TripAdvisor review: wrong reviews on site ( 38 comments)

I need to agree that Trip Advisor when used with integrity is a great tool. It is very human. That being said it is also an evil tool for ones who wish mal intent to have a lasting impression that may very negatively affect my business. Trip Advisor will not return any of my emails or phone calls imploring them to cease and assist. There were three groups of clients to our facility that wanted to walk around the campground with alcohol, let their dogs run free through the park, they broke rules they agreed to follow before they confirmed their reservation at my park, etc. If the threat of misused trip advisor reports exist than I have much less ability to enforce basic and sensible requests of all campers and then how do I avoid vandalism to my pool building, bathrooms, activity centres and above all my privledge of a quiet, peaceful and safe family camping experience. These particular trip advisor particpants are angry that they were unable to manipulate or abandon the rules in their favor, and now I am stuck with an undeserved lasting impression obviously intended for new clients to avoid our park.

I couldn't agree with you more but there is recourse. The BBB has listed them as not an accredited business and given them a grade of C+. The BBB complaint list gives a false impression since they won't take a complaint unless it involves a financial transaction which invalidates all of these type of complaints. However, the Massachusetts Attorney General will take complaints and has said she will take action against them if she gets enough complaints. Also contact Clark Howard at ClarkHoward.com and post your comments as he is always plugging them.

I got onto the Tripadvisor.com (TA) scam from a recent experience. It is happening now.
I am a guest at a hotel/hostel in New York called the Broadway Hostel. I was booking another leg of my trip, and happened on to the TA site . As I read the reviews posted on TA about the Broadway, I was taken back about how just plain wrong, dishonest and deceptive the reviews were – all negative!
I travel allot, and I stay in many places across America – the Broadway is a great little Hostel- I mean great. Inexpensive, fantastic location and a staff of wonderful people – yes – wonderful people in New York!
I posted on TA my experiences that were fact filled, named the great staff who were a joy to have helping me there, and I mentioned specifics about the great sides, and a couple minor flaws, like their wireless is fairly slow.
My overall review was positive, and rejected by TA in a spam email to me. I then re-posted it, and this time it made it on to the site – for 20 hours it was up, then it was pulled down. I email TA again, and all I received back was spam.
THEN I started looking into TA and found they are getting sued for this type of experience. In a great case quoted on the equally great news service of:
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CourtHouseNewsService.com

Restaurant Says Web Site Defamed It
DETROIT (CN) - …[a restaurant] which describes itself as "a new upscale restaurant in the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel in downtown Detroit, " says it was defamed by TripAdvisor, a Web-based travel site. The Grille says TripAdvisor refused to remove, or investigate the accuracy of, an anonymous poster who advised "staying clear of the 24grille unless you and your family actually enjoy sharing your evening with the local prostitutes."
 The restaurant demands damages for libel and negligence. …..
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The posting against this restaurant was, as the suit alleges, false and deceptive – TA will not address pulling the posting down – spamming the owners instead of dealing with them – my experience too with TA.
If you want anymore information about the other matters against TA, feel free to email me – m.la68@yahoo.com

Regards,
Mike

Had the same thing happen to us. We have no idea who this person was and they would not help us to identify them. Trip Advisor actually moved us down a position to #3 for voicing our disagreement about them not removing the invalid complaint off of their website. Its pretty bad when a company like this has the power to allow people to write anything they wish when everyone elses reviews are to the contrary. The review was so off base and ill intent to harm.

Another article on the subject of TripAdvisor, Stephen Kaufer, fraud and defamation:
http://www.splagg.com/story/2009/06/16/tripadvisor_forum_inviting_defamation_slander_and_fraud

Tripadvisor is supposed to have reviews by guests or patrons. Of course, some negative reviews are going to get on there, but readers are smart. You have to give them some credit. An incredibly negative review with no real explanation is going to be dismissed by the average reader (average reader speaking here) especially if it appears in a sea of positive reviews. Everyone knows a whiny traveler and can take the complaint with a grain of salt. The point of Tripadvisor isn't to promote your B&B, hostel, restaurant, etc. It's for travelers to give advice to other travelers.

Now, I wrote a review recently of an Irish B&B that was truthful and based on my experience. While I complimented the food and cleanliness of the room, the owner treated us horribly and I had a very expensive piece of computer equipment stolen from the room. A simple apology from the owner and some sort of caring about the room's security would have smoothed things over (I can take responsibility for being stupid enough to leave something of value in a hotel room). But her lack of apology, lack of caring etc affected the way I wrote the review, which I took down when she threatened to sue me for libel. As an American, I have no idea what she could accomplish from overseas but I don't have the money to defend myself in Irish courts. I rewrote the review reflecting her threats. I know, probably very stupid, but I don't like bullies. I could end up wasting my life savings defending myself in an Irish court, and I think she is vindictive enough to spend her money doing the same.

Lesson for all you owners and managers out there: Treat your guests well. 99 percent of the time acting sympathetic will defuse the situation.

I agree with the innkeepers that have been poorly served by trip advisor. I have owned and ran a B&B in Hawaii for 13 years. I have over 100 reviews, over 93% positive. The negative reviews were suspicious. When I wrote trip advisor that, for example, I had never had a guest from a town the guest said he was from they refused to remove it. I also asked them how they could remain impartial, now that they are owned by Expedia, do lots of business with discount sites such as Travelocity, Orbitz, etc. who pay tripadvisor for space on their website. Now, tripadvisor will add a direct link from your website onto their site, for a price. Yet they continue to say they are unbiased. I think it is only a matter of time before a class action suit is filed against them. I can't wait. They deserve to be punished for all the damage they have done.

I also suffered from competitors posting bad reviews about my business. I also have a bad review on my business which relates to another business. I have asked TA repeatedly to remove these biased and untrue postings and they do not respond. I have also had customers state that they have posted a review - sent me a copy - but TA never listed it. They are biased and a complete joke!

I also have very serious problems with this issue. 15 days ago, on the page of our Motel, someone posted a review speaking about the bad hygiene in the Motel, and she posted a picture that was clearly not taken in our Motel. After wards she said that she stayed in the motel in February 2010, and we had no foreign citizens from Austria(she says that it is a country where she comes from), except one 63 years old gentleman. Then, in the review she says that she traveled with a group of university friends, and in her profile she says that she traveled with spouse/partner. She posted only one review and only one image, of our Motel. And it is clear in all ways possible that it is a fraud, probably made by competition. I have sent them dozens of e-mail, regarding to remove the review, but they still didnt do anything. I have no idea, what to do next, and is it possible, to prosecute TA for this kind of behavior?

Isn't it time for hotels to get together for a class action law suit? NOT to muzzle the first amendment - but to stop the lies and maliciousness that TripAdvisor promotes through their website. Everything boils down to money - if they want a refund - they will post the worst about your place, the same if they want an upgrade, discount this, discount that - as soon as you take the word "no" in your mouth - you do not know what to expect from that person when they leave your property. The properties that have good reviews are those that are always on the loosing side - they give and give in all the time.

Trip advisor is full of scam
There is lot's of things in your life you are happy and unhappy with, example: your wife, girl friend, children, where you eat, where you sleep, all of them are vary and humen behaviors are not always the same.
The circle of life and the involvements are opperated by humens.
Therefore you meet people in different times and different mood they all not always same and you can't complaint but you can ask for an compensation, leaving bad reviews about the sleeping place or your wife will not go to the end of the problem it will destroy the relationship with them instead.
Mostlikely 1 in 10 people will leave bad review but at the same time 1 in 1000 people will leave good review so it cant be accepted due to the variance of the people natural habit.
Trip Advisor (Many clicks they get much money they make )
join me on facebook trip advisor i want them to shut down.
(facebook group tripadvisor)

Before knowing better, I used tripadvisor to find some restaurants. Turned out that the glowing reviews about some of the places were exaggerated. When I wrote my own reviews stating my opinion, they never showed up. I consider tripadvisor to be a complete scam.

After years of dealing with trip advisor, I’m really going to enjoy this...

Trip advisor is a total waste of time. The reviews on the site fall into three categories: 1) genuine reviews (the minority) 2) mouth breathing cretins with a chip on their shoulder and 3) staff/friends/family of staff leaving bogus reviews to enhance their own business or slate the competition.

Amongst hotel owners it’s a running joke how easy it is to leave bogus reviews. I could call up my family who live on the other side of the country, have them create an account and give me a shining 5 star rating. How will trip advisor detect this fraud? Well, they simply don’t. I go to London for the weekend, set up a new email addy and lay into the place down the street. Again, how to they know this is genuine? And practices like this are commonplace.

If the above wasn’t proof enough this site is utterly invalid, anybody who has worked in the industry will tell you that some guests you simply cannot please. the professional complainers that want money off, the truly obnoxious that think they are better than everybody that works there just because they earn "big money" and don’t work behind a bar... then the ones that drink too much and wreck the place, then get offended when they are charged for the havoc they have caused. Just because you are capable of having an opinion does not attach validity to your thoughts, just indicates you can.

I’m not just some embittered owner. I (and many others) and my terrific staff work extremely hard every day to ensure my guests get the best service. Any genuine complaint and I will personally ensure it dealt with to the best of my ability and the overwhelming majority of my guests leave happy and return year upon year. unfortunately, its usually the ones with a chip on their shoulder/superiority complex that decide to go online and make a noise, just, you know, to tell everyone how important they are...

Finally, by what right does trip advisor use information on my business to make a profit? I have a marketing budget and will gladly pay REPUTABLE SITES to feature my business as I can ensure valid, truthful advertising and will happily pay for this. Any publicity is good publicity? Ill pass thanks. I give trip advisor a single star, and that just for the amusement value of working out which guest it was that left the bad reviews, and having a good old chuckle at what an awful example of humanity they were.

Does trip advisor get to post a response to this? That’s something I would like to see...

Trip advisor sent my business an invoice, when I didn't want to sign up, THE TOOK DOWN ALL THE PHOTOS previously online, on their site, people had put up for our listing. There are so many bogus reviews, from people that never stayed here, are nowhere in the books, that we asked our actual clients to write some positive reviews, the response has been that their review was being reviewed. Within the past 2 months, not one review has been posted by our clients! We have regulars that agree with us that Trip advisor is nothing more than a scam.

Hotel in BC, same thing happened to be but i got no invoice :)

Following my complaint against TripAdvisor for publishing uncorroberated and grossly inaccurate customer opinion: Alexandra (TripAdvisor Support Team) accepted that they were not concerned over checking for deformation saying, "Please understand that user reviews are individual, highly subjective opinions which are not endorsed or verified by TripAdvisor." In other words they were not concerned over the effect such inaccurate criticism might have on a business. Nor were concerned over the accuracy of information presented, unchecked, to potential future customers.

TRIP ADVISOR IS A FRAUD! They work with the hotels to draw customers and only post positive (if not totally made up) reviews of aweful places! I wrote a review on the Wyndham Jacksonville Riverfront hotel as a garbage hotel with bodily fluid stained sheets, dirty uncleaned rooms, musty odor and less than stellar hotel staff; it was never posted on the trip advisors website! Do not believe any of the reviews on their site!

NOBODY in this galaxy is capable of distinguishing REAL UNBIASED REVIWEWS from FAKE POSITIVE ( http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article6583450.ece ) and FAKE NEGATIVE ( written by petty authors looking fro personal vendetta, protected by anonimity offered by EXPEDIA-Tripadvisor ) ones.

Besides damaging the free market (tourist facilities, travel agencies and competitors) Expedia is emptying of credibility also true and unbiased reviews from travelers that are issued in good faith.

Expedia is the cancer of tourism ... be careful www.victimsofexpedia.com
Alla Dolce Vita

Trip Advisor allows fraudulent and damaging reviews, posted by people associated with the Mezzanine and La Zebra Hotels and Restaurants in Tulum, Mexico, to be posted on their competitor's sites.

Trip Advisor is the worst place to post your advice as they have their own Destination Experts on every turf. I posted over 247 articles on their Hong Kong site starting last December and one of the DE by the name of steve_ben 2004 always made a personal attack as well as harassment of my articles on the forum. So much so that I got fed up with this man so I asked TA to have all my articles completely deleted both by email and by letter. Instead, the reply I had from them was rude and showed no regret of my complaint and today, steve_ben 2004 is still there not to mention he has a partner by the name of bigwawao who resides in Brooklyn, NYC who keeps checking about where I am from " My Life " and worst still, steve_ben 2004 has my email address who sent me three intimidate emails I wonder who gave out my email address to this so called DE in the first place? Why TA would not delete all my articles from the forum? There are several good DE who know Hong Kong well, namely Sammyfloyd, drumbrake, SolentTraveller, Guerillia Surgeon and Glacierfed and they are real nice folks who are willing to assist those who wishes to visit Hong Kong but there is always a few bad apples in every trade and think they are God. I would not browse TA site at all since it is run by hypocrites like those who messed up the global economy and gave false rating and let the whole world suffered. 7 trillion dollars had been evaporated and not a single word of sorry.

As a restaurant owners we are disgusted by TriAdvisor's careless and inaccurate ratings, and blatant disregard for obviously fake reviews by competitors or disgruntled guests. We have noticed that the closer we get to the no.1 place, the more likely to get fake or unfair reviews.
Since most people searching the internet do not go further than page 1 or 2, we are the most vulnerable.
We are waiting for a huge lawsuit that would force TriAdvisor to allow us to deactivate ourselves.
When this happens we will be the first to click that button.
As owners of a high end restaurant we'd rather not have to deal with tourists recommended by TripAdvisors.
We'd rather spend our time to serve our long-term patrons, not having to worry about writing owner's reviews or complaints to TA who does not care about us anyway.

WOW, Trip-Advisor under scrutiny ?
I was wondering how long this would take, because some people are really misusing this website to get discounts or if not, to get back at the hotel!
I remember in 2008 (Maritime Hotel)how 2 ladies who were definitely crocks, with one being on a walking-stick (suet a bank for disability) to demanding special attention, but only when she thought nobody was watching her. There was clearly nothing wrong with her leg! She advised other guest to sue for a wet floor to, because she did so previous do so successfully for her leg, she said.
But the best was when they demanded halve of the price-reduction, PLUS to get a free return week OR ELSE they would write a complaint in trip-advisor. I call this BLACK-MAIL.
Why does somebody want a free week in a hotel they were so unhappy about?
Complaints are also often blown out of proportion and insult added to injury to get get discounts!
Whilst I feel that recommendations from guest known to us can be of value, but to trust in comments from strangers seems to be be defeating the object!
I figure that most people writing on trip-advisor do so to complain. Most people who are happy don't bother writing on trip-advisor. They tell the staff at the hotel or the owners. So if out 100 % guest say 5 % write a review and 50 % of those are complainers, while the other 97, 5 % just don't bother writing, that does not mean 50 % of the total guest were unhappy, but only 2.5. So the figures on trip-advisor are misleading!

Trip advisor will only leave the posts up that they agree with. Disagree and it will disappear.
They do not respect the freedom of speech

TA didn't like what I psted so they closed my account. They never told me why, they never answered any inquires and now I get all this trash spam that I know it comes from them .Kaufer and his TA bunch only allows what they want. Honesty gets you closed down.

As a small business in Ha Noi, Viet Nam I can only express the utmost contempt for Trip Advisor. The blatantly fake reviews about me personally & my company are a real disgrace. Some of these include the bashing of the elderly & young children & if there's any truth to anything like this about anyone, including me, TA should prosecute.

Funny how they can be bothered to print this rubbish but not bethered to help the victims ?

TA really is nasty & yes I've posted responses, emailed them & even phoned them but have always been ignored.

It is about time that business owners file a class action lawsuit against Trip Advisor. Not only are they doing what they want, it is ILLEGAL! They are the new internet mafia - extorting small businesses for money. I was in the top ten for restaurants in my town and when I refused to sign up with their "services" to guarantee good reviews they dropped me down instantly to number 22! A guy named Marcio Andrade is harassing me on email to join with the title "Remove negative reviews on trip advisor? Yes!" They claim to remove 33% of all negative reviews - if you pay them of course. THIS IS TOTAL EXTORTION!

I also own a restaurant and i have competitors writing things like' Their burgers tasted like they were marinated in Dog fecies, served on mouldy bread and my staff were like Zombies. Its disgusting that people would stoop so low and its disgusting that trip advisor allows it. This kind of things destroys businesses and ruins lives. There are people behind these businesses and peoples lives depend on it. I have written to trip advisor yet all i get is an automated response. I can handle constructive criticism, but when all some one says is that the place is a hole and thats it... WELL, trip advisor should have more class. I have lost all respect for the trip advisor tool!

Trip advisior is only for yours money, if u Donot advertisement with them, yours reviews are bad.they are messing up our busines and we are letting them do it. Wake up folks.

went to the TripAdvisor office in Singapore to personally complain about Bandung Forum Poster "schonefeld" who constantly writes lies about West Java Indonesia where I have lived these past 12 years. TA disabled my account earlier this year...the Singapore office passed on my complaint to the US and guess what they have done nothing about the poster "Schonefeld" who is definitely a cyber bully...and my account stays disabled. The poster "Schonefeld" calls Indonesians "###" and "scammers"...and continues to attack other local Indonesian forum posters and have their accounts disabled. Well now it might be possible for the Indonesian Ministry of Communications to block the TripAdvisor Web Site...I hope so as the posts on the Bandung Forum are one sided, but just a few regular TripAdvisor "Bar Flies"...
I go under the name of Favenchi on Facebook and this used to be my id on TripAdvisor or should I say Trip Despisor?
The picture is of the Trip Advisor on the sixth floor of the Singapore Board of Tourism building...

I feel that trip advisor protects certain companies in the tourism world and deliberately harms others.

Tourism is a very big business all over the world. There are a lot of politics and money involved, and I feel that trip advisor has the

power to skew results and postings for the companies it promotes, and to disfavor industries and companies it does not promote.

I have had a personal experience with trip advisor which definitely leads me to believe that very little of what you read is based on a true representation of the population's opinion.

TripAdvisor publishes reviews which provable aren't correct!
TripAdvisor.com

TripAdvisor publishes reviews which provable aren't correct and damaging our good name and business.
Their answer is that the review of the client meets their guidelines, meanwhile the host can proof by the listings description and the real situation and location, the rental client to be ill-intentioned.
The rental client expected refund, because they did prefer to go back to Bangkok, which is no reason for refund. As a revenge they wrote an utterly bad review based on multiple lies, which is in conflict with our description. Despite our complaints, TripAdvisor answer is:
Traveler reviews are individual, highly subjective opinions which are not endorsed or verified by TripAdvisor. It is our policy to allow any review that meets our criteria to be posted to our site. We are very sorry to hear about the situation you experienced with your guest. However, we are not in a position to make judgments about the character or intentions of reviewers.
If a review that you report violates our guidelines or we determine there is something improper about it, we will look to remove the review. However, simply disagreeing with the content of the review is not sufficient to justify removing it. Please remember that TripAdvisor does not arbitrate or referee factual disputes.
We have completed a review inquiry into your complaint. It is TripAdvisor's final decision that the review you inquired about will remain on the site. As I hope you understand, the details of our review inquiry procedures cannot be disclosed.
Finally we took the property off-line, as we can afford to have less income.
In our opinion TripAdvisor doesn't care about well fare of Hosts!

I just wrote my first one star terrible review and TA refused to post it. This tells me that the information is not honest and is biased to good reviews. I have had over 25, 000 reads of my reviews. I will no longer write for them, nor use the site. Cannot trust it to avoid a bad experience. TA just lost a long time reviewer.

Last year I wrote a review of a trattoria that is open only for lunch. I noticed a review that was talking about a late night bad experience with pizza. This is totally impossible as the place closes at 3 P.M. They do not make pizza. Trip Advisor ignored my communications that the review was regarding another place. The review is still posted a year later.

Samantha Bee a supposed hollywood comedian called Ivanka Trump a feckless [censored] on her show It's a truly disgusting comment and SB is a degenerate and low life.

How can trip adviser continue to sponsor her show? I'm boycotting Trip Adviser for its lack of judgement and support of this disgusting woman.

I receive one to two phone calls daily from TripAdvisor from different phone numbers. I have repeatedly asked not to be called.

Please remove my phone numbers from your call list.

They are [protected] and [protected].

If I am contacted again I will file harassment charges!

Paula K. Tuggle
[protected]

Please check feed back for this resort. In good faith you must red alert this resort on the basis of what was written describing criminal behavour. This is absolutely essential because of how these respondents were treated. This resort is dangerous.
Eric Hunter.
comrade@cablerocket.com
[protected]