Even those of us who take Tripadvisor with a grain (or more) of salt, still tend to look at it from time to time.
Not only is the review site the largest in the business, Tripadvisor is often the only site that provides any reviews many smaller hotel properties, which means even travel agents with access to paid reviews like “Star Service” use TripAdvisor as an information source.
The problem, however, with any public review site, is that in the best cases, you have to deal with the public’s wildly varying standards and the natural tendency of most people to write a report when things go really really well, or really poorly.
Add the rumors that some properties solicit reviews from their guests and that some travelers punish a property that didn’t satisfy all their needs and TripAdvisor can have some real credibility issues.
Now Kwikchex.com, a British “reputation services” company, which says they are acting on behalf of several hundred hotels and restaurants, says they will publish a list of thousands of reviewers it suspects of posting fraudulent and defamatory comments.
These reviewers be named and given two weeks to review their own posts, after which Kwikchex says they could face legal action if they cannot backup their claims and prove they actually stayed at the hotel .
Tripadvisor claims to be trying constantly to monitor reviews for fraud. But the stakes are high on both sides.
From Tripadvisor’s perspective, a range of both positive and negative reviews give the site some credibility with travelers who don’t just want to read hotel puff pieces. Quite frankly, some horror stories are amusing, if they didn’t happen to you.
Regarding anonymity, many travelers would feel hesitant to review a hotel using their real names, especially with personal details of their stay.
Now, an overly positive review might convince people to choose a hotel they wouldn’t have otherwise considered. While a truly negative review can drive away business. To make matters worse, some bad reviews are collected by Tripadvisor and highlighted as “travel horror stories,” which get even more attention.
This situation has been brewing for years. Kwikchex’s business is accrediting companies with positive reputations, and working to protect them from defamation. The hotels they are representing are hotels with good reputations, but some very nasty reviews.
Kwikchex states that they are not trying to stifle free speech:
We “believe that fair criticism and honest opinion should be encouraged and remain protected by law. The targets of this action are provable, malicious lies or gross distortions of the facts.”
Why would someone deliberately smear a hotel or restaurant? Alas, there are all kinds of reasons. They might work for a competitor, or they might have completely unrealistic expectations, or they might want to punish a hotel for not doing what they wanted.
Her eare a few examples and one case in point. I have no idea if this couple posted a review, but I saw a front desk clerk in Hawaii last year being harangued by a man checking in who had apparently paid a deeply discounted internet rate and wanted an upgrade to an ocean view room.
The poor clerk kept trying to tell him they had actually been upgraded from no view to a nice garden view. The guest complained loudly that his rate didn’t matter, if there was an ocean view room empty she should just let him have it. When the man finally took the key (to his garden-view room) he was still complaining bitterly.
The list of gripes goes on. One client blamed a hotel for theft when she left an expensive nightgown in the room. More than one person has blamed a hotel for getting sick on food, when alcohol consumption just might have played a part.
In the Kwikchex.com case, there are allegations that along with competitors, ex-employees or interviewees turned down for a job wrote reviews without even staying at the hotel.
Tripadvisor so far has refused to take down the offending reviews, and at the moment, the review site states they will not release the names of reviewers by refusing to release their actual names unless they are legally required to do so.
Kwickchex is planning to do just that.
Hotel and review sites will both be following this case closely. It’s a long way from over.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
