvisor Hotel Relations Team
Fake Reviews by the Hotels?...I think the reality is a little bit different!
Hello to all.... A question...Do you think I can take a lawyer against Tripadvisor? I mean...In Europe you cannot publish anything that offends someone or you must pay a lot of money but Tripadvisor published a very offensive comment .
In this comment the anonymous wrote: "xxxxx treated us terribly. He lied to us, stereotyped us, screamed at us, and worst of all - threatned us. It was insane and scary.
xxxxxx cares so much about his reputation, it's a little crazy. You can even find part of his website online where he literally finds every negative review ever written about him, and rebutts the negative points. I'm sure this one will be there soon, and I'm sure he will make up some crazy reasoning like he does with everyone else. "
This is of course totally false and should be considered VERY OFFENSIVE in Europe and for this reason not legal you cannot publish that. In Europe we call it: DEFAMATION....especially if it's made by an ANONYMOUS person...Do you think I should take a Lawyer?
Tripadvisor accepts this kind of ANONYMOUS comments made by anonymous persons that cannot prove they really stayed in the places (that has a name and an adress...so no anonymous) they reviewed.This is bad I think and not really legal
Tripadvisor publishes without investigating these type of comments and anytime a hotel or a Guesthouse want to reply...we have a lot of problems cause "we don't follow their Criterias"!!!..WHICH Criterias if they accept this type of offensive comments made by some Anonymous?...We also received some Fake comments by persons that were supposed to be with us in the period of our Seasonal Clousure!!!...We wrote that to Tripadvisor and Tripadvisor didn't want to move away the comment!!!...We needed 1 month to demostrate that we were closed!!!...But I mean...they consider more comments made by ANONYMOUS than reply made by HOTELS with NAME and ADRESS!..This is terrible!
What's your advise?
Thanks a lot to all
If you want I can also give you the link of this comment
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