The sinister side of TripAdvisor
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The most numerous comments, however, belong to TripAdvisor.
Without doubt, TripAdvisor is the clear #1 online travel force, like it or not. Many accommodation providers embrace it, despite its obvious flaws. Many try to fight it. To ignore it is plain crazy.
In today's society, consumers are likely to complain given any opportunity, regardless of who is to blame. Social media has allowed people to complain much more easily and volubly than ever before about accommodation product if they have bad experiences. Consumers tend to feel better when they complain.
It has also been shown that when companies reassure consumers after they complain about a product or service it gives them a feeling of satisfaction from airing a grievance; they are allowed to vent negative emotions and they feel better after doing so.
For obvious reasons, the scourge of fake reviews is a threat to popular review sites, especially TripAdvisor. Fake reviews are top of the complaints list for this travel site. Second is the inability for the accommodation provider to have an offending review removed or be responded to.
Fake reviews probably dominate most sites, none more so than on TripAdvisor. Accommodation providers bribe guests to post good reviews about them and bad ones about the competition. Guests blackmail accommodation providers with bad review threats unless some sort of bribe is not forthcoming. There are individuals out there whose job it is to post reviews (good and bad) for remuneration.
Research by the Accommodation Association of Australia has found that 60% of its 2000 members have been threatened by guests.
This is all cold comfort to a genuinely honest accommodation provider who suddenly gets hit with a shocker on TripAdvisor by someone that has never set foot inside the complex.
There is a more sinister side to all of this review stuff creeping into TripAdvisor. One of our readers complained that: "I had a staff member who was slandered on TripAdvisor and when I requested TripAdvisor shadow out the staff member's name, they refused. My response back to the guest was rejected by TripAdvisor because I had referred to the guest's first name and, according to TripAdvisor, I am not able to refer to the guest's first name due to privacy but it is okay for the guest to name my staff member."
Here there is a clear double standard - not unexpected with TripAdvisor. But it is time that TripAdvisor did provide the same facility for both sides and any response should be made easy for the respondent, not as it is with the regime that exists at the moment where the accommodation provider is always presumed to be in the wrong and trying to reach any one or thing at TripAdvisor is nigh on impossible.
"I had an incident yesterday where someone threatened to put up a bad trip advisor review. I want to be able to advise the details to trip advisor rather than having to deal with it after the review is posted but I can't find a way..." is a pretty typical complaint received by us.
One reader probably sums up the whole TripAdvisor problem: "Basic human psychology says we are more motivated to actively provide negative feedback as opposed to positive feedback and TripAdvisor is the perfect vehicle to encourage guests to discredit a motel without any accountability or justification."
One positive move TripAdvisor could make, if nothing else, is to have an active, simple means whereby accommodation providers can discuss a situation. Just try to talk to someone at TripAdvisor as things are now...
But there is hope for those who persevere, as one reader wrote: "We have had one negative report taken off by TripAdvisor once we put in a challenge to them to prove who wrote it. In my view you have to work with them rather than try to fight them."
That reader may just be right.
The US Federal Trade Commission, for example, has ruled that paying for positive reviews without disclosing that the reviewer has been compensated amounts to deceptive advertising and is prosecutable.
Right of Reply - TripAdvisor responds
TripAdvisor democratised the travel industry. The company was built on three key principles: to give travellers a voice and place to share their experiences, to promote transparency in the travel industry, and to create a level playing field for travel businesses to reach travellers, regardless of size. These principles continue to be the lifeblood of our company.
Nothing is more important to us than the authenticity of our reviews. We have a world-class international team of specialists who spend 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, making sure our reviews are real. TripAdvisor is the world's largest travel site. We have more than 60 million visitors to the site monthly and more than 32 million registered members globally. People continue to join and visit TripAdvisor in increasing numbers because of the usefulness that the traveller reviews and opinions provide.
A common misconception is that reviewers only post on TripAdvisor to complain. This couldn't be less true. The majority of reviews submitted on TripAdvisor are in fact positive with the average rating for Australian hotels on TripAdvisor currently just under 4 (out of 5).
We understand the importance that the reviews and opinions on TripAdvisor have to properties and businesses listed on the site. TripAdvisor has been monitoring tens of millions of reviews submitted over the past decade, and as a result, we can identify patterns of suspicious activity by utilising sophisticated filters and behavioural modelling to scan reviews. We monitor and evaluate hundreds of different attributes associated with electronic correspondence, such as IP address, the type of browser being used and even screen resolution of the reviewer's device. Suspicious activity is then flagged to our investigations team of dedicated agents who use a variety of additional confidential investigative methods designed to identify potential fraud.
We have a world-class international team of nearly 100 content specialists. This team is able to work in all 21 languages that we support on our global sites. The team has a wide range of fraud detection backgrounds, from a range of industries, and utilise sophisticated data mining, visualisation and analytic tools to uncover trends and patterns of abuse. As well as our automated tools, we encourage our community of travellers and businesses alike to report any content they feel is suspicious or inappropriate. Every single report is investigated by the team above and any review found to be in breach of our policies will be taken down immediately.
Of the 1.8 million businesses listed on the site, the vast majority are extremely happy, in fact, we are contacted every day from businesses around the world and we are told that favourable reviews on TripAdvisor directly and dramatically improve bookings. By following basic principles, businesses can – and do – use such sites such as TripAdvisor to enormous advantage.
Allegations of blackmail or threatening behaviour by guests against property owners are taken very seriously by TripAdvisor. Not only is it strictly against our guidelines, but it may also be illegal in many jurisdictions. If an owner experiences this, we urge them to contact us immediately and our content integrity team will investigate. We recommend that owners contact us via the Management Centre, on the TripAdvisor site (www.tripadvisor.com.au/owners), using the links provided to ensure that their queries are channelled to the teams that are best equipped to deal with their enquiry as quickly and efficiently as possible.
For all published reviews, we also strongly encourage owners to give their side of the story by posting a management response to reviews on their property. This gives the business the last word and allows users to read both sides of the story before making a decision on whether a property is right for them. We strongly encourage business owners to take advantage of this feature, so their voice can be heard as well.
Virginia Haddon, General Manager, Ink Publicity for TripAdvisor
