TripAdvisor review: knowingly allows fake reviews, deceiving the visitors to the website and defrauding hotel owners 43

They remove reviews about house of rajah jewelers in st Thomas usvi they are a rip off store got me for 8,000 and they removed my review and someone else got ripped off .

They use the excuse it violated are standards but I read there standards and it did not rajah is paying to have them removed

tripadvisor would not remove inaccurate review, the description that was left is not true, and the photos do not relate to the caravan park, some of the photos are from restricted areas not open to the public, so cannot be seen by the public,

Please remove all bad reviews I have posted on Palacio jewelers, it was the wrong store. Thank you. Darryl willaman

Please remove all bad reviews I have posted on Palacio jewelers, it was the wrong store. Thank you. Darryl willaman

Completely in agreement that TripAdvisor only lets the reviewer tell the GOOD part of the experience - and doesn't allow honest negative reviews to be posted. In addition, the forum Destination Experts can be nothing but a bunch of bullies, and take down any negative forum post by voting you inappropriate. I understand forum posts are removed automatically if enough people vote them inappropriate - which makes sense - there's no way TA can moderate all forum posts. I used to trust TripAdvisor - but after a horrible trip to the US Virgin Islands - I know how slanted the picture is. There should be a site that encourages all reviews, both positive and negative.

It's not possible to delete one business listing on TripAdvisor. They say they check the closure of the business, how can they do it ? So they display many OBSOLETE listings, it's THE proof of their no honnesty.
I think it's totally ILLEGAL to refuse to delete YOUR own details. It would be very powerful that all spoiled people like us join together to complain !

I put my review out there, but they pulled it because it was negative. They obviously don't allow the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I used to put a lot of faith in those reviews. No more It's BS and other travelers need to know that.

Our establishment has now fallen foul of Tripadvisor. A person, who was staying in someone else s room, wrote a scathing report to which we replied. Now he is conducting a campaign against our hotel, under different pseudonyms, with the approval of Trip Advisor.
Hoteliers should be very wary of having anything to do with this lot as there are far more restrictions on hoteliers than any malicious Tom, Dick or Harry who feels like causing harm to their business. We have tried to sever our contacts with Trip Advisor but they, in a way, are blackmailing us by continuing to accept reviews from people who have never even stayed in our place and refusing to desist.
We have had complaints about the way we run our business by reasonable people who address them to us personally and we are always willing to listen to them. The first complaint we had on Tripadvisor was from a woman who was obviously mad and tried to run away without paying her bill.. Tripadvisor refused to acept that there are mad people and, if they were, pointing that out would not be suitable for children.

TRIP ADVISOR and Flipkey -FRAUD
I booked apartment in central London via Tripadvisor paying also for their "peace of mind policy" insurance (88 $). I gave visa card number and instead of blocking money on my account they collected it immediately.
I tried to contact the owner Martin C., I wrote him several times on his e-mail stated on flipkey but he did not respond. So I called the number provided in booking and man picked up: he said that I got the wrong number, that he is Martin indeed but he does not rent any apartments...
I tried to find property on flipkey or trip advisor but...It was not listed anymore...They removed it as they "found out that this individual does not have right to rent those apartments" but they were happy to keep my money on tripadvisor account (quite profitable business if you think about number of clients) and they didn't bother to inform me about the situation!
I contacted flipkey and they said they will "cancel" my booking of non-existing property and return me money. I got 1 day to find a hotel in London and I do not have to mention that prices were overwhelming.
Trip advisor returned my money (US$2358.00) after 10 days (payment on 4.04, return on my account on 18.04) but... I am from Poland so to my horror I noticed that I miss 910, 47 PLN (about 300 $, which is actually half of my monthly salary) - there was the spread!
I paid the insurance so of course I complained to tripadvisor to give me back that difference: without any result, they said that they reimbursed fee in full (so even if that was totally their fault, I had to bear the cost of this transaction).
Their insurance is obviously meaningless. Contact with support desk is not so easy and stress I had trying to find accommodation for 5 people just before departure was terrible.
It is a disgrace for renown service to behave like this. So: never ever again!
Summary:
- seek other agencies DO NOT book via Trip advisor or Flipkey, - they do not take any responsibility of whatsoever they advertise, just your double fees you are paying
-never give them your card number- they do not block money like booking.com but collect it and keep on own account. They call it safe way- think for yourself for whom it is safe and profitable. Pay after arrival and if it is not possible, seek other accommodation (that was advice from their support desk 1 day before my departure, when money for my hotel in London were still on their account!)
-do not bother with this insurance- it is worthless- they said it covers up to 10.000 $ but just try to get something of cost you paid (actually they should also give me back money for my hotel- it was much more than cost of this apartment)

Tripadvisor and Yelp are both jokes! They want you to say what they want you to say! There is no real freedom of speech especially when it comes to a business owner. Tripadvisor and Yelp wants and expects you to behave like one of their robots and let customers write whatever they want about your business whether they have actually used your business or not! It does not even matter to them if the review that was written is a total lie! Tripadvisor and Yelp violate the First Amendment and that is the freedom of Speech they do not allow business owners to even defend themselves. I think that they both should both have the holy hell sued out of their companies for such illegal practices. I think it is time that business owners unite and file class action suits against both of these companies.

I live in Phuket Thailand, and top 10 shopping places here recommended on trip advisor are tailor shops. How can someone get 300 excellent reviews in 10 months! They now hire private IT people sitting in their shops doing all the reviews! My friend - a coffee shop owner was approached by 1 of these IT guy saying they would charge $5 per review if my friend did want fake excellent review.
My friend complained tripadvisor..and guess what TA said? Please send proof. They can't even check if these people actually have fake reviews or not. But the sad part is...people with most reviews (fake) are getting the most business...

IT IS UNBELIEVABLE THAT TRIP ADVISOR IS ALLOWING PEOPLE TO INSULT US ON THE WEB AND THAT WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO REMOVE OURSELVES FROM THEIR WEBSITE.
I AM A BUSINESS OWNER AND WANTED TO CONTACT TRIP ADVISOR BUT THEY HAVE SET NEW RULES THAT MAKE IT ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO CONTACT THEM: I.E. SEND US YOUR CREDIT INFORMATION (WHY WOULD WE WANT TO DO THIS?) OR FAX YOUR COMPANY PAPERS AND QUEUE UNTIL THE STAFF OF T.A. CHECKS YOUR CREDENTIALS. TRIP ADVISOR REFLECTS ONLY THE DEGREE OF COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE OF THE BUSINESS OWNERS (OR THEIR STAFF), WHETHER THEY ADVERTISE WITH THEM, OR HOW MUCH THEY HUSTLE THEIR CLIENTS. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE QUALITY OF YOUR BUSINESS.

I am a restaurant owner and have made several requests to Trip Advisor to remove blatant fake reviews but I receive the usual "it's within the guidelines" answer. I told them that the day a Court would force them to allow us to remove ourselves from their website, I would be the first to do it. Meanwhile I would discourage my guests from writing to TA, allowing my restaurant to slowly slip behind on 3rd or 4th page where people rarely check.
I also posted a "WE DO NOT TRUST TRIP ADVISOR" banner on my website with the logo here attached.
Incredibly, a few days later our rating slipped from 7 to 14th position in one time!

The latest craziness from TripAdvisor is that they threaten to redcard you if you write a fake review to praise your business.
Now you won't have to worry about fake reviews from disgruntled customers or competitors (which, in most cases TA staff don't bother to remove because they "follows the guidelines", even if the claim by the customer is outrageous), BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT FAKE REVIEWS PRAISING YOUR BUSINESS.
Let's hope TA continues this way, because this will be the best way to be removed entirely from the internet, or at least a good lawsuit will force them to allow us to remove ourselves from this nightmare of a website

Le droit pour un hôtel de ne pas figurer sur TripAdvisor :
http://suiv.me/1592

From: alain_bigeard@hotmail.com
To: contentintegrity@tripadvisor.com
Subject: The right for a hotel to decide of not being listed on TripAdvisor [ ref:00DAI0Rf.500F7d6L1:ref ]
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2011 18:22:29 +0200

Our answer:
1 - TripAdvisor put hotels in the obligation of being present on their website. It is an attempt to property and commerce.
2 - I took no decision to be on TripAdvisor. 
3 - A hotel like Caron de Beaumarchais consequently has to work for the reputation of TripAdvisor, we help your 1rst position on internet
4 - Consequently my hotel is helping the profit of your close relations: companies advertising on your pages (and on my page), hotel reservations companies or partners like Expedia, Booking.com. I have no part on it and I do not want to be in relation.
5 - TripAdvisor is a website of information for Travelers and should have no link to commerce and profit. Advising is not advertising. No more confusion.TripAdvisor is doing profit on a second hand, with its partners on the page of my hotel. Since I do not want to be part of TripAdvisor, this is not and no more acceptable.
Consequently, if this is my decisision, you have to suppress immediately my name and page on TripAdvisor.

Other points:
- My hotel is also helping other hotels and serve the profit of Expedia and Booking.com, without my approval. Travelers click on Caron de Beaumarchais on TripAdvisor, they are directed to other places by many ways and links. Thank you to Caron de Beaumarchais, but I did not want it, charity is not honesty. It is not my decision since I do not want to be on TripAdvisor. When I advise other hotels to my guests, I do it on a "fully booked" answer, I do it purposely, as a service, to travelers that wish to stay on my place. 
- To have a decent page on TripAdvisor, and this is the only thing I can do, I am in the obligation of paying a service to TripAdvisor: I can 
choose a photo to represent correctly my hotel and to have a link to my website address, and telephone. Since I cannot decide to be on TripAdvisor, I have to pay for something decent?
- To have a better image and position (more photos, better presentation) I should sign with Expedia or Booking.com and improve consequently your business?
My answer: NO 
Remember : 2 years ago I sent you back the laurel you gave my hotel for its good position on TripAdvisor. On what right and position are you abble to note hotels and send laurels ? You also suggest to hotels to add the laurel on their webpages ? To add a link of TripAdvisor?

My request is extremely simple:
I request the immediate suppression of the name and pages of Hotel Caron de Beaumarchais on TripAdvisor. I demand respect of our name and of our image, as well as the respect for our decision.

Awaiting the simple suppression of my listing on TripAdvisor,
With all my best regards,
Alain BIGEARD
Manager & owner
Hôtel Caron de Beaumarchais, Paris

> Hello,
>
> Thank you for contacting TripAdvisor.
>
> TripAdvisor LLC, is a travel research website and it is our goal to have a comprehensive list of resources for travelers. Therefore, we do not remove listings for properties still in business.
>
>
> Best Regards,
> Eric
> TripAdvisor Support Team

Tripadvisor is a horrible website that doesnt pay any attention to the hotelowners, even if you pay the monthly contribution for some minor extra´s. I wrote and called them several times with different questions (among others about sustainable fake reviews killing our business), but not 1 time they were answered. On the moment that I wrote them that we wanted to stop paying for the non-service that they provide, the next day I received an answer...

Reported in UK Daily Mail 10 May 11
Downtown Inn, Chiang Mai, Thailand report of 7 deaths between January & March 2011 allegedly caused by Fumigation of rooms because of Bed Bugs.

This type of information should be available, where applicable.

If the great USA, one of the most democratic and free country in the world, keep on ignoring the EXPEDIA-TRIPADVISOR scam, what will be the value of justice?
There should be some consumers' association or some judge really interested in law enforcement !
...MR. OBAMA WHERE IS THE AMERICAN JUSTICE?

In Florida USA it is a criminal offense to anonymously defame and libel - and the owner of the publication is also liable. Florida Statute 836
NAME THEM AND SHAME THEM - tripadvisorfakereviews.com - check it out - and email a description of the Guest from Hell - if he can do it to you - you can do it to him - with a difference - you do not libel and defame - but he does.

i am european but i will speak as an american now:
Tripadvisor sucks !

Tripadvisor is absolutely NOT trustworthy website.
It has many many false and fake reviews ! There is NO verification whatsoever about reviews at all !

Tripadvisors (owned by Expedia!) hidden agenda will not hold much longer and
the site will soon be known as unreliable.

Tripadvisor Lies! It posts negative reviews without checking and when you report to them they stop guests from posting positive reviews! heck positive reviews go missing!

Expedia owns Tripadvisor.
Tripadvisor it's an ILLEGITIMATE web-site already reported to the court in EUROPE ( waiting for the judgement on next 2011 ).
USA, after 11th Setmber 2001 has paid great attention to terrorism and ANONIMOUS behaviours.
It's unbelivable that nobody in the USA has already reported Tripadvisor as an ILLEGAL EDITOR which protect anonimous reviwers who most of the time, being protected by this unlowful system, they produce libellious contents.
It's unbelivable that the AMERICAN JURIDICAL system is NOT protecting turism enterprises from this UNFAIR competition system created, owned and managed by EXPEDIA!
Expedia-Tripadvisor don't reveal the true identity of the writer, if they are asked, in ored to protect the on-line reputation.
REVIEWS are a good value to protect travelers from being cheated and to promote the hotels and B&B which DESERVE, but...ONLY WHEN TRUE, RELIABLE, linked to a real traveller and to a real paid booking and generated by someone who is responsible for what it's written in the review!
EXPEDIA-TRIPADVISOR are abusing the real value of the reviews and are damaging the free and fair market.

Alla Dolce Vita

I totally agree that Trip Advisor is an appalling site that is so unfair. It is unbelievable that they can get away with it. When I owned a hotel a guest reported a gold and diamon necklace had been stolen. They were abusive aggressive and out of control. It was eventually found in a vacum cleaner and it was the cheapest piece of tat you can imagine. The horrible things they said on Trip Advisor is still there 5 years later and the new owner cannot get rid of it. And has since her some nasty and completely untrue comments on her site. This is so wrong.

"Reviews you CAN NOT trust' this is their slogan that suits to tripadvisor best!
They are dishonest, they cover bad hotels that paid them. Hate tripadvisor and hotel Alle Guglie that real scam!

Don't get mad, get even! At www.yeqqo.com we are fighting back against these reviews sites!

Get the good comments out of your guestbook and put them on the review sites, where they belong with Yeqqo!

Simple to use, give it a go.

I am an English hotelier in Spain, I had a guest try to blackmail me using Tripadvisor as a weapon, I caught the whole thing on CCTV, I refused to give in to these demands and within a couple of days the bad feedback was left on Tripadvisor, I then complained to Tripadvisor and was asked to send a copy of the CCTV, Tripadvisor refused to remove the review even though they could see what was going on.
I am now in the process with the police and Guardia Civil in Spain of taking this couple to court for blackmail, the couple have now offered me money to stop the court case which I cannot do as it is criminal not civil, I am going to take this to the end and then let as many media know as possible how easy it is for a guest to manipulate Tripadvisor who allow anonymous reviews from anonymous people without any verification whatsoever.

tripadvisor is owned my Expedia, Expedia deal with hotel groups so Tripadvisor do their best to ruin the reputations of as many small hotels as possible.

400 hotels are getting together to take out a class action against Tripadvisor, Tripadvisor are heading for a fall and I can't wait.

This week alone they have refused good reviews for my hotel because it keeps the bad review at the top of the pile.

I am very vocal on the web about my distaste for Tripadvisor and because of that they are now targeting me.

I can not trust triadvisor at all. There are many fake reviews and unreasonable reviews in it. How can I prove that the review is true and really sincere?

Absolutely agree. I do not think that tripadvisor.com should allow posting of any personal names and personal attacks. Unfortunately even if they claim this to be their policy names are there. I recently posted a very negative experience about scam by Victoria Group, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria with involved Hotels4U, Med Hotels, HolodayHotels.com and the hotels Chaika Beach and Victoria Palace, Sunny Beach Bulgaria. I was directed by support to post on the forums. We booked with Hotels4U and our credit card was charged and booking confirmed. We asked disability accomodations. On arrival the Bulgarian hotel Guest Manger said we have no booking, we asked our money back and he said to get the money from UK. The merchant was unreachable and we were placed in a flooded moldy room where the AC did not work.

All critical comments on tripadvisor Sunny Beach forum are heavily bullied. I complained and support did not take any action. On asking the users to stop with the personal attacks and adhere to terms of service, thripadvisor.com CSR did bully me . I feel this is done to manipulate social media. The users making personal attacks and excuses for the hotel never been guests of the hotel. I add a picture of the moldy room we had to stay - this is a 5 star hotel. A picture says 1000 words. Any critical to the resourt comment on the Sunny Beach, Bulgaria forum was received with strong attacks. Further the Distination Advisors who were very loud on the attack do not even master Bulgarian language, which is like redicule.

I know for a fact that Trip Advisor does not verify the validity of reviews on their website, this is what they wrote me when I complained about a fake review few years back:

“We determined that the review does meet our review criteria and will remain posted on the site. Since reviews are posted by our members on our open forum, and we do not verify the information posted in them, we are unable to provide you with proof that this member ‘reserved, stayed or actually visited ideal hotel’.”

here is a summery of that incident:
http://www.elliott.org/blog/we-are-not-crooks/

Regards,
Nawar
ex-hotel manager

I hate tripadvisor now

I am at a loss for words. After fighting with Tripadvisor about a review posted about our hotel by an abusive guest who threatened our staff and was asked to leave the property because he would not abide by the Muslim laws of his own country and produce marriage papers in order to share a room of the opposite sex, this was the response:

"We have looked at the review in question and determined that it does meet TripAdvisor's listing criteria. Therefore, it will not be removed. Please understand that TripAdvisor is not an arbitrator of disputes between guests and hoteliers, but is merely an open forum for guests to express their experiences. In order for us to maintain our integrity as an open forum, we must allow our members to freely express their opinions as long as they meet our listing criteria. Our decision to allow this review to remain on the site is not an indictment of your hotel or the situation in question in any way; we are simply staying consistent with our policy."

They then go on to say:

"Bear in mind that members are encouraged to take the whole of a property's reviews into account when judging a property. If the majority of the other reviews are positive, they are likely to see a negative as a mere aberration. We encourage you to submit a management response and allow our members to draw their own conclusions."

How are these said "members" supposed to know that TripAdvisor allows fake, biased, rude, defaming, backstabbing lies to this site as all over the site it goes on about "30 million trusted traveller reviews & opinions"

I have since then had another couple try stay in the hotel under the same circumstances and when told they had to have seperate rooms (this is not our rule but the law in this country) they too went to this "trusted" site and posted another pack of lies about our business. Again - I was forwarded the standard reply to any review dispute = see above...

In other words - even when the guest has abused the staff of the hotel, named names of the hotel staff, lied about circumstances which led to events at the hotel and tried to break the law in a religious country they may still go ahead and harm the reputation of this business. I find this preposterous and absolutely against the rights of the hard working, rule abiding hoteliers.

I would now like to remove my hotel from their site (as I never even put it there in the first place) AND apparently I am not even able to do this? I am stunned and beg any other business owner who may in any way be able to help me fight this ridiculous scandalous site to help!

The trip advisor is the most abusive review site. The business being reviewed have no say at all. There is no way to verify who is writing the reviews. I am in the hotel industry and whenever I had written a response to a review, it has always been rejected saying "it does not meet our posting criteria". Their word is final.The reviews never get dropped no matter what. Their attitude is stubborn and authoritative. They are ruining the reputation and livelihood of most of the small business owners who have no resources to fight back. It is hard to believe that in a country like USA, there is someone out there destroying your business and you can not do anything about it.

At this very moment I am in an emailing back and forth with Tripadvisor because our "Rival" is posting their OWN reviews! While we know that the site is looked at by some with the same understanding that we have, and that it that it is not as honest as it boasts, we value the fact that some people read it as truth. In going there we saw that 90% of the rival business reviews were all posted by people with the company. Another tell tale sign is that the reviewers that claim to have had such a great stay, have also reviewed the same exact properties as one another.

So you mean to tell me 5 people from all over the world all stayed at the exact same 4 properties, and wrote the exact same reviews for each one?! I have emailed them and they have not responded even after I sent proof of the abuse. How is this fair to anyone? Not just to the businesses but also the travelers. Its very disappointing to not have a better way to fight this.

The whole TripAdvisor experience is such a double edged sword for we travel business owners. The site is such a huge and powerful resource for attracting guests we crave the attention it brings us, but we have no power to help influence the integrity of its processes. Despite adding many millions in revenue through commissions paid to its parent company by offering rooms on its reservation system, we are utterly at its mercy on having to bear the brunt of any impossible to please or ax grinding customer. Especially those who know about its process and total lack of accountability for the customer side of things.

A guest or customer can basically write nearly anything in a review true or not and the only option for the owner is to craft a management response that will fit through the eye of a needle, criteria wise in order to be posted.

It is highly doubtful to me that most or even many of its users are aware of how the site works, its guidelines, biases towards the reviewer side of things, its manipulation by owners, competitors, etc. Even if 100% of its users were savvy enough to reject what are the reviews of lying, mean spirited, punitive, vindictive type people, that doesn't vindicate the flaws in the system that allows untrue or fraudulent reviews to be posted in the first place.

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

Hello to all...We are very tired of Fake comments cause our business is not to control them but to make our Guests happy... A question if you can give us an advice...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
Giorgio's House Palermo
If you want I can also give you the link of this comment

Tripadvisor what a nightmare, as the other post says when you post a reply to a negative review tripadvisor does not post them, we have a restaurant in a busy town with lots of restaurants, and sabotage is rife, y dont they make the site positive reviews only that way people will only put on what they like.

A person that was NOT our Guest wrote a very bad comment about us and he wrote that he stayed with us on March (WHEN WE ARE CLOSED!) so we answered that:

Hello xxxxxxx...
You wrote that you spent a weekend at our etablishment on March...well...We are closed on March ..and that's for the local regulation...so...next time...before writing something so bad about us, choose a period we are open :o) ...

WELL...Tripadvisor sent us an el.mail (today) and they wrote us that they couldn't publish our reply cause it didn't respect their criteria!...:WHICH CRITERIA? :o) I think that Tripadvisor is becoming just a commercial site...they were bought by Expedia so they cannot be independent any more! Pity cause when they started they were pretty well.