Trip advisor and why I hate it - grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

[SweetiePie]

You can ignore them but they won't go away. First of all we didn't have a choice whether we wanted to be on Trip Advisor or not, and there is no way to opt out of it; although I hear you can be kicked off of it. Where do I sign up?
They need us more than we need them, at least in my case. My business was doing fine before they came along and added me to their site. I don't need any more publicity. They are simply using the ad words and reviews to feed their booking agents on sites like Expedia, which is how they make their money.
You can always print bumper stickers like this business did, although it seems to have backfired. Check out this link on Yelp. sf.eater.com/archives/2007/10/18/yelp_wanted_oakland_cafe_bans.php

How many terrible reviews did you get that you want to be eliminated from TA? Did you respond with a "gracious" mgmt response? Can you just run your business and ask guests who enjoyed their stay to write you new reviews to push the offending review downward on the list?.

That used to be the case, that new reviews would push the old ones to the bottom. However, now Trip Advisor has the ability to highlight any review they wish when someone searchs for your inn and their site comes up in the search. Provocative reviews get more hits so guess which ones get highlighted. Guests would now have to go backwards to see the most recent positive reviews. Wonder how many would be willing to take the time to do that?
Also, they give priority to inns listed on Expedia. I've been told, and this is rumor, that by joining you can have negative reviews removed since Expedia doesn't like negative reviews about their inns.
However, this I know from personal experience, that when searching for an area they will list your bad reviews and the Expedia inn's good reviews in order to push the customer towards the Expedia inn.

 

[swirt]

I agree with K. I think we have beat this "dead horse" ENOUGH! Can we all just stop posting on this topic?
We all have our opinions and we know what most everyone think. To each his own.
Let 's be done with this one and MOVE ON

Hey SWIRT anyway to "CLOSE A THREAD"????.

Hey SWIRT anyway to "CLOSE A THREAD"????

Sure I can close threads, but only for abuse, as opposed to lack of interest. As long as everyone keeps playing by the rules, discussion is ok by me.

 

[SweetiePie]

You can ignore them but they won't go away. First of all we didn't have a choice whether we wanted to be on Trip Advisor or not, and there is no way to opt out of it; although I hear you can be kicked off of it. Where do I sign up?

Forgot to mention that the way to get kicked off TA is to consistently & flagrantly post your own reviews of your own place. TA will warn you, then they will block reviews from being posted. But they do leave behind a message that the reason you were removed was for messing with the system..

I have a hate/hate relationship with TA. All but 2 of my reviews (57) are wonderful. I resent having to deal with TA at all, but as stated before, it's not going anywhere and this social media web 2.0 seems to be here to stay. So, you must adapt. My problem with it is that guests sometimes try to threaten you with bad reviews if you stick to your policies and they don't like it. That is why I even have those 2 bad reviews...I refuse to run my business out of fear of a bad review. By the way, those 2 bad reviews were totally made up by the guests. But I just deal with it.
Has anyone else set up a computer for the guests to use? I think I am being penalized by TA because they think I'm sending in my own reviews. The last several reviews I've seen or told by my guests they did here have not posted and it's been over a month. I don't know this for sure, but it seems like TA's system is penalizing me for having the reviews come from the same IP address. Does anyone else have this problem?
.

I don't think it is a good plan to have your guests sit down at your inn and send in a TA review. That is definitely one way to get TA to notice you..but not in a good way.
I agree with your other note about accepting it...it is part of our lives now and will NOT be going away. It will get only stronger, and more such sites will be taking away some of it's power down the road. We all just have to DEAL WITH IT!
Honestly it is the FIRST place I go when planning a trip.
.

I don't think it is a good plan to have your guests sit down at your inn and send in a TA review. That is definitely one way to get TA to notice you..but not in a good way.

At the last 2 conferences I've been at, one of the speakers as said to have a guest computer available and encourage your guests to do TA reviews. I think that's bad advice and I agree with Catlady.
.

Been there, done that and you definitely don't want to go down that road. I too thought that having guests send the review from the inn computer was a good idea, since most of them don't want to open an account and get spammed forever by Trip Advisor.
However, the problem is that when they see all of these glowing reviews coming from one computer, even with different screen names red flags go up and they assume you are writing and posting them yourself. They will then take them all down. Here's a case where that happened.
Apparently that link no longer works, so here's a copy.
[edited by swirt to remove another site's content and replace with a working link]
TripAdvisor Cleans Out Reviews For Fiji Resort By Martin Kelly, Editor, Travel Trends February 23, 2009
I have a link that I will post when I have time, where Trip Advisor actually responded to a guy who was advising people to write the reviews and send them to relatives to post. Also, a no no.
[edited by swirt to remove another site's content and replace with a working link]
[Trip Advisor Tips and Techniques] Rainforestinn.com October 28th, 2006

 

[SweetiePie]

My opinion - you shouldn't have bothered to get worked up over any of it. Any normal and sane person would have read the reviews and taken them with a grain of salt. Not returning a phone call ... again, why worry about it. Do you think people are so ignorant as to not ignore that kind of a complaint on a review. Not worth worrying about..

I'm not wishing you any bad luck, but until you have a crackpot like this post something totally libelous about you online you really don't know what it is like. A business owner who ignores his business' reputation will not be in business long. When it affects YOUR bottom line, believe me you WILL care.
.

So has it affected your business?????? My guess would be that it has not.
.

I wouldn't be on here talking about it if it hadn't.

 

[SweetiePie]

If you bothered to actually read the blog before attacking, you would know that I had already answered the question about the MA Attorney General. And yes, I like to back up my statements with facts.

Most of the links you have posted either go to generic blog pages that don't have anything to do with TA or they give outright 404 errors. I haven't read anything about the MA Attorney General on any of the pages that have been linked..

Thanks for pointing out the 404 errors. They have been corrected, and the links all relate to the subject in some way. Again, if you had actually read the blog you would know that there was never any link to the Attorney General's website.

 

[muirford]

If you bothered to actually read the blog before attacking, you would know that I had already answered the question about the MA Attorney General. And yes, I like to back up my statements with facts.

Most of the links you have posted either go to generic blog pages that don't have anything to do with TA or they give outright 404 errors. I haven't read anything about the MA Attorney General on any of the pages that have been linked..

Thanks for pointing out the 404 errors. They have been corrected, and the links all relate to the subject in some way. Again, if you had actually read the blog you would know that there was never any link to the Attorney General's website.
.

Thanks for pointing out the 404 errors. They have been corrected, and the links all relate to the subject in some way. Again, if you had actually read the blog you would know that there was never any link to the Attorney General's website.

It is a little difficult to follow your changes when you go back and edit old posts rather than create a new one, with the correct links or whatever new information you are sharing. When a topic has a lot of responses, and many new ones, readers don't often go back through pages of posts to see that an old post has been edited.
To make it easier for everyone else, by blog post about the MA Attorney General you mean this forum post.
The post you edited with content about Tripadvisor from other blogs is this one. The other posts with links still give 404 errors.

 

[SweetiePie]

My point is - quit going to look at it. Quit worrying about them. It's not worth all the stress that some of you seem to be going through. Yes, people read the reviews but really - anybody with common sense reads through them and reads between the lines. If somebody is getting a lot of negative reviews there's probably a reason for them. I know that someone in this town got bad reviews and those reviews were deserved even though that accommodation owner denied that the bad stuff existed.
Anyway, I don't see people on Canadian or English boards being so concerned about Trip Advisor. You all need to just let it run it's course and put your faith in how you conduct your business.
None of us are perfect and the odd bad thing might be mentioned. So what? And in some cases "a complaint is a gift" if one just listens to it. If the review is false then ignore it.
I might add that when people 'solicit' their guests to post they could be asking for trouble. Some people will go out of their way to find something negative to post just because they feel that something can't be all good. When I talk about ignoring Trip Advisor I mean ignore it completely. Who cares where you place on it? Trip Advisor is NOT the primary spot on the web for finding accommodations!.

ginocat wrote, "Anyway, I don't see people on Canadian or English boards being so concerned about Trip Advisor."
I beg to disagree. The Europeans are equally upset, they just have more censorship over there to deal with. Check out this link. http://www.ourinns.org/news/2008/09/16/what-do-you-do-about-the-guest-comments-on-websites [edited by swirt to fix the broken link]
Of the sites I tried to post comments on, Mums Finance was the only one that would print them. Both Times Online and TravelMole censored them.
Even the Asians are upset. Check out this.
[edited by swirt to remove entire blog post and replace with link]
Trip Advisor Reviews and Ratings are Fraud

 

[SweetiePie]

If you bothered to actually read the blog before attacking, you would know that I had already answered the question about the MA Attorney General. And yes, I like to back up my statements with facts.

Most of the links you have posted either go to generic blog pages that don't have anything to do with TA or they give outright 404 errors. I haven't read anything about the MA Attorney General on any of the pages that have been linked..

Thanks for pointing out the 404 errors. They have been corrected, and the links all relate to the subject in some way. Again, if you had actually read the blog you would know that there was never any link to the Attorney General's website.
.

Thanks for pointing out the 404 errors. They have been corrected, and the links all relate to the subject in some way. Again, if you had actually read the blog you would know that there was never any link to the Attorney General's website.

It is a little difficult to follow your changes when you go back and edit old posts rather than create a new one, with the correct links or whatever new information you are sharing. When a topic has a lot of responses, and many new ones, readers don't often go back through pages of posts to see that an old post has been edited.
To make it easier for everyone else, by blog post about the MA Attorney General you mean this forum post.
The post you edited with content about Tripadvisor from other blogs is this one. The other posts with links still give 404 errors.
.

I don't know what you're referring to because apparently your links don't work either. This is truly disturbing as the links worked when I posted them yesterday. I have replaced the link with a copy of the information.
Apparently Trip Advisor can dish it out but they can't take it. It is fine for them to defame us with their false reviews and send them around the world damaging our businesses; but when the shoe is on the other foot I guess they feel the need to coerce the writers or editors into removing them. Better to try and keep the cockroaches in the closet.

 

[swirt]

I'm going to be removing all the copies of other people's blog posts and replace them with working links. It is inappropriate to copy an entire blog post from someone's site and paste it somewhere else without their permission. It's one thing to copy a small excerpt, but the entire post is too much to have on here without the author's permission.

 

[muirford]

If you bothered to actually read the blog before attacking, you would know that I had already answered the question about the MA Attorney General. And yes, I like to back up my statements with facts.

Most of the links you have posted either go to generic blog pages that don't have anything to do with TA or they give outright 404 errors. I haven't read anything about the MA Attorney General on any of the pages that have been linked..

Thanks for pointing out the 404 errors. They have been corrected, and the links all relate to the subject in some way. Again, if you had actually read the blog you would know that there was never any link to the Attorney General's website.
.

Thanks for pointing out the 404 errors. They have been corrected, and the links all relate to the subject in some way. Again, if you had actually read the blog you would know that there was never any link to the Attorney General's website.

It is a little difficult to follow your changes when you go back and edit old posts rather than create a new one, with the correct links or whatever new information you are sharing. When a topic has a lot of responses, and many new ones, readers don't often go back through pages of posts to see that an old post has been edited.
To make it easier for everyone else, by blog post about the MA Attorney General you mean this forum post.
The post you edited with content about Tripadvisor from other blogs is this one. The other posts with links still give 404 errors.
.

I don't know what you're referring to because apparently your links don't work either. This is truly disturbing as the links worked when I posted them yesterday. I have replaced the link with a copy of the information.
Apparently Trip Advisor can dish it out but they can't take it. It is fine for them to defame us with their false reviews and send them around the world damaging our businesses; but when the shoe is on the other foot I guess they feel the need to coerce the writers or editors into removing them. Better to try and keep the cockroaches in the closet.
.

My links are to your previous posts on this forum, not to outside articles, and they do work.

 

[Morticia]

If you bothered to actually read the blog before attacking, you would know that I had already answered the question about the MA Attorney General. And yes, I like to back up my statements with facts.

Most of the links you have posted either go to generic blog pages that don't have anything to do with TA or they give outright 404 errors. I haven't read anything about the MA Attorney General on any of the pages that have been linked..

Thanks for pointing out the 404 errors. They have been corrected, and the links all relate to the subject in some way. Again, if you had actually read the blog you would know that there was never any link to the Attorney General's website.
.

Thanks for pointing out the 404 errors. They have been corrected, and the links all relate to the subject in some way. Again, if you had actually read the blog you would know that there was never any link to the Attorney General's website.

It is a little difficult to follow your changes when you go back and edit old posts rather than create a new one, with the correct links or whatever new information you are sharing. When a topic has a lot of responses, and many new ones, readers don't often go back through pages of posts to see that an old post has been edited.
To make it easier for everyone else, by blog post about the MA Attorney General you mean this forum post.
The post you edited with content about Tripadvisor from other blogs is this one. The other posts with links still give 404 errors.
.

I don't know what you're referring to because apparently your links don't work either. This is truly disturbing as the links worked when I posted them yesterday. I have replaced the link with a copy of the information.
Apparently Trip Advisor can dish it out but they can't take it. It is fine for them to defame us with their false reviews and send them around the world damaging our businesses; but when the shoe is on the other foot I guess they feel the need to coerce the writers or editors into removing them. Better to try and keep the cockroaches in the closet.
.

I don't know what you're referring to because apparently your links don't work either. This is truly disturbing as the links worked when I posted them yesterday. I have replaced the link with a copy of the information.
Apparently Trip Advisor can dish it out but they can't take it. It is fine for them to defame us with their false reviews and send them around the world damaging our businesses; but when the shoe is on the other foot I guess they feel the need to coerce the writers or editors into removing them. Better to try and keep the cockroaches in the closet.

Wait, are you saying your links here were removed by TA? Or threats from TA? Post the links again and let's see what happens. I know the first couple of posts you had here did not have any links at all, just the html code from the page. Which would mean everyone had to cut and paste to read what you were talking about.
I doubt TA has the time, resources or even cares enough to know this forum is here. And a few people did try to go to the links but said they were generic posts and had nothing to do with TA.

 

[swirt]

If you bothered to actually read the blog before attacking, you would know that I had already answered the question about the MA Attorney General. And yes, I like to back up my statements with facts.

Most of the links you have posted either go to generic blog pages that don't have anything to do with TA or they give outright 404 errors. I haven't read anything about the MA Attorney General on any of the pages that have been linked..

Thanks for pointing out the 404 errors. They have been corrected, and the links all relate to the subject in some way. Again, if you had actually read the blog you would know that there was never any link to the Attorney General's website.
.

Thanks for pointing out the 404 errors. They have been corrected, and the links all relate to the subject in some way. Again, if you had actually read the blog you would know that there was never any link to the Attorney General's website.

It is a little difficult to follow your changes when you go back and edit old posts rather than create a new one, with the correct links or whatever new information you are sharing. When a topic has a lot of responses, and many new ones, readers don't often go back through pages of posts to see that an old post has been edited.
To make it easier for everyone else, by blog post about the MA Attorney General you mean this forum post.
The post you edited with content about Tripadvisor from other blogs is this one. The other posts with links still give 404 errors.
.

I don't know what you're referring to because apparently your links don't work either. This is truly disturbing as the links worked when I posted them yesterday. I have replaced the link with a copy of the information.
Apparently Trip Advisor can dish it out but they can't take it. It is fine for them to defame us with their false reviews and send them around the world damaging our businesses; but when the shoe is on the other foot I guess they feel the need to coerce the writers or editors into removing them. Better to try and keep the cockroaches in the closet.
.

I don't know what you're referring to because apparently your links don't work either. This is truly disturbing as the links worked when I posted them yesterday. I have replaced the link with a copy of the information.
Apparently Trip Advisor can dish it out but they can't take it. It is fine for them to defame us with their false reviews and send them around the world damaging our businesses; but when the shoe is on the other foot I guess they feel the need to coerce the writers or editors into removing them. Better to try and keep the cockroaches in the closet.

Wait, are you saying your links here were removed by TA? Or threats from TA? Post the links again and let's see what happens. I know the first couple of posts you had here did not have any links at all, just the html code from the page. Which would mean everyone had to cut and paste to read what you were talking about.
I doubt TA has the time, resources or even cares enough to know this forum is here. And a few people did try to go to the links but said they were generic posts and had nothing to do with TA.
.

I fixed the links. It had nothing to do with TripAdvisor's power to have articles removed. They were simply badly formed addresses that requested pages that didn't exist. I fixed the links, they all work now.

 

[muirford]

If you bothered to actually read the blog before attacking, you would know that I had already answered the question about the MA Attorney General. And yes, I like to back up my statements with facts.

Most of the links you have posted either go to generic blog pages that don't have anything to do with TA or they give outright 404 errors. I haven't read anything about the MA Attorney General on any of the pages that have been linked..

Thanks for pointing out the 404 errors. They have been corrected, and the links all relate to the subject in some way. Again, if you had actually read the blog you would know that there was never any link to the Attorney General's website.
.

Thanks for pointing out the 404 errors. They have been corrected, and the links all relate to the subject in some way. Again, if you had actually read the blog you would know that there was never any link to the Attorney General's website.

It is a little difficult to follow your changes when you go back and edit old posts rather than create a new one, with the correct links or whatever new information you are sharing. When a topic has a lot of responses, and many new ones, readers don't often go back through pages of posts to see that an old post has been edited.
To make it easier for everyone else, by blog post about the MA Attorney General you mean this forum post.
The post you edited with content about Tripadvisor from other blogs is this one. The other posts with links still give 404 errors.
.

I don't know what you're referring to because apparently your links don't work either. This is truly disturbing as the links worked when I posted them yesterday. I have replaced the link with a copy of the information.
Apparently Trip Advisor can dish it out but they can't take it. It is fine for them to defame us with their false reviews and send them around the world damaging our businesses; but when the shoe is on the other foot I guess they feel the need to coerce the writers or editors into removing them. Better to try and keep the cockroaches in the closet.
.

I don't know what you're referring to because apparently your links don't work either. This is truly disturbing as the links worked when I posted them yesterday. I have replaced the link with a copy of the information.
Apparently Trip Advisor can dish it out but they can't take it. It is fine for them to defame us with their false reviews and send them around the world damaging our businesses; but when the shoe is on the other foot I guess they feel the need to coerce the writers or editors into removing them. Better to try and keep the cockroaches in the closet.

Wait, are you saying your links here were removed by TA? Or threats from TA? Post the links again and let's see what happens. I know the first couple of posts you had here did not have any links at all, just the html code from the page. Which would mean everyone had to cut and paste to read what you were talking about.
I doubt TA has the time, resources or even cares enough to know this forum is here. And a few people did try to go to the links but said they were generic posts and had nothing to do with TA.
.

I fixed the links. It had nothing to do with TripAdvisor's power to have articles removed. They were simply badly formed addresses that requested pages that didn't exist. I fixed the links, they all work now.
.

Thanks for doing that, swirt. I'm sure it's time down a rathole for you...

 

[SweetiePie]

If you bothered to actually read the blog before attacking, you would know that I had already answered the question about the MA Attorney General. And yes, I like to back up my statements with facts.

Most of the links you have posted either go to generic blog pages that don't have anything to do with TA or they give outright 404 errors. I haven't read anything about the MA Attorney General on any of the pages that have been linked..

Thanks for pointing out the 404 errors. They have been corrected, and the links all relate to the subject in some way. Again, if you had actually read the blog you would know that there was never any link to the Attorney General's website.
.

Thanks for pointing out the 404 errors. They have been corrected, and the links all relate to the subject in some way. Again, if you had actually read the blog you would know that there was never any link to the Attorney General's website.

It is a little difficult to follow your changes when you go back and edit old posts rather than create a new one, with the correct links or whatever new information you are sharing. When a topic has a lot of responses, and many new ones, readers don't often go back through pages of posts to see that an old post has been edited.
To make it easier for everyone else, by blog post about the MA Attorney General you mean this forum post.
The post you edited with content about Tripadvisor from other blogs is this one. The other posts with links still give 404 errors.
.

I don't know what you're referring to because apparently your links don't work either. This is truly disturbing as the links worked when I posted them yesterday. I have replaced the link with a copy of the information.
Apparently Trip Advisor can dish it out but they can't take it. It is fine for them to defame us with their false reviews and send them around the world damaging our businesses; but when the shoe is on the other foot I guess they feel the need to coerce the writers or editors into removing them. Better to try and keep the cockroaches in the closet.
.

I don't know what you're referring to because apparently your links don't work either. This is truly disturbing as the links worked when I posted them yesterday. I have replaced the link with a copy of the information.
Apparently Trip Advisor can dish it out but they can't take it. It is fine for them to defame us with their false reviews and send them around the world damaging our businesses; but when the shoe is on the other foot I guess they feel the need to coerce the writers or editors into removing them. Better to try and keep the cockroaches in the closet.

Wait, are you saying your links here were removed by TA? Or threats from TA? Post the links again and let's see what happens. I know the first couple of posts you had here did not have any links at all, just the html code from the page. Which would mean everyone had to cut and paste to read what you were talking about.
I doubt TA has the time, resources or even cares enough to know this forum is here. And a few people did try to go to the links but said they were generic posts and had nothing to do with TA.
.

I fixed the links. It had nothing to do with TripAdvisor's power to have articles removed. They were simply badly formed addresses that requested pages that didn't exist. I fixed the links, they all work now.
.

Thanks for fixing those. I don't know exactly what was going on. I checked the links after I posted them initially and they worked. Then when it was pointed out that they were bad, I went and Googled the actual title of the article and got some 404 error pages myself. That's when I posted the actual content. Sorry if I caused you extra work.
I still can't see Muirford's links.

 

[SweetiePie]

I'm going to be removing all the copies of other people's blog posts and replace them with working links. It is inappropriate to copy an entire blog post from someone's site and paste it somewhere else without their permission. It's one thing to copy a small excerpt, but the entire post is too much to have on here without the author's permission..

I have a question on another topic entirely. How does Trip Advisor determine popularity on their site? Is it by reviews or some other method? Our competitor, who is an Expedia property, is listed as #1 and they have us listed as #2.
Howver, Alexa has us listed as #1 for our community and our competitor as #6. What gives?

 

[Morticia]

My point is - quit going to look at it. Quit worrying about them. It's not worth all the stress that some of you seem to be going through. Yes, people read the reviews but really - anybody with common sense reads through them and reads between the lines. If somebody is getting a lot of negative reviews there's probably a reason for them. I know that someone in this town got bad reviews and those reviews were deserved even though that accommodation owner denied that the bad stuff existed.
Anyway, I don't see people on Canadian or English boards being so concerned about Trip Advisor. You all need to just let it run it's course and put your faith in how you conduct your business.
None of us are perfect and the odd bad thing might be mentioned. So what? And in some cases "a complaint is a gift" if one just listens to it. If the review is false then ignore it.
I might add that when people 'solicit' their guests to post they could be asking for trouble. Some people will go out of their way to find something negative to post just because they feel that something can't be all good. When I talk about ignoring Trip Advisor I mean ignore it completely. Who cares where you place on it? Trip Advisor is NOT the primary spot on the web for finding accommodations!.

ginocat wrote, "Anyway, I don't see people on Canadian or English boards being so concerned about Trip Advisor."
I beg to disagree. The Europeans are equally upset, they just have more censorship over there to deal with. Check out this link. http://www.ourinns.org/news/2008/09/16/what-do-you-do-about-the-guest-comments-on-websites [edited by swirt to fix the broken link]
Of the sites I tried to post comments on, Mums Finance was the only one that would print them. Both Times Online and TravelMole censored them.
Even the Asians are upset. Check out this.
[edited by swirt to remove entire blog post and replace with link]
Trip Advisor Reviews and Ratings are Fraud
.

That one post on the Our Inns website doesn't really show that Europeans are up in arms about TA. They do mention 'review websites' and how guests may leave odd reviews for things that are outside the control of the inn. They don't seem to be railing against the review websites, just questioning how others respond to reviews about their properties.
The one from Chaing Mai doesn't seem to have engendered more than one response in months.
Heck, THIS site has gotten more responses to the TA thread in 6 minutes, much less than 6 months!

 

[Morticia]

I'm going to be removing all the copies of other people's blog posts and replace them with working links. It is inappropriate to copy an entire blog post from someone's site and paste it somewhere else without their permission. It's one thing to copy a small excerpt, but the entire post is too much to have on here without the author's permission..

I have a question on another topic entirely. How does Trip Advisor determine popularity on their site? Is it by reviews or some other method? Our competitor, who is an Expedia property, is listed as #1 and they have us listed as #2.
Howver, Alexa has us listed as #1 for our community and our competitor as #6. What gives?
.

I have a question on another topic entirely. How does Trip Advisor determine popularity on their site? Is it by reviews or some other method? Our competitor, who is an Expedia property, is listed as #1 and they have us listed as #2.
Howver, Alexa has us listed as #1 for our community and our competitor as #6. What gives?

There are a lot of things that go into the rankings...number of reviews, rating of reviews (how many stars, good and bad), newness of reviews, whether you've been written about by any reputable outside org like Frommers or the NYT (that MUST be an online source TA can check), other reviews on other review websites. I thought the Expedia thing had something to do with it, but, like I said, some of the worst reviews in this town are on Expedia-listed properties and they are right down at the bottom of the list.
Alexa is not a review website, so I don't see where that matters.
Does that help at all?

 

[EmptyNest]

I'm going to be removing all the copies of other people's blog posts and replace them with working links. It is inappropriate to copy an entire blog post from someone's site and paste it somewhere else without their permission. It's one thing to copy a small excerpt, but the entire post is too much to have on here without the author's permission..

I have a question on another topic entirely. How does Trip Advisor determine popularity on their site? Is it by reviews or some other method? Our competitor, who is an Expedia property, is listed as #1 and they have us listed as #2.
Howver, Alexa has us listed as #1 for our community and our competitor as #6. What gives?
.

That is TOP SECRET... I have asked and asked and have never gotten an answer from them. Maybe Jay who has met face to face with them has some idea. But I doubt it. I believe Expedia owns TA or vice versa...some direct connect there which I forget and really don't care. But...the number of positive reviews most definitely has to have something to do with it..since my best friends have been in the TOP 10 in the US for the past several years.
Every directory does things differently and they will never tell you how. That is their secret. Alexa is no big deal as far a I know. People don't go there to do or read reviews. Heck, I never even use it for a search.

 

[SweetiePie]

I'm going to be removing all the copies of other people's blog posts and replace them with working links. It is inappropriate to copy an entire blog post from someone's site and paste it somewhere else without their permission. It's one thing to copy a small excerpt, but the entire post is too much to have on here without the author's permission..

I have a question on another topic entirely. How does Trip Advisor determine popularity on their site? Is it by reviews or some other method? Our competitor, who is an Expedia property, is listed as #1 and they have us listed as #2.
Howver, Alexa has us listed as #1 for our community and our competitor as #6. What gives?
.

I have a question on another topic entirely. How does Trip Advisor determine popularity on their site? Is it by reviews or some other method? Our competitor, who is an Expedia property, is listed as #1 and they have us listed as #2.
Howver, Alexa has us listed as #1 for our community and our competitor as #6. What gives?

There are a lot of things that go into the rankings...number of reviews, rating of reviews (how many stars, good and bad), newness of reviews, whether you've been written about by any reputable outside org like Frommers or the NYT (that MUST be an online source TA can check), other reviews on other review websites. I thought the Expedia thing had something to do with it, but, like I said, some of the worst reviews in this town are on Expedia-listed properties and they are right down at the bottom of the list.
Alexa is not a review website, so I don't see where that matters.
Does that help at all?
.

Thanks for the info. I guess like AVIS, I'll always be #2 but trying harder. Alexa measures popularity based on traffic, number of hits to your website, number of page views, how high you rank on the internet, that sort of thing.
Well to paraphrase Forrest Gump, "Innkeeping is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get." Just like there are guests from hell, there are also guests from heaven and that's what I got last weekend. I guess God decided it was time to send in the clowns.
They loved everything and doubled tipped me and all of the staff. Boy, I can't remember the last time that happened. It was a nice boost to my self-confidence and reminded me why I started doing this in the first place. It's fun when it goes right.
Anyway, the best thing I got from the experience was how seasoned travelers view Trip Advisor. These people have been around the world and to most of the local places as well.
They can spot a fraudulent review a mile away, especially a negative one. The reason being that they have often already been to a place and know the owners and that the type of behavior being described would be very out of character for them.
You're right, they dismiss it out of hand. especially if a place has been around a long time. It wouldn't stay in business treating customers that way and they know that. I'm not sure of the newbies though. They might still be influenced by it.
Anyway, I rewrote my management response to the last negative review and resubmitted it. We'll see if they can handle the truth or not.

 

[Morticia]

I'm going to be removing all the copies of other people's blog posts and replace them with working links. It is inappropriate to copy an entire blog post from someone's site and paste it somewhere else without their permission. It's one thing to copy a small excerpt, but the entire post is too much to have on here without the author's permission..

I have a question on another topic entirely. How does Trip Advisor determine popularity on their site? Is it by reviews or some other method? Our competitor, who is an Expedia property, is listed as #1 and they have us listed as #2.
Howver, Alexa has us listed as #1 for our community and our competitor as #6. What gives?
.

I have a question on another topic entirely. How does Trip Advisor determine popularity on their site? Is it by reviews or some other method? Our competitor, who is an Expedia property, is listed as #1 and they have us listed as #2.
Howver, Alexa has us listed as #1 for our community and our competitor as #6. What gives?

There are a lot of things that go into the rankings...number of reviews, rating of reviews (how many stars, good and bad), newness of reviews, whether you've been written about by any reputable outside org like Frommers or the NYT (that MUST be an online source TA can check), other reviews on other review websites. I thought the Expedia thing had something to do with it, but, like I said, some of the worst reviews in this town are on Expedia-listed properties and they are right down at the bottom of the list.
Alexa is not a review website, so I don't see where that matters.
Does that help at all?
.

Thanks for the info. I guess like AVIS, I'll always be #2 but trying harder. Alexa measures popularity based on traffic, number of hits to your website, number of page views, how high you rank on the internet, that sort of thing.
Well to paraphrase Forrest Gump, "Innkeeping is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get." Just like there are guests from hell, there are also guests from heaven and that's what I got last weekend. I guess God decided it was time to send in the clowns.
They loved everything and doubled tipped me and all of the staff. Boy, I can't remember the last time that happened. It was a nice boost to my self-confidence and reminded me why I started doing this in the first place. It's fun when it goes right.
Anyway, the best thing I got from the experience was how seasoned travelers view Trip Advisor. These people have been around the world and to most of the local places as well.
They can spot a fraudulent review a mile away, especially a negative one. The reason being that they have often already been to a place and know the owners and that the type of behavior being described would be very out of character for them.
You're right, they dismiss it out of hand. especially if a place has been around a long time. It wouldn't stay in business treating customers that way and they know that. I'm not sure of the newbies though. They might still be influenced by it.
Anyway, I rewrote my management response to the last negative review and resubmitted it. We'll see if they can handle the truth or not.
.

Thanks for the info. I guess like AVIS, I'll always be #2 but trying harder. Alexa measures popularity based on traffic, number of hits to your website, number of page views, how high you rank on the internet, that sort of thing.
Well to paraphrase Forrest Gump, "Innkeeping is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get." Just like there are guests from hell, there are also guests from heaven and that's what I got last weekend. I guess God decided it was time to send in the clowns.
They loved everything and doubled tipped me and all of the staff. Boy, I can't remember the last time that happened. It was a nice boost to my self-confidence and reminded me why I started doing this in the first place. It's fun when it goes right.
Anyway, the best thing I got from the experience was how seasoned travelers view Trip Advisor. These people have been around the world and to most of the local places as well.
They can spot a fraudulent review a mile away, especially a negative one. The reason being that they have often already been to a place and know the owners and that the type of behavior being described would be very out of character for them.
You're right, they dismiss it out of hand. especially if a place has been around a long time. It wouldn't stay in business treating customers that way and they know that. I'm not sure of the newbies though. They might still be influenced by it.
Anyway, I rewrote my management response to the last negative review and resubmitted it. We'll see if they can handle the truth or not.

We've discussed Alexa here before and in case you do not know this...if you have the Aleza toolbar installed you are automatically raising your rating if your own website is your homepage. Obviously, every time you fire up your web browser, you are accessing your own homepage, which makes it look like you are getting lots of hits that are actually just you.
I mention this because my comp ranks really high on Alexa and I don't. I was bummed and wondering what I was doing wrong. Then Swirt explained that just by downloading the Alexa toolbar I could increase my ranking.
The point being, who cares? No one uses Alexa for web browsing. It's really a 'geek' tool, not a guest tool.
When anyone is looking for a place to stay where you are located, the most important thing for you to do is come up quickly and high on Google. That's where you're going to get your business. If there are not a lot of other lodging properties near you, TA won't even show up on the first few pages. Seriously, most people don't go to TA FIRST, they go there later IF they have a decision to make. If you're the only game in town (or close to) they'll book without looking for reviews.
I don't know if you're in a really 'crowded' area like I am, or if you have the field to yourself. I have to work to keep my site showing high (above the 5 slot on Google) in order to get the bookings. But, that still means there are 4 other B&B's that will get called first and if they're not booked, I'm out of luck. I don't want to wait until the other 30 rooms are filled before I start getting calls!
Also, if you have a specialty niche, that helps. There's not a lot I can do here given the zoning constraints and the space constraints in the building. So we work our repeat guest list.