Trip advisor and why I hate it - grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

[OurInns]

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
.

Just came across this thread, but thought it was useful to reply even with the tardiness on my part...
Us folk in Europe who are aware of the likes of TA are none too pleased about them. The reasons that you don't hear so much about them on your side of the water is that many B&B owners don't look themselves up terribly often and they tend not to list themselves as, by and large, a "B&B" doesn't really see itself as an inn/small hotel as is the case for the guests too. Also, there's the aspect that most guests on this side of the water just don't bother to complain to the same extent as appears to be more commonplace in the US & Canada.
That said, there are complaints about TA in particular as you'd see from searches of, for example, www.completefrance.com (see the B&B owners forum). For reasons that I don't understand, there doesn't appear to be any equivalent to yourselves or completefrance for the British/Irish market thus owners in those markets are largely left to their own devices.
What's worrying is that TA and one or two other sites seem to be more actively encouraging criticism of accommodation of late. Sure, there will be bad accommodations around but if/when the criticism becomes pretty much all negative and with no comeback for the owners, how is anyone going to be able to separate the truly bad places from those which may have done something perceived as a mistake on the part of a guest?
Having said all that our best ever complaint was a very detailed one from a guest that basically blamed us on everything that went wrong with their holiday. Funnily enough, the entire comedy of errors was down to them not changing the timezone on their watch. Boy did they look really stupid when that was pointed out to them.

 

[gillumhouse]

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
.

Just came across this thread, but thought it was useful to reply even with the tardiness on my part...
Us folk in Europe who are aware of the likes of TA are none too pleased about them. The reasons that you don't hear so much about them on your side of the water is that many B&B owners don't look themselves up terribly often and they tend not to list themselves as, by and large, a "B&B" doesn't really see itself as an inn/small hotel as is the case for the guests too. Also, there's the aspect that most guests on this side of the water just don't bother to complain to the same extent as appears to be more commonplace in the US & Canada.
That said, there are complaints about TA in particular as you'd see from searches of, for example, www.completefrance.com (see the B&B owners forum). For reasons that I don't understand, there doesn't appear to be any equivalent to yourselves or completefrance for the British/Irish market thus owners in those markets are largely left to their own devices.
What's worrying is that TA and one or two other sites seem to be more actively encouraging criticism of accommodation of late. Sure, there will be bad accommodations around but if/when the criticism becomes pretty much all negative and with no comeback for the owners, how is anyone going to be able to separate the truly bad places from those which may have done something perceived as a mistake on the part of a guest?
Having said all that our best ever complaint was a very detailed one from a guest that basically blamed us on everything that went wrong with their holiday. Funnily enough, the entire comedy of errors was down to them not changing the timezone on their watch. Boy did they look really stupid when that was pointed out to them.
.

Welcome to the Forum. I hope you will come chime in. We do like to hear other opinions. Hope you had a nice Easter.

 

[Copperhead]

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
.

Just came across this thread, but thought it was useful to reply even with the tardiness on my part...
Us folk in Europe who are aware of the likes of TA are none too pleased about them. The reasons that you don't hear so much about them on your side of the water is that many B&B owners don't look themselves up terribly often and they tend not to list themselves as, by and large, a "B&B" doesn't really see itself as an inn/small hotel as is the case for the guests too. Also, there's the aspect that most guests on this side of the water just don't bother to complain to the same extent as appears to be more commonplace in the US & Canada.
That said, there are complaints about TA in particular as you'd see from searches of, for example, www.completefrance.com (see the B&B owners forum). For reasons that I don't understand, there doesn't appear to be any equivalent to yourselves or completefrance for the British/Irish market thus owners in those markets are largely left to their own devices.
What's worrying is that TA and one or two other sites seem to be more actively encouraging criticism of accommodation of late. Sure, there will be bad accommodations around but if/when the criticism becomes pretty much all negative and with no comeback for the owners, how is anyone going to be able to separate the truly bad places from those which may have done something perceived as a mistake on the part of a guest?
Having said all that our best ever complaint was a very detailed one from a guest that basically blamed us on everything that went wrong with their holiday. Funnily enough, the entire comedy of errors was down to them not changing the timezone on their watch. Boy did they look really stupid when that was pointed out to them.
.

Having said all that our best ever complaint was a very detailed one from a guest that basically blamed us on everything that went wrong with their holiday. Funnily enough, the entire comedy of errors was down to them not changing the timezone on their watch. Boy did they look really stupid when that was pointed out to them.

Yes -Welcome to the forum. Hope you join us often as we love to get opinions.
Regarding the complaint, they most likely felt that that was your error, not theirs as you should have told them. (Ha Ha) It is truely sad when people must blame others for their own troubles.

 

[wozzell]

You can always write a management response to the comment Maybe a good thing to do. Someone hear actually even comments with thank you's to the poster.

You cannot post a management response as Tripadvisor will not allow you to defend yourself, they have virtually no rules for "The guest" but make it impossible for the establishment to defend themselves, look at tripadvisors rules on this.

 

[EmptyNest]

You can always write a management response to the comment Maybe a good thing to do. Someone hear actually even comments with thank you's to the poster.

You cannot post a management response as Tripadvisor will not allow you to defend yourself, they have virtually no rules for "The guest" but make it impossible for the establishment to defend themselves, look at tripadvisors rules on this.
.

Of course you can post a management response. Many here have done it numerous times.

 

[JBloggs]

You can always write a management response to the comment Maybe a good thing to do. Someone hear actually even comments with thank you's to the poster.

You cannot post a management response as Tripadvisor will not allow you to defend yourself, they have virtually no rules for "The guest" but make it impossible for the establishment to defend themselves, look at tripadvisors rules on this.
.

You cannot post a management response as Tripadvisor will not allow you to defend yourself, they have virtually no rules for "The guest" but make it impossible for the establishment to defend themselves, look at tripadvisors rules on this.

Not sure why you say this, I have posted management responses as have many innkeepers on this forum. I think using the words "defend yourself" twice might be saying a mgmt response you posted was knocked back?
You have to be very careful in what you say, which is a smart thing to do anyway, coming from mgmt of the Inn in question.

 

[wozzell]

I had 2 "ladies" stay at my hotel, they had sent me many emails prior to there arrival asking for me to arrange activities I.E. climbing, cycling etc which I did.
When they booked they paid a small deposit to reserve the room for 4 nights, I sent them a confirmation email stating that the balance must be paid either 7 days prior to the visit or on arrival. (This is a Guardia Civil directive here in our part of Spain as people have booked into a hotel, eaten in the restaurant and had drinks in the bar all put on a tab and then have done a midnight flit not paying the bill and it turns out that they have used false ID to book into the hotel).
When they arrived it was raining, they were asked to pay the balance on arrival, they started shouting that they have never known anything like it and refused to pay, we informed them that they had been sent an email with payment details plainly shown, they called me a F%^$*!^g liar.
I printed off a copy of the confirmation email, they paid without an apology and went to their room, from that minute they complained incessantly about everything, they complained that the bathroom was fitted for disabled people, they complained that there was pollen coming from the trees, complained about the evening meal, complained about breakfast, complained about the staff, the weather, the quiet mountain road etc etc.
The 1st morning that they came in for breakfast they told me that they wanted to leave and wanted a full refund including the deposit and the full payment for the room, they also refused to pay the restaurant and bar bill, If I did not agree to this they threatened to leave us bad feedback on Tripadvisor, I told them that we do not cower down and just accept blackmail. (I knew that all of this time I was recording the conversation on CCTV).
A week later they left me a damning review full of lies on Tripadvisor, I contacted Tripadvisor stating that I have a CCTV recording of these women blackmailing me and using Tripadvisor as the tool, they refused to remove the review, I sent them a copy of the recording and they have replied stating how can I prove that this is actually the reviewers that left the review??!!
Many many hotels are now taking Tripadvisor to court to get them to remove the hotels from TA, I have a 95% excellent reviews on TA but would much rather not be associated with them, they are dishonest, unapproachable and as rude as the guests, Don't get me wrong the concept of Tripadvisor is excellent but it needs to be operated by a company that has enough morals to allow the Hoteliers and Inn keepers to defend themselves.

 

[wozzell]

I agree that TA is here to stay, but I also think it needs changes, and those changes won't happen unless people try to push them. I think some people rage against TA because they don't have the option to opt-out, so they feel held hostage.
Properties should be able to opt out of TA and make themselves unavailable for reviews. It might be bad for their business, but that should be their choice.
This would also put some pressure on TA to keep things fair to properties. TA might have quicker response times to complaints about unjustified/fraudulent reviews if it meant they might lose some properties. It would also give properties an out if they were getting a lot of TA blackmail from troublesome/prospective guests.
TA needs the properties as much as the properties need TA. But as it is now, the balance of power is with TA. It would be nice to see them have a little more accountability to the industry..

Absolutely, the concept is great but TA need to accept that not all guests are angels, they need to accept that there are 2 sides to every story and allow hotels to defend themselves.

 

[Morticia]

You can always write a management response to the comment Maybe a good thing to do. Someone hear actually even comments with thank you's to the poster.

You cannot post a management response as Tripadvisor will not allow you to defend yourself, they have virtually no rules for "The guest" but make it impossible for the establishment to defend themselves, look at tripadvisors rules on this.
.

You cannot post a management response as Tripadvisor will not allow you to defend yourself, they have virtually no rules for "The guest" but make it impossible for the establishment to defend themselves, look at tripadvisors rules on this.

TA does not allow you to call the guest a liar or a thief, no matter what the guest calls you. A long as you stick strictly to your part, you can pretty much reply with what you want. Believe me, I've seen owners go on like they're writing a college thesis.
So, if said guest says, 'The place is a dump,' and you say, 'The place is not a dump,' you've called the guest a liar. As 'The Management' you are held to higher standards. It's a GOOD thing. That way the whole system doesn't turn into a mud slinging fest. Altho, those types of reviews are the ones that get attention.
Don't look at it as 'defending' yourself because you will come off as an idiot and anyone who reads it will think the guest is right. State the facts, answer the problems, move on. If the review is totally false, contact TA.

 

[Breakfast Diva]

I had 2 "ladies" stay at my hotel, they had sent me many emails prior to there arrival asking for me to arrange activities I.E. climbing, cycling etc which I did.
When they booked they paid a small deposit to reserve the room for 4 nights, I sent them a confirmation email stating that the balance must be paid either 7 days prior to the visit or on arrival. (This is a Guardia Civil directive here in our part of Spain as people have booked into a hotel, eaten in the restaurant and had drinks in the bar all put on a tab and then have done a midnight flit not paying the bill and it turns out that they have used false ID to book into the hotel).
When they arrived it was raining, they were asked to pay the balance on arrival, they started shouting that they have never known anything like it and refused to pay, we informed them that they had been sent an email with payment details plainly shown, they called me a F%^$*!^g liar.
I printed off a copy of the confirmation email, they paid without an apology and went to their room, from that minute they complained incessantly about everything, they complained that the bathroom was fitted for disabled people, they complained that there was pollen coming from the trees, complained about the evening meal, complained about breakfast, complained about the staff, the weather, the quiet mountain road etc etc.
The 1st morning that they came in for breakfast they told me that they wanted to leave and wanted a full refund including the deposit and the full payment for the room, they also refused to pay the restaurant and bar bill, If I did not agree to this they threatened to leave us bad feedback on Tripadvisor, I told them that we do not cower down and just accept blackmail. (I knew that all of this time I was recording the conversation on CCTV).
A week later they left me a damning review full of lies on Tripadvisor, I contacted Tripadvisor stating that I have a CCTV recording of these women blackmailing me and using Tripadvisor as the tool, they refused to remove the review, I sent them a copy of the recording and they have replied stating how can I prove that this is actually the reviewers that left the review??!!
Many many hotels are now taking Tripadvisor to court to get them to remove the hotels from TA, I have a 95% excellent reviews on TA but would much rather not be associated with them, they are dishonest, unapproachable and as rude as the guests, Don't get me wrong the concept of Tripadvisor is excellent but it needs to be operated by a company that has enough morals to allow the Hoteliers and Inn keepers to defend themselves..

I understand your anger and frustration. I have been in the same blackmail type situation. Right now I'm in ANOTHER struggle with TA in which I feel that they are not listening to me. This time it has to do with my listing and not a guest review.
The fact is that we have no control, so we must manage our properties on their site the best we can. To have a productive management response, you really need to put your anger in check. VERY difficult to do. Write a response stating some facts, but remember, angry nasty management responses will only hurt you when the public reads your response.
I've only had to do 2 responses, but the last one I received input from guests who had subsequently booked with us saying that they chose to stay with us because of the way we handled the bad review.
TA is certainly not an ideal situation and I wish it wasn't there, but in reality it's not going away, so we have to make the best of it.
I'm so sorry you have been treated the way you have with both your horrible guests and TA.

 

[Morticia]

I had 2 "ladies" stay at my hotel, they had sent me many emails prior to there arrival asking for me to arrange activities I.E. climbing, cycling etc which I did.
When they booked they paid a small deposit to reserve the room for 4 nights, I sent them a confirmation email stating that the balance must be paid either 7 days prior to the visit or on arrival. (This is a Guardia Civil directive here in our part of Spain as people have booked into a hotel, eaten in the restaurant and had drinks in the bar all put on a tab and then have done a midnight flit not paying the bill and it turns out that they have used false ID to book into the hotel).
When they arrived it was raining, they were asked to pay the balance on arrival, they started shouting that they have never known anything like it and refused to pay, we informed them that they had been sent an email with payment details plainly shown, they called me a F%^$*!^g liar.
I printed off a copy of the confirmation email, they paid without an apology and went to their room, from that minute they complained incessantly about everything, they complained that the bathroom was fitted for disabled people, they complained that there was pollen coming from the trees, complained about the evening meal, complained about breakfast, complained about the staff, the weather, the quiet mountain road etc etc.
The 1st morning that they came in for breakfast they told me that they wanted to leave and wanted a full refund including the deposit and the full payment for the room, they also refused to pay the restaurant and bar bill, If I did not agree to this they threatened to leave us bad feedback on Tripadvisor, I told them that we do not cower down and just accept blackmail. (I knew that all of this time I was recording the conversation on CCTV).
A week later they left me a damning review full of lies on Tripadvisor, I contacted Tripadvisor stating that I have a CCTV recording of these women blackmailing me and using Tripadvisor as the tool, they refused to remove the review, I sent them a copy of the recording and they have replied stating how can I prove that this is actually the reviewers that left the review??!!
Many many hotels are now taking Tripadvisor to court to get them to remove the hotels from TA, I have a 95% excellent reviews on TA but would much rather not be associated with them, they are dishonest, unapproachable and as rude as the guests, Don't get me wrong the concept of Tripadvisor is excellent but it needs to be operated by a company that has enough morals to allow the Hoteliers and Inn keepers to defend themselves..

What kind of reply have you written that TA won't accept? No, you can't come out and say they tried to blackmail you, but get creative with the response and it might get thru. You can even poke fun at the guests by saying you had no control over the rain, the pollen, whatever. If they mentioned your policies, restate your policies right in the review. Yes, we require full payment on arrival as per our local ordinances.
BTW, sorry you got them, they sound like royal pains.
Europe is going full tilt at TA and that will probably make it a better system for all as TA does not want to be mandated to allow hotels to opt out.
We have had innkeepers on here have reviews taken down. You might want to try contacting TA again, you might get someone next time who will help you. I'm the 'publish and be damned' sort as well. I won't take a threat of a bad review as leverage for the guest to get something they shouldn't.
However, a pre-emptive strike on those 2 was not out of bounds. 'We're terribly sorry we do not seem to be meeting your needs. Here is your refund, here is a list of other places you can stay, we'll help get your bags to the car. Have a nice day.' (BEFORE they started making demands.)

 

[swirt]

This threadis very old and has gotten so convoluted and so long that it is difficult to follow the new additions.
I don't usually like to do this but I am going to lock this thread and ask that new topics be started if you want the conversation to continue. Welcome to all the newcomers who have found us by way of this lightning rod of a thread