Trip advisor and why I hate it - grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

[swirt]

You can ignore them but they won't go away. First of all we didn't have a choice whether we wanted to be on Trip Advisor or not, and there is no way to opt out of it; although I hear you can be kicked off of it. Where do I sign up?

Forgot to mention that the way to get kicked off TA is to consistently & flagrantly post your own reviews of your own place. TA will warn you, then they will block reviews from being posted. But they do leave behind a message that the reason you were removed was for messing with the system..

I have a hate/hate relationship with TA. All but 2 of my reviews (57) are wonderful. I resent having to deal with TA at all, but as stated before, it's not going anywhere and this social media web 2.0 seems to be here to stay. So, you must adapt. My problem with it is that guests sometimes try to threaten you with bad reviews if you stick to your policies and they don't like it. That is why I even have those 2 bad reviews...I refuse to run my business out of fear of a bad review. By the way, those 2 bad reviews were totally made up by the guests. But I just deal with it.
Has anyone else set up a computer for the guests to use? I think I am being penalized by TA because they think I'm sending in my own reviews. The last several reviews I've seen or told by my guests they did here have not posted and it's been over a month. I don't know this for sure, but it seems like TA's system is penalizing me for having the reviews come from the same IP address. Does anyone else have this problem?
.

I don't think it is a good plan to have your guests sit down at your inn and send in a TA review. That is definitely one way to get TA to notice you..but not in a good way.
I agree with your other note about accepting it...it is part of our lives now and will NOT be going away. It will get only stronger, and more such sites will be taking away some of it's power down the road. We all just have to DEAL WITH IT!
Honestly it is the FIRST place I go when planning a trip.
.

I don't think it is a good plan to have your guests sit down at your inn and send in a TA review. That is definitely one way to get TA to notice you..but not in a good way.

At the last 2 conferences I've been at, one of the speakers as said to have a guest computer available and encourage your guests to do TA reviews. I think that's bad advice and I agree with Catlady.
.

I agree. Encouraging people to login to TA from your computer or from their own computer while using your network is a bad idea. TA would log the same ip address and make the assumption (with good reason) that the reviews are fraudulent or at least questionable enough to discard. Ideally they could track the MAC address which is unique to each computer instead of IP address, but that's not standard practice.
.

Would you think that submitting a lot of reviews at once would trigger some sort of 'spam block' on TA? I ask because we had guests last year who were on a 3 month holiday. They did a LOT of reviews when they got home and they told me that a lot of them never showed up.
.

GOod question. I don't know, but I would doubt it as that would be a pretty consistent method for a lot of travellers. So I would think it would be common enough. It might trip a flag for review, but I wouldn't think it would cause them to never be used. (me just speculating on how I would design the system)

 

[SweetiePie]

I thought I posted a reply a few days ago but I guess not. Why don't you all stop worrying about trip advisor? Stop looking at it and stop asking guests to write comments. I think you are giving it much more importance that it's worth.
Yes, I use it when I'm travelling but I also use common sense when reading reviews..

You did, it was over here
.

You can ignore them but they won't go away. First of all we didn't have a choice whether we wanted to be on Trip Advisor or not, and there is no way to opt out of it; although I hear you can be kicked off of it. Where do I sign up?
They need us more than we need them, at least in my case. My business was doing fine before they came along and added me to their site. I don't need any more publicity. They are simply using the ad words and reviews to feed their booking agents on sites like Expedia, which is how they make their money.
You can always print bumper stickers like this business did, although it seems to have backfired. Check out this link on Yelp. http://sf.eater.com/archives/2007/10/18/yelp_wanted_oakland_cafe_bans.php

 

[Morticia]

Why is it that you keep trying to post on blogs and forums about how everyone is upset, but you don't care to comment on what you are doing for the sake of your own inn to get back your good name that has been ruined by guests posting on TA? HAVE you done anything except post and comment and try to 'bring down' TA? Have you taken steps to rectify what was wrong at your inn that caused the bad reviews? Have you taken steps to let future guests know what is going on?
You seem to have a lot of factoids at your disposal from assorted blogs (but no real facts, such as where you got the idea that gov of MA was ready to take on TA), and no solid evidence have you shown that you are doing anything to salvage your good name. You SAY you have bad reviews, that you don't want to be on TA because you get bad reviews, but why are you getting bad reviews? What are the guests complaining about? Have you fixed those things or are you just happy to tilt at windmills?

 

[ginocat]

You can ignore them but they won't go away. First of all we didn't have a choice whether we wanted to be on Trip Advisor or not, and there is no way to opt out of it; although I hear you can be kicked off of it. Where do I sign up?

Forgot to mention that the way to get kicked off TA is to consistently & flagrantly post your own reviews of your own place. TA will warn you, then they will block reviews from being posted. But they do leave behind a message that the reason you were removed was for messing with the system..

I have a hate/hate relationship with TA. All but 2 of my reviews (57) are wonderful. I resent having to deal with TA at all, but as stated before, it's not going anywhere and this social media web 2.0 seems to be here to stay. So, you must adapt. My problem with it is that guests sometimes try to threaten you with bad reviews if you stick to your policies and they don't like it. That is why I even have those 2 bad reviews...I refuse to run my business out of fear of a bad review. By the way, those 2 bad reviews were totally made up by the guests. But I just deal with it.
Has anyone else set up a computer for the guests to use? I think I am being penalized by TA because they think I'm sending in my own reviews. The last several reviews I've seen or told by my guests they did here have not posted and it's been over a month. I don't know this for sure, but it seems like TA's system is penalizing me for having the reviews come from the same IP address. Does anyone else have this problem?
.

Threatened by guests?? Must be an American thing? Well, even so I would not allow 'blackmail', and that's what it is, to dictate my life. Sweetie pie says other countries are upset. Sure, people are human but what I meant was that this is not being discussed on any Canadian or UK boards I subscribe to. Yes, they know about TA, yes they get reviews and yes, some even solicit reviews. But...they do not have tails in knots over it. TA really doesn't get a mention on these boards. Seems that on this board it's a 'tempest in a teapot'. Or, as mentioned in my second statement here - is it an American thing? I hear you all talking about terrible things that happen in your inns that don't seem to happen in other countries .....

 

[gillumhouse]

I am sorry, but you have beaten this poor horse until it is not only dead but has turned into petrified wood. Please find a new horse.....

 

[Morticia]

You can ignore them but they won't go away. First of all we didn't have a choice whether we wanted to be on Trip Advisor or not, and there is no way to opt out of it; although I hear you can be kicked off of it. Where do I sign up?

Forgot to mention that the way to get kicked off TA is to consistently & flagrantly post your own reviews of your own place. TA will warn you, then they will block reviews from being posted. But they do leave behind a message that the reason you were removed was for messing with the system..

I have a hate/hate relationship with TA. All but 2 of my reviews (57) are wonderful. I resent having to deal with TA at all, but as stated before, it's not going anywhere and this social media web 2.0 seems to be here to stay. So, you must adapt. My problem with it is that guests sometimes try to threaten you with bad reviews if you stick to your policies and they don't like it. That is why I even have those 2 bad reviews...I refuse to run my business out of fear of a bad review. By the way, those 2 bad reviews were totally made up by the guests. But I just deal with it.
Has anyone else set up a computer for the guests to use? I think I am being penalized by TA because they think I'm sending in my own reviews. The last several reviews I've seen or told by my guests they did here have not posted and it's been over a month. I don't know this for sure, but it seems like TA's system is penalizing me for having the reviews come from the same IP address. Does anyone else have this problem?
.

Threatened by guests?? Must be an American thing? Well, even so I would not allow 'blackmail', and that's what it is, to dictate my life. Sweetie pie says other countries are upset. Sure, people are human but what I meant was that this is not being discussed on any Canadian or UK boards I subscribe to. Yes, they know about TA, yes they get reviews and yes, some even solicit reviews. But...they do not have tails in knots over it. TA really doesn't get a mention on these boards. Seems that on this board it's a 'tempest in a teapot'. Or, as mentioned in my second statement here - is it an American thing? I hear you all talking about terrible things that happen in your inns that don't seem to happen in other countries .....
.

You know, tho, given some of those UK reviews (and boy, oh boy, do they know how to slam a property in the UK) maybe the proprietors SHOULD spend a bit more time thinking about and acting on the reviews! I think we here in the US take these things to heart, take them personally, which is why they upset us and we talk about them. We, more so than any other culture I've seen, WANT people to like us. Other people don't care. In Paris they didn't care if I liked them. In Dublin they didn't care if I liked them. In Nova Scotia they didn't care if I liked them. In Bermuda, well, you get the idea. When I go to Italy, I'll find out if they care if I like them, but I really think they won't care a lire.

 

[gillumhouse]

Why is it that you keep trying to post on blogs and forums about how everyone is upset, but you don't care to comment on what you are doing for the sake of your own inn to get back your good name that has been ruined by guests posting on TA? HAVE you done anything except post and comment and try to 'bring down' TA? Have you taken steps to rectify what was wrong at your inn that caused the bad reviews? Have you taken steps to let future guests know what is going on?
You seem to have a lot of factoids at your disposal from assorted blogs (but no real facts, such as where you got the idea that gov of MA was ready to take on TA), and no solid evidence have you shown that you are doing anything to salvage your good name. You SAY you have bad reviews, that you don't want to be on TA because you get bad reviews, but why are you getting bad reviews? What are the guests complaining about? Have you fixed those things or are you just happy to tilt at windmills?.

Some people find it easier to complain that to fix anything that is broken. Wouldn't it be interesting to know what the bad reviews were about. Hmmmmm........ Must be really interesting to cause such a vitriolic response.

 

[ginocat]

You can ignore them but they won't go away. First of all we didn't have a choice whether we wanted to be on Trip Advisor or not, and there is no way to opt out of it; although I hear you can be kicked off of it. Where do I sign up?

Forgot to mention that the way to get kicked off TA is to consistently & flagrantly post your own reviews of your own place. TA will warn you, then they will block reviews from being posted. But they do leave behind a message that the reason you were removed was for messing with the system..

I have a hate/hate relationship with TA. All but 2 of my reviews (57) are wonderful. I resent having to deal with TA at all, but as stated before, it's not going anywhere and this social media web 2.0 seems to be here to stay. So, you must adapt. My problem with it is that guests sometimes try to threaten you with bad reviews if you stick to your policies and they don't like it. That is why I even have those 2 bad reviews...I refuse to run my business out of fear of a bad review. By the way, those 2 bad reviews were totally made up by the guests. But I just deal with it.
Has anyone else set up a computer for the guests to use? I think I am being penalized by TA because they think I'm sending in my own reviews. The last several reviews I've seen or told by my guests they did here have not posted and it's been over a month. I don't know this for sure, but it seems like TA's system is penalizing me for having the reviews come from the same IP address. Does anyone else have this problem?
.

Threatened by guests?? Must be an American thing? Well, even so I would not allow 'blackmail', and that's what it is, to dictate my life. Sweetie pie says other countries are upset. Sure, people are human but what I meant was that this is not being discussed on any Canadian or UK boards I subscribe to. Yes, they know about TA, yes they get reviews and yes, some even solicit reviews. But...they do not have tails in knots over it. TA really doesn't get a mention on these boards. Seems that on this board it's a 'tempest in a teapot'. Or, as mentioned in my second statement here - is it an American thing? I hear you all talking about terrible things that happen in your inns that don't seem to happen in other countries .....
.

You know, tho, given some of those UK reviews (and boy, oh boy, do they know how to slam a property in the UK) maybe the proprietors SHOULD spend a bit more time thinking about and acting on the reviews! I think we here in the US take these things to heart, take them personally, which is why they upset us and we talk about them. We, more so than any other culture I've seen, WANT people to like us. Other people don't care. In Paris they didn't care if I liked them. In Dublin they didn't care if I liked them. In Nova Scotia they didn't care if I liked them. In Bermuda, well, you get the idea. When I go to Italy, I'll find out if they care if I like them, but I really think they won't care a lire.
.

Bree, most people do care about their businesses. I truly think you are all over-reacting! It's just that it is a site that is a tool and was originally set up to help people. Reviews were supposed to be 'true'. BB's started soliciting reviews (and some hotels) and all H**l broke loose. I will repeat that if people just went about their business and just quit looking at the thing it would all settle down. It's obviously upsetting a few on this board and it is simply not worth it. Personally, I hope people like me. I hope people are happy when they stay here and that nothing has upset them. I operate my business knowing I do the best that I can. I also know that I can't 'please all of the people all of the time' so I don't worry about it. I am not running a popularity contest either. I know I've done a good job and that's what counts.
I do know that when people are solicited for reviews it can backfire. I know that many, many bbs solicit reviews so now TA is meaningless for me with bbs because I don't trust the reviews. I've seen the solicitations happen too many times. I tell you this - the next person who asks me to write them up on TA will get a write up but I will undoubtedly also write that the proprietor asked me to do it.

 

[ginocat]

Why is it that you keep trying to post on blogs and forums about how everyone is upset, but you don't care to comment on what you are doing for the sake of your own inn to get back your good name that has been ruined by guests posting on TA? HAVE you done anything except post and comment and try to 'bring down' TA? Have you taken steps to rectify what was wrong at your inn that caused the bad reviews? Have you taken steps to let future guests know what is going on?
You seem to have a lot of factoids at your disposal from assorted blogs (but no real facts, such as where you got the idea that gov of MA was ready to take on TA), and no solid evidence have you shown that you are doing anything to salvage your good name. You SAY you have bad reviews, that you don't want to be on TA because you get bad reviews, but why are you getting bad reviews? What are the guests complaining about? Have you fixed those things or are you just happy to tilt at windmills?.

Some people find it easier to complain that to fix anything that is broken. Wouldn't it be interesting to know what the bad reviews were about. Hmmmmm........ Must be really interesting to cause such a vitriolic response.
.

Yep ... I hear ya! I would do a search but as I said earlier I can't be bothered.

 

[EmptyNest]

I agree with K. I think we have beat this "dead horse" ENOUGH! Can we all just stop posting on this topic?
We all have our opinions and we know what most everyone think. To each his own.
Let 's be done with this one and MOVE ON

Hey SWIRT anyway to "CLOSE A THREAD"????

 

[SweetiePie]

Here's a thought. If you're not interested, don't read it.

 

[ginocat]

My opinion - you shouldn't have bothered to get worked up over any of it. Any normal and sane person would have read the reviews and taken them with a grain of salt. Not returning a phone call ... again, why worry about it. Do you think people are so ignorant as to not ignore that kind of a complaint on a review. Not worth worrying about.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

You can ignore them but they won't go away. First of all we didn't have a choice whether we wanted to be on Trip Advisor or not, and there is no way to opt out of it; although I hear you can be kicked off of it. Where do I sign up?

Forgot to mention that the way to get kicked off TA is to consistently & flagrantly post your own reviews of your own place. TA will warn you, then they will block reviews from being posted. But they do leave behind a message that the reason you were removed was for messing with the system..

I have a hate/hate relationship with TA. All but 2 of my reviews (57) are wonderful. I resent having to deal with TA at all, but as stated before, it's not going anywhere and this social media web 2.0 seems to be here to stay. So, you must adapt. My problem with it is that guests sometimes try to threaten you with bad reviews if you stick to your policies and they don't like it. That is why I even have those 2 bad reviews...I refuse to run my business out of fear of a bad review. By the way, those 2 bad reviews were totally made up by the guests. But I just deal with it.
Has anyone else set up a computer for the guests to use? I think I am being penalized by TA because they think I'm sending in my own reviews. The last several reviews I've seen or told by my guests they did here have not posted and it's been over a month. I don't know this for sure, but it seems like TA's system is penalizing me for having the reviews come from the same IP address. Does anyone else have this problem?
.

I don't think it is a good plan to have your guests sit down at your inn and send in a TA review. That is definitely one way to get TA to notice you..but not in a good way.
I agree with your other note about accepting it...it is part of our lives now and will NOT be going away. It will get only stronger, and more such sites will be taking away some of it's power down the road. We all just have to DEAL WITH IT!
Honestly it is the FIRST place I go when planning a trip.
.

I don't think it is a good plan to have your guests sit down at your inn and send in a TA review. That is definitely one way to get TA to notice you..but not in a good way.

At the last 2 conferences I've been at, one of the speakers as said to have a guest computer available and encourage your guests to do TA reviews. I think that's bad advice and I agree with Catlady.
.

.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

You can ignore them but they won't go away. First of all we didn't have a choice whether we wanted to be on Trip Advisor or not, and there is no way to opt out of it; although I hear you can be kicked off of it. Where do I sign up?

Forgot to mention that the way to get kicked off TA is to consistently & flagrantly post your own reviews of your own place. TA will warn you, then they will block reviews from being posted. But they do leave behind a message that the reason you were removed was for messing with the system..

I have a hate/hate relationship with TA. All but 2 of my reviews (57) are wonderful. I resent having to deal with TA at all, but as stated before, it's not going anywhere and this social media web 2.0 seems to be here to stay. So, you must adapt. My problem with it is that guests sometimes try to threaten you with bad reviews if you stick to your policies and they don't like it. That is why I even have those 2 bad reviews...I refuse to run my business out of fear of a bad review. By the way, those 2 bad reviews were totally made up by the guests. But I just deal with it.
Has anyone else set up a computer for the guests to use? I think I am being penalized by TA because they think I'm sending in my own reviews. The last several reviews I've seen or told by my guests they did here have not posted and it's been over a month. I don't know this for sure, but it seems like TA's system is penalizing me for having the reviews come from the same IP address. Does anyone else have this problem?
.

Threatened by guests?? Must be an American thing? Well, even so I would not allow 'blackmail', and that's what it is, to dictate my life. Sweetie pie says other countries are upset. Sure, people are human but what I meant was that this is not being discussed on any Canadian or UK boards I subscribe to. Yes, they know about TA, yes they get reviews and yes, some even solicit reviews. But...they do not have tails in knots over it. TA really doesn't get a mention on these boards. Seems that on this board it's a 'tempest in a teapot'. Or, as mentioned in my second statement here - is it an American thing? I hear you all talking about terrible things that happen in your inns that don't seem to happen in other countries .....
.

You know, tho, given some of those UK reviews (and boy, oh boy, do they know how to slam a property in the UK) maybe the proprietors SHOULD spend a bit more time thinking about and acting on the reviews! I think we here in the US take these things to heart, take them personally, which is why they upset us and we talk about them. We, more so than any other culture I've seen, WANT people to like us. Other people don't care. In Paris they didn't care if I liked them. In Dublin they didn't care if I liked them. In Nova Scotia they didn't care if I liked them. In Bermuda, well, you get the idea. When I go to Italy, I'll find out if they care if I like them, but I really think they won't care a lire.
.

Bree, most people do care about their businesses. I truly think you are all over-reacting! It's just that it is a site that is a tool and was originally set up to help people. Reviews were supposed to be 'true'. BB's started soliciting reviews (and some hotels) and all H**l broke loose. I will repeat that if people just went about their business and just quit looking at the thing it would all settle down. It's obviously upsetting a few on this board and it is simply not worth it. Personally, I hope people like me. I hope people are happy when they stay here and that nothing has upset them. I operate my business knowing I do the best that I can. I also know that I can't 'please all of the people all of the time' so I don't worry about it. I am not running a popularity contest either. I know I've done a good job and that's what counts.
I do know that when people are solicited for reviews it can backfire. I know that many, many bbs solicit reviews so now TA is meaningless for me with bbs because I don't trust the reviews. I've seen the solicitations happen too many times. I tell you this - the next person who asks me to write them up on TA will get a write up but I will undoubtedly also write that the proprietor asked me to do it.
.

Trip advisor will always be, so we just need to work with it.

 

[Morticia]

That's right Bree, shoot the messenger. If you bothered to actually read the blog before attacking, you would know that I had already answered the question about the MA Attorney General. And yes, I like to back up my statements with facts.
First of all, I don't have a bad rating on Trip Advisor. It is 4 stars, in spite of the 3 bad reviews and yes, I have posted management responses.

Sorry, I'm not reading global blogs about things I'm not interested in. And I'm not interested in panning TA.
I think you may have mentioned having a problem with TA in posting bad reviews about your place. So I assumed you had bad reviews. 3 bad reviews in 6 years is nothing. The fact that you got no satisfaction when you were publicly smeared IS something to be concerned about. But, you posted mgmt responses, so move on. If you stated clearly that the Bridezilla was in the wrong for trying to check-in with dirty shoes and that the NYE caller happened to catch you when you were out of town and the third person was out and out lying about whatever their complaint was, then the guests who read your other really good reviews, and there are probably dozens in 6 years, will know what to expect.
Take my word for it, I have not attacked. I have encouraged you left and right to post the facts HERE, not with links hither and yon. You finally did, somewhat, do that. And it seems you have a good reason for a gripe against TA. Someone posted a false review of your place and they did not believe the proofs you sent them, whatever that might be.
We did have another member here who had a similar thing happen. Totally false review posted about her place by someone who had never even stayed there. We encouraged her to contact TA immediately, but she instead chose to threaten the poster online and contact the poster incessantly to remove the post until the poster had HER emails blocked by TA and the online threat removed.
But shutting down TA won't stop bad reviews by people intent on smearing good people. I think Jay did a good job bringing our concerns to their attention. I prefer to work thru that channel to affect change.

 

[SweetiePie]

My opinion - you shouldn't have bothered to get worked up over any of it. Any normal and sane person would have read the reviews and taken them with a grain of salt. Not returning a phone call ... again, why worry about it. Do you think people are so ignorant as to not ignore that kind of a complaint on a review. Not worth worrying about..

I'm not wishing you any bad luck, but until you have a crackpot like this post something totally libelous about you online you really don't know what it is like. A business owner who ignores his business' reputation will not be in business long. When it affects YOUR bottom line, believe me you WILL care.

 

[ginocat]

My opinion - you shouldn't have bothered to get worked up over any of it. Any normal and sane person would have read the reviews and taken them with a grain of salt. Not returning a phone call ... again, why worry about it. Do you think people are so ignorant as to not ignore that kind of a complaint on a review. Not worth worrying about..

I'm not wishing you any bad luck, but until you have a crackpot like this post something totally libelous about you online you really don't know what it is like. A business owner who ignores his business' reputation will not be in business long. When it affects YOUR bottom line, believe me you WILL care.
.

So has it affected your business?????? My guess would be that it has not.

 

[muirford]

If you bothered to actually read the blog before attacking, you would know that I had already answered the question about the MA Attorney General. And yes, I like to back up my statements with facts.

Most of the links you have posted either go to generic blog pages that don't have anything to do with TA or they give outright 404 errors. I haven't read anything about the MA Attorney General on any of the pages that have been linked.

 

[Morticia]

That used to be the case, that new reviews would push the old ones to the bottom. However, now Trip Advisor has the ability to highlight any review they wish when someone searchs for your inn and their site comes up in the search. Provocative reviews get more hits so guess which ones get highlighted. Guests would now have to go backwards to see the most recent positive reviews. Wonder how many would be willing to take the time to do that?
Also, they give priority to inns listed on Expedia. I've been told, and this is rumor, that by joining you can have negative reviews removed since Expedia doesn't like negative reviews about their inns.
However, this I know from personal experience, that when searching for an area they will list your bad reviews and the Expedia inns good reviews in order to push the customer towards the Expedia inn.

For my area, all of the inns listed down the left side of the page (after a search on the TA site) are all inns or hotels that are now or once were on Expedia. And, yes, they definitely push their own listings because we have at least 20 inns & hotels in a 5 mile stretch here and most of the inns/hotels listed in that 'hotel ad' section are no where near here but they ARE Expedia properties. OTOH, if I click on the main page for my town (instead of the hotels tab) the only properties that show in that left panel ad section are Expedia properties in this town, you have to click the tabs to find places that are not Expedia listings. So, yes, TA does not make it easy to find properties they make no money from.
You cannot be on Expedia, however, unless you are on bedandbreakfast.com. Expedia will only deal with them, not the individual inn. And you can't get off Expedia once you're on it. You're there for good, whether you list rooms available or not.
I will disagree with the comment that they remove bad reviews from Expedia properties. Some of the worst reviews in my town are on Expedia properties.
If you want an example of how TA does not remove bad reviews from Expedia properties, take a look at this.

 

[Morticia]

My opinion - you shouldn't have bothered to get worked up over any of it. Any normal and sane person would have read the reviews and taken them with a grain of salt. Not returning a phone call ... again, why worry about it. Do you think people are so ignorant as to not ignore that kind of a complaint on a review. Not worth worrying about..

I'm not wishing you any bad luck, but until you have a crackpot like this post something totally libelous about you online you really don't know what it is like. A business owner who ignores his business' reputation will not be in business long. When it affects YOUR bottom line, believe me you WILL care.
.

So has it affected your business?????? My guess would be that it has not.
.

So has it affected your business?????? My guess would be that it has not.

This is one of those things that is so hard to prove or disprove. Now if there is a long list of places to stay and your place is at the bottom because of bad reviews, then yes, I guess it's provable. But, look at the link I posted about the place with bad reviews that is on Expedia. It is blatantly obvious that people are still booking there even tho the reviews are atrocious. Some places here with really bad reviews are full every weekend while places with stellar reviews are not.
When it's slow at my place and the 'stellar reviews' places are full, I blame it on TA.

When I'm full and they're not, I call it good luck. Who actually knows WHAT it is! Some days the Google fairies smile on me, other days they don't.