Looking for inns that have had false reviews posted about them on Tripadvisor ASAP for interview w/Today show

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Forfeng

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Hi All, I know this is a strange request but I'm looking for inns/B&Bs that have had reviews posted on Tripadvisor by either competitors or (anti) guests who have never stayed at their inns or disgruntled employees etc.
It doesn't matter whether TA has eventually removed the false reviews or not.
This is for a piece by the Today Show who weirdly enough called me this morning to ask for information. They are looking for inns/B&Bs who would be willing to be interviewed for a piece about the validity of online reviews.
If you have had this happen to you or know another inn that has had this happen to, I'd much appreciate getting info so I can pass it along to the . If your on twitter, you can @ me or DM me @forfeng or email me at [email protected]
Much appreciated and I hope everyone is having a good winter so far. Cheers!
 
Maybe you should send this info to Jay at PAII since he does such a great job of speaking for the industry?
Riki
 
Chef Forfeng thank you for thinking of us. I know there are a couple here who hopefully will contact you OFF forum with their details. THANK YOU.
 
Hi Guys, was considering emailing Jay about it and perhaps posting it on the PAII forums but TA being a PAII partner probably would not be to happy with me about it, so have refrained so far. Thank you for the information I have recieved so far by email. You guys are awesome and its much appreciated!
 
Hi Guys, was considering emailing Jay about it and perhaps posting it on the PAII forums but TA being a PAII partner probably would not be to happy with me about it, so have refrained so far. Thank you for the information I have recieved so far by email. You guys are awesome and its much appreciated!.
Hi Heather,
By all means - post to the PAII forum. TripAdvisor knows that I am both a saber-rattler when it comes to certain issuess and an association exec who offers vendors the opportunity to showcase their goods and services.
I would suggest someone myself, but I cannot recall which innkeepers I've talked to who have been the victim of truly false reviews (meaning disgruntled employees, mascarading competitor, etc.).
The system is certainly flawed, because false reviews can get through. But I will give TA credit - they take those accusations very seriously. Embellished reviews by upset guests is another matter, but falsified? They don't ignore that from my observation.
Hope you are well.
Jay
 
Thanks Jay, I will certainly go and do that.
I've found several dozen so far on the TA forums and have also been emailed by inns that have had issues with competition posting but primarily with people that never actually stayed that wrote nasty things about them, like saying they had dirty rooms when the person never even stepped foot into the place.
The piece has to do with the fact that the general public trusts TA (and they in general have good too even how much I beat it up as well) but some people apparently think there are lodging inflating their own reviews (which can and I have seen happen) but are not aware of other issues.
In a perfect world TA would verify reviews like most of the other directories do and all of this would go away. :)
Hope you are well as well :)
 
Thanks Jay, I will certainly go and do that.
I've found several dozen so far on the TA forums and have also been emailed by inns that have had issues with competition posting but primarily with people that never actually stayed that wrote nasty things about them, like saying they had dirty rooms when the person never even stepped foot into the place.
The piece has to do with the fact that the general public trusts TA (and they in general have good too even how much I beat it up as well) but some people apparently think there are lodging inflating their own reviews (which can and I have seen happen) but are not aware of other issues.
In a perfect world TA would verify reviews like most of the other directories do and all of this would go away. :)
Hope you are well as well :).
"In a perfect world TA would verify reviews like most of the other directories do and all of this would go away"
Why don't they? - It can't be that difficult! Ask for personal information and date of stay, verify it with the owner and badabing!
 
Ah, one more thing for me to obsess about.
When I read about my potential purchase on TA, I noticed that the only negative reviews were written by 3 'different' guests, about 2 weeks apart and used almost the same wording. I knew right off there was something wrong. Guests were raving about the house and these guys were talking about hair in the ice trays. Seriously? Why were they in the kitchen? (I happen to know there are NO ice trays, it's all dispensed.)
I'm new to the industry, but if TA is touting itself as THE place for info (& I don't know that they are) then they had better live up to the hype.
 
Thanks Jay, I will certainly go and do that.
I've found several dozen so far on the TA forums and have also been emailed by inns that have had issues with competition posting but primarily with people that never actually stayed that wrote nasty things about them, like saying they had dirty rooms when the person never even stepped foot into the place.
The piece has to do with the fact that the general public trusts TA (and they in general have good too even how much I beat it up as well) but some people apparently think there are lodging inflating their own reviews (which can and I have seen happen) but are not aware of other issues.
In a perfect world TA would verify reviews like most of the other directories do and all of this would go away. :)
Hope you are well as well :).
"In a perfect world TA would verify reviews like most of the other directories do and all of this would go away"
Why don't they? - It can't be that difficult! Ask for personal information and date of stay, verify it with the owner and badabing!
.
suellen222 said:
"In a perfect world TA would verify reviews like most of the other directories do and all of this would go away"
Why don't they? - It can't be that difficult! Ask for personal information and date of stay, verify it with the owner and badabing!
Probably because there are thousands of reviews being done every hour. Would a 1000 room hotel want to deal with TA contacting them every 5 minutes to verify this or that guest really stayed there? Would the hotel really want to share that information with anyone who calls?
And, how about this- Mr X leaves a scathing review about his horrible stay. TA contacts him for info, contacts me for info and I say, 'Mr X? Never heard of him.' Because I know what's coming. Is TA going to then contact Mr X and ask for a receipt? You see where this is going? Excessive paperwork.
It's almost better to let the system sort itself out. Says someone with one bad review that was due to a misunderstanding between the person who made the reservation and the guest who actually showed up. Although that one bad review means I'll never be the #1 B&B in my town ever, I've gotten a lot of really good comments from guests about how we handled the mgmt response.
Does it hurt? Sure it does. Was there anything we could have done to prevent that bad review? I have no idea because we didn't know there was a problem until the review showed up. And then it wasn't just the mistake that was brought up, it was a personal attack on the kind of people we are. We might have gotten it removed had the writer used any kind of 'slurs' but we knew what the 'message' was.
 
Ah, one more thing for me to obsess about.
When I read about my potential purchase on TA, I noticed that the only negative reviews were written by 3 'different' guests, about 2 weeks apart and used almost the same wording. I knew right off there was something wrong. Guests were raving about the house and these guys were talking about hair in the ice trays. Seriously? Why were they in the kitchen? (I happen to know there are NO ice trays, it's all dispensed.)
I'm new to the industry, but if TA is touting itself as THE place for info (& I don't know that they are) then they had better live up to the hype..
Gingerbread Latte said:
Ah, one more thing for me to obsess about.
When I read about my potential purchase on TA, I noticed that the only negative reviews were written by 3 'different' guests, about 2 weeks apart and used almost the same wording. I knew right off there was something wrong. Guests were raving about the house and these guys were talking about hair in the ice trays. Seriously? Why were they in the kitchen? (I happen to know there are NO ice trays, it's all dispensed.)
I'm new to the industry, but if TA is touting itself as THE place for info (& I don't know that they are) then they had better live up to the hype.
When you take over be sure to contact TA to let them know it's under new ownership. I don't know the exact operations but you might get a clean slate. Of course, that drops you to the bottom of the list immediately so what you might rather do is start making mgmt repsonses immediately saying you're the new owner, happy you could stay with us, yada yada.
And if the 'hair in the ice cube tray' crowd resurfaces try contacting TA to let them know that there are no ice trays and point them to the very similar wording from the other reviews.
We kept the PO's reviews because they were good.
 
Ah, one more thing for me to obsess about.
When I read about my potential purchase on TA, I noticed that the only negative reviews were written by 3 'different' guests, about 2 weeks apart and used almost the same wording. I knew right off there was something wrong. Guests were raving about the house and these guys were talking about hair in the ice trays. Seriously? Why were they in the kitchen? (I happen to know there are NO ice trays, it's all dispensed.)
I'm new to the industry, but if TA is touting itself as THE place for info (& I don't know that they are) then they had better live up to the hype..
Gingerbread Latte said:
Ah, one more thing for me to obsess about.
When I read about my potential purchase on TA, I noticed that the only negative reviews were written by 3 'different' guests, about 2 weeks apart and used almost the same wording. I knew right off there was something wrong. Guests were raving about the house and these guys were talking about hair in the ice trays. Seriously? Why were they in the kitchen? (I happen to know there are NO ice trays, it's all dispensed.)
I'm new to the industry, but if TA is touting itself as THE place for info (& I don't know that they are) then they had better live up to the hype.
When you take over be sure to contact TA to let them know it's under new ownership. I don't know the exact operations but you might get a clean slate. Of course, that drops you to the bottom of the list immediately so what you might rather do is start making mgmt repsonses immediately saying you're the new owner, happy you could stay with us, yada yada.
And if the 'hair in the ice cube tray' crowd resurfaces try contacting TA to let them know that there are no ice trays and point them to the very similar wording from the other reviews.
We kept the PO's reviews because they were good.
.
An overwhelming majority of the reviews are good. It was just these 3 and I'd swear they were the same person, the complaints were almost identical.
I can see how TA couldn't police each and every review, but since they are a REVIEW site, I would hope they do everything they can to be fair. To be honest, before I started researching buying a B&B, I had never heard of nor used TA.
 
There can be other problems my DH has just caught one of our neighbours manipulating Book ing. com they never get good reviews but have just had 9 in the last month rating them 9 out of ten all from silo travelers in broken english pretending to be business people I can't prove it but I am certain she has been making bookings herself and then getting her staff/or herself to write the reviews. As long as she sells the initial room at a low price it costs her about $2 per review so no system is perfect.
 
As someone who had a horrible review posted (among stellar reviews by actual guests) by someone who never actually stayed here, I can assure you that it is the ultimate disheartening experience! It totally cut me to the very heart of my innkeeper being. That this horrible person would take the time to do this based on the fact that I would not extend a discount to a government employee staying for a leisure visit on a weekend with a spouse is incredible to me. BUT....
TA did eventually take the review down when apparently they couldn't provide proof of stay or something. And since I'm no longer in business, it's water under the bridge.
I have noticed that managment responses are now including verbage that these reviews are false or that someone didn't stay there, which they did not allow when I was posting my response to the review. Two attempts were labeled "attacking the reviewer" and all I said was that they had not been guests here which is easy to figure out when you're a smaller property and meet & greet 99% of your guests.
I agree...it will sort itself out and most people look at the majority of the reviews.....
 
Also I am a bit cross with my neighbour for manipulating her reviews but on the other side of the coin its not like we havnt all been tempted! it is her way of fighting back against all the bad reviews and lets face it you can see how people get to that state.
The good hotel guide has a better system in my opinion if they get a bad review and the hotel complains about it they do an undercover stay to check up and if it is found to be false or maybe they just had a bad day it is removed.
A neighbour of mine got a whingy review this week becuase her new wardrobe (for a room) was being delivered to reception at the same time as a chap came to check in and he saw it stood there! what a gimp!
 
Also I am a bit cross with my neighbour for manipulating her reviews but on the other side of the coin its not like we havnt all been tempted! it is her way of fighting back against all the bad reviews and lets face it you can see how people get to that state.
The good hotel guide has a better system in my opinion if they get a bad review and the hotel complains about it they do an undercover stay to check up and if it is found to be false or maybe they just had a bad day it is removed.
A neighbour of mine got a whingy review this week becuase her new wardrobe (for a room) was being delivered to reception at the same time as a chap came to check in and he saw it stood there! what a gimp!.
oh, good grief! That guest should have noted that your neighbor was updating furniture vs. complaining. Some people....
 
Also I am a bit cross with my neighbour for manipulating her reviews but on the other side of the coin its not like we havnt all been tempted! it is her way of fighting back against all the bad reviews and lets face it you can see how people get to that state.
The good hotel guide has a better system in my opinion if they get a bad review and the hotel complains about it they do an undercover stay to check up and if it is found to be false or maybe they just had a bad day it is removed.
A neighbour of mine got a whingy review this week becuase her new wardrobe (for a room) was being delivered to reception at the same time as a chap came to check in and he saw it stood there! what a gimp!.
oh, good grief! That guest should have noted that your neighbor was updating furniture vs. complaining. Some people....
.
exactly some people blatently do not have enough to do!
 
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