Just to keep the TripAdvisor blood pressure up...

Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum

Help Support Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Morticia

Well-known member
Joined
May 22, 2008
Messages
17,771
Reaction score
685
Got an email from TripAdvisor with a list of 'hotel horror stories'. Each one from years ago. How does this help? It doesn't. But you just can't help looking. OMG, the roof blew off the hotel?
 
Got the same one...to me I just read it as a gimmick, that is all the whole site is anyway. Anyone who wants to read "hotel horror stories" is just looking for sensationalism in the first place.
 
Hit the spam button..
I can't hit the spam button, I signed up to get the emails so I get notified when I get a new review. And it's always best to keep a close eye on things that could affect me as TripAdvisor can. And if one of my reviews ever shows up in one of those TA horror story emails I will be all over that. Actually, I should be all over it anyway. Why should they put these emails together with years old reviews and dredge up someone else's misery and not get called on it?
 
You can check Trip Advisor yourself for new reviews. They are like celebrity fan magazines. They thrive on attention and sensationalism. They will do anything they can to drive business to their site.
 
You can check Trip Advisor yourself for new reviews. They are like celebrity fan magazines. They thrive on attention and sensationalism. They will do anything they can to drive business to their site..
Sorry... I disagree....They (TA) don't need to drive business to their site.
 
Bree, I was going to post the same thread! It is horrable of TA to take such a stand on their site. Some of you recacted by stating I hit delete or spam etc., but it is important to know how this site is using all of our industry for their benefit. And they are using reviews from B&B's as well. None of us know when some sourpuss is going to leave a bad review, and it is bad enough to have that happen but then what if TA decided to use YOUR bad review in its next email 'Horror stories' - That would be worse.
In looking at these highlighed 6 - one was about a B&B and dated 4/09 (so not old) and after looking at their reviews, only 4 out of 35 reviews were rated 3 or below...So this B&B is being singled out to a national email blitz for what appears to me to be a sourpuss reveiw.
Then there is a hotel in NYC - rated #138 of 412 on TA, and of 319 reviews, only 71 were 2 or under, and of the the last 15 reviews (from April 1- present) only 3 were rated 2 or under - one was complaining only because they were not set up for business guests. Anyway, TA is highlighting a review from 2006 and digging into the reviews, there has been a renovation of this hotel since that review. So is that fair to dig back!
Then I looked at the 6 reviews and found that only 2 of the 6 have booking through TA, and only 1 (the NYC one above) has hotels and Expedia.
This is something Jay needs to also work on with TA
 
THey have always had the "best" and "worst" on their home page. Do you mean they actually sent you an email with the WORSTS??? I haven't gotten anything from them with this kind of thing.
 
Bree, I was going to post the same thread! It is horrable of TA to take such a stand on their site. Some of you recacted by stating I hit delete or spam etc., but it is important to know how this site is using all of our industry for their benefit. And they are using reviews from B&B's as well. None of us know when some sourpuss is going to leave a bad review, and it is bad enough to have that happen but then what if TA decided to use YOUR bad review in its next email 'Horror stories' - That would be worse.
In looking at these highlighed 6 - one was about a B&B and dated 4/09 (so not old) and after looking at their reviews, only 4 out of 35 reviews were rated 3 or below...So this B&B is being singled out to a national email blitz for what appears to me to be a sourpuss reveiw.
Then there is a hotel in NYC - rated #138 of 412 on TA, and of 319 reviews, only 71 were 2 or under, and of the the last 15 reviews (from April 1- present) only 3 were rated 2 or under - one was complaining only because they were not set up for business guests. Anyway, TA is highlighting a review from 2006 and digging into the reviews, there has been a renovation of this hotel since that review. So is that fair to dig back!
Then I looked at the 6 reviews and found that only 2 of the 6 have booking through TA, and only 1 (the NYC one above) has hotels and Expedia.
This is something Jay needs to also work on with TA.
I think I mentioned that at the PAII conference. A speaker from TA was amazed at all the awful posts for a NYC hotel...but yet people after reading them actually stayed there!!! And them literally bragged about it because they too posted an awful review.. Does that make sense? He said he went and stayed at the place because he was so curious. They were all right..it was awful...so why did the stay there???? Makes me wonder???
 
Bree, I was going to post the same thread! It is horrable of TA to take such a stand on their site. Some of you recacted by stating I hit delete or spam etc., but it is important to know how this site is using all of our industry for their benefit. And they are using reviews from B&B's as well. None of us know when some sourpuss is going to leave a bad review, and it is bad enough to have that happen but then what if TA decided to use YOUR bad review in its next email 'Horror stories' - That would be worse.
In looking at these highlighed 6 - one was about a B&B and dated 4/09 (so not old) and after looking at their reviews, only 4 out of 35 reviews were rated 3 or below...So this B&B is being singled out to a national email blitz for what appears to me to be a sourpuss reveiw.
Then there is a hotel in NYC - rated #138 of 412 on TA, and of 319 reviews, only 71 were 2 or under, and of the the last 15 reviews (from April 1- present) only 3 were rated 2 or under - one was complaining only because they were not set up for business guests. Anyway, TA is highlighting a review from 2006 and digging into the reviews, there has been a renovation of this hotel since that review. So is that fair to dig back!
Then I looked at the 6 reviews and found that only 2 of the 6 have booking through TA, and only 1 (the NYC one above) has hotels and Expedia.
This is something Jay needs to also work on with TA.
I think I mentioned that at the PAII conference. A speaker from TA was amazed at all the awful posts for a NYC hotel...but yet people after reading them actually stayed there!!! And them literally bragged about it because they too posted an awful review.. Does that make sense? He said he went and stayed at the place because he was so curious. They were all right..it was awful...so why did the stay there???? Makes me wonder???
.
Man, these people just have WAY too much free time! Geez...
 
Bree, I was going to post the same thread! It is horrable of TA to take such a stand on their site. Some of you recacted by stating I hit delete or spam etc., but it is important to know how this site is using all of our industry for their benefit. And they are using reviews from B&B's as well. None of us know when some sourpuss is going to leave a bad review, and it is bad enough to have that happen but then what if TA decided to use YOUR bad review in its next email 'Horror stories' - That would be worse.
In looking at these highlighed 6 - one was about a B&B and dated 4/09 (so not old) and after looking at their reviews, only 4 out of 35 reviews were rated 3 or below...So this B&B is being singled out to a national email blitz for what appears to me to be a sourpuss reveiw.
Then there is a hotel in NYC - rated #138 of 412 on TA, and of 319 reviews, only 71 were 2 or under, and of the the last 15 reviews (from April 1- present) only 3 were rated 2 or under - one was complaining only because they were not set up for business guests. Anyway, TA is highlighting a review from 2006 and digging into the reviews, there has been a renovation of this hotel since that review. So is that fair to dig back!
Then I looked at the 6 reviews and found that only 2 of the 6 have booking through TA, and only 1 (the NYC one above) has hotels and Expedia.
This is something Jay needs to also work on with TA.
I think I mentioned that at the PAII conference. A speaker from TA was amazed at all the awful posts for a NYC hotel...but yet people after reading them actually stayed there!!! And them literally bragged about it because they too posted an awful review.. Does that make sense? He said he went and stayed at the place because he was so curious. They were all right..it was awful...so why did the stay there???? Makes me wonder???
.
Man, these people just have WAY too much free time! Geez...
.
No they have plenty of staff and everything is done automatically:) They plug it in once and off it goes to the world
 
Bree, I was going to post the same thread! It is horrable of TA to take such a stand on their site. Some of you recacted by stating I hit delete or spam etc., but it is important to know how this site is using all of our industry for their benefit. And they are using reviews from B&B's as well. None of us know when some sourpuss is going to leave a bad review, and it is bad enough to have that happen but then what if TA decided to use YOUR bad review in its next email 'Horror stories' - That would be worse.
In looking at these highlighed 6 - one was about a B&B and dated 4/09 (so not old) and after looking at their reviews, only 4 out of 35 reviews were rated 3 or below...So this B&B is being singled out to a national email blitz for what appears to me to be a sourpuss reveiw.
Then there is a hotel in NYC - rated #138 of 412 on TA, and of 319 reviews, only 71 were 2 or under, and of the the last 15 reviews (from April 1- present) only 3 were rated 2 or under - one was complaining only because they were not set up for business guests. Anyway, TA is highlighting a review from 2006 and digging into the reviews, there has been a renovation of this hotel since that review. So is that fair to dig back!
Then I looked at the 6 reviews and found that only 2 of the 6 have booking through TA, and only 1 (the NYC one above) has hotels and Expedia.
This is something Jay needs to also work on with TA.
I think I mentioned that at the PAII conference. A speaker from TA was amazed at all the awful posts for a NYC hotel...but yet people after reading them actually stayed there!!! And them literally bragged about it because they too posted an awful review.. Does that make sense? He said he went and stayed at the place because he was so curious. They were all right..it was awful...so why did the stay there???? Makes me wonder???
.
I would say by my reading that the NYC hotel they used in the email of 'horror stories' was more like an average hotel - some will be pleased, some will have no feelings and others will think that it was horrorable due to the amount of money paid for what they got. Average, especially since the renovation. But to pull a really bad review from 2006 on any place - unless that is all they get, is incomprehensible.
 
THey have always had the "best" and "worst" on their home page. Do you mean they actually sent you an email with the WORSTS??? I haven't gotten anything from them with this kind of thing..
catlady said:
THey have always had the "best" and "worst" on their home page. Do you mean they actually sent you an email with the WORSTS??? I haven't gotten anything from them with this kind of thing.
Yes, this is what was in the email:
[tr]
mu_owl.gif
Hotel Horror Stories[/td][/tr][tr][tr] [/td][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"Have you ever been thrown out from your own hotel room?" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"The only natural light came from a tiny slit window which was at ground level" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"Oceanview is like saying the room faces Europe -- it is out there somewhere" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"The noise was deafening, we had to shout at each other while in the room" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"They didn't have drinking water!!!! They fill you a little jar when you check in, and that's it!!!" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"After one night the roof of the building flew off" More[/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table]
 
THey have always had the "best" and "worst" on their home page. Do you mean they actually sent you an email with the WORSTS??? I haven't gotten anything from them with this kind of thing..
catlady said:
THey have always had the "best" and "worst" on their home page. Do you mean they actually sent you an email with the WORSTS??? I haven't gotten anything from them with this kind of thing.
Yes, this is what was in the email:
[tr]
mu_owl.gif
Hotel Horror Stories[/td][/tr][tr][tr] [/td][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"Have you ever been thrown out from your own hotel room?" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"The only natural light came from a tiny slit window which was at ground level" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"Oceanview is like saying the room faces Europe -- it is out there somewhere" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"The noise was deafening, we had to shout at each other while in the room" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"They didn't have drinking water!!!! They fill you a little jar when you check in, and that's it!!!" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"After one night the roof of the building flew off" More[/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table]
.
Thanks for posting the links. We got it and deleted it, but I took the time to read them. What really got me was that they selected out of counrty lodging for a couple of them, that they included a natural disaster as one, and that they singled out a property with a fairly decent review history to take a hit from what may have been a
potty-mouth.gif

This is one more reason to circle the wagons around trademark, content, and copywrite abuses.
 
THey have always had the "best" and "worst" on their home page. Do you mean they actually sent you an email with the WORSTS??? I haven't gotten anything from them with this kind of thing..
catlady said:
THey have always had the "best" and "worst" on their home page. Do you mean they actually sent you an email with the WORSTS??? I haven't gotten anything from them with this kind of thing.
Yes, this is what was in the email:
[tr]
mu_owl.gif
Hotel Horror Stories[/td][/tr][tr][tr] [/td][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"Have you ever been thrown out from your own hotel room?" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"The only natural light came from a tiny slit window which was at ground level" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"Oceanview is like saying the room faces Europe -- it is out there somewhere" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"The noise was deafening, we had to shout at each other while in the room" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"They didn't have drinking water!!!! They fill you a little jar when you check in, and that's it!!!" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"After one night the roof of the building flew off" More[/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table]
.
Thanks for posting the links. We got it and deleted it, but I took the time to read them. What really got me was that they selected out of counrty lodging for a couple of them, that they included a natural disaster as one, and that they singled out a property with a fairly decent review history to take a hit from what may have been a
potty-mouth.gif

This is one more reason to circle the wagons around trademark, content, and copywrite abuses.
.
When you've got an email list like they do, you have to generate content. That's all they're doing. If they don't need to drive traffic to their site then why all the Google Ads for every property in existence? That's got to cost a pretty penny. As far as Jay doing anything, don't hold your breath. They seem to listen politely and then do whatever the heck they want. What's really been accomplished after months of talks?
 
THey have always had the "best" and "worst" on their home page. Do you mean they actually sent you an email with the WORSTS??? I haven't gotten anything from them with this kind of thing..
catlady said:
THey have always had the "best" and "worst" on their home page. Do you mean they actually sent you an email with the WORSTS??? I haven't gotten anything from them with this kind of thing.
Yes, this is what was in the email:
[tr]
mu_owl.gif
Hotel Horror Stories[/td][/tr][tr][tr] [/td][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"Have you ever been thrown out from your own hotel room?" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"The only natural light came from a tiny slit window which was at ground level" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"Oceanview is like saying the room faces Europe -- it is out there somewhere" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"The noise was deafening, we had to shout at each other while in the room" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"They didn't have drinking water!!!! They fill you a little jar when you check in, and that's it!!!" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"After one night the roof of the building flew off" More[/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table]
.
Thanks for posting the links. We got it and deleted it, but I took the time to read them. What really got me was that they selected out of counrty lodging for a couple of them, that they included a natural disaster as one, and that they singled out a property with a fairly decent review history to take a hit from what may have been a
potty-mouth.gif

This is one more reason to circle the wagons around trademark, content, and copywrite abuses.
.
When you've got an email list like they do, you have to generate content. That's all they're doing. If they don't need to drive traffic to their site then why all the Google Ads for every property in existence? That's got to cost a pretty penny. As far as Jay doing anything, don't hold your breath. They seem to listen politely and then do whatever the heck they want. What's really been accomplished after months of talks?
.
What's really been accomplished after months of talks?
Sorry, but Rome was not built in a day. Tha very fact that the talks are continuing means sonething - it is headway. They are no longer saying - go away Kid, you bother me.
I am about to go read these - but if they are now picking on hotels, I say Yippee!!! because if the hotels start screaming because they are getting gored by the same ox that is goring us, things WILL change.
 
THey have always had the "best" and "worst" on their home page. Do you mean they actually sent you an email with the WORSTS??? I haven't gotten anything from them with this kind of thing..
catlady said:
THey have always had the "best" and "worst" on their home page. Do you mean they actually sent you an email with the WORSTS??? I haven't gotten anything from them with this kind of thing.
Yes, this is what was in the email:
[tr]
mu_owl.gif
Hotel Horror Stories[/td][/tr][tr][tr] [/td][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"Have you ever been thrown out from your own hotel room?" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"The only natural light came from a tiny slit window which was at ground level" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"Oceanview is like saying the room faces Europe -- it is out there somewhere" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"The noise was deafening, we had to shout at each other while in the room" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"They didn't have drinking water!!!! They fill you a little jar when you check in, and that's it!!!" More[/td][/tr][tr] [/td][/tr][tr]
bullet_org_12.gif
[/td]"After one night the roof of the building flew off" More[/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table]
.
Croatia? Turkey? Panama? All 5-star locations! Right. This does nothing for anyone. I doubt of many Americans or Canadians will be going to any of those locations. Darn! Any hopes of hotels setting up a cry of FOUL!! went away!
 
FWIW, a fellow innkeeper from England equally disgusted with the move started a thread on this topic under the "Help Make TripAdvisor Better" forum and a few of us have had some fun with it.
What shocked me was a post from a woman who felt we ( not "we" as in us, but hoteliers in general ) all had shoddy behavior, rudeness, property destruction, inconsiderations, etc. coming to us because we're all so "rich" and your "average, hardworking person could barely afford staying in hotels"
Yup, I almost choked on my bonbon and early afternoon scotch as I read it. LOL
To think I turned off my favorite gameshow to go read what she had wrote too. another big LOL
 
Back
Top