Trip advisor and why I hate it - grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

[Morticia]

Did you post management responses to the reviews you didn't like? You can do that if you cannot prove that the reviews are not about your place or are completely erroneous. If you haven't posted those responses, you can do it now. If you think that is just validating TA, well, you're the one stuck with the bad reviews, right? They're not going away, so you may as well make the best of it and put in your 2 cents about what went wrong and how you either changed to make sure it doesn't happen again or how the guest just didn't get it.
I did that with the review I had that was horrendous, the review that knocked me out of second place for my town and it will take 20 5* reviews before I have a chance of regaining that slot. I can't make the review go away but I can let anyone who reads it know that the guest was fully informed before arrival (and many times at that) what the policies are. (How she felt about us personally I cannot change and I didn't discuss in my response.)
If you can't fight 'em, then you have to learn how to game the system.
How long has your place been getting TA reviews? Just a couple of months? That's hard if your first reviews were not good.
See, I think you have to look at your own response, "You can ignore them but they won't go away," and change it to, "You can rant and rave about them all you want, but they're not going away." So learn to play the game.
Seriously, even if TA fell apart tomorrow, you know there are 5 other sites just clamoring for the spot TA holds in the review world. Bedandbreakfast. com would LOVE to have that slot. Look how hard they push to get you to get your guests to post reviews in their site. (Inns with reviews get more bookings!!! Inns with reviews get more click thrus!!!! Here are postcards you can give your guests so they review you online!!!! Heck, they've even suggested on here that we hand the guest the postcard and practically beg them to fill them out OR set up a computer in the lobby so guests can do the review right there. And you know they're doing it for the same reason...more revenue and keywords and better placement.)
Google allows reviews online. Yahoo Travel has a review section. I think almost all of the B&B directories have a review section, if you list on any directories. Everybody and their uncle has a review section on their travel website or blog. Heck, guests have their own blogs on which they post reviews-I've found my inn in some odd places with reviews posted.
Altho a lot of us have issues with TA, we're working in the system to make it work for us. It's not going away, social media is not going away, online reviews are here to stay. Make them work FOR you instead of against you. If you haven't replied back to the bad reviews, formulate a management response and post it. Show the incoming guests that you CARE about what people have said. THAT says more than the bad review does.
Like I said, game the system. Bury those bad reviews.

 

[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?
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. sf.eater.com/archives/2007/10/18/yelp_wanted_oakland_cafe_bans.php

How many terrible reviews did you get that you want to be eliminated from TA? Did you respond with a "gracious" mgmt response? Can you just run your business and ask guests who enjoyed their stay to write you new reviews to push the offending review downward on the list?

 

[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.

 

[ginocat]

My point is - quit going to look at it. Quit worrying about them. It's not worth all the stress that some of you seem to be going through. Yes, people read the reviews but really - anybody with common sense reads through them and reads between the lines. If somebody is getting a lot of negative reviews there's probably a reason for them. I know that someone in this town got bad reviews and those reviews were deserved even though that accommodation owner denied that the bad stuff existed.
Anyway, I don't see people on Canadian or English boards being so concerned about Trip Advisor. You all need to just let it run it's course and put your faith in how you conduct your business.
None of us are perfect and the odd bad thing might be mentioned. So what? And in some cases "a complaint is a gift" if one just listens to it. If the review is false then ignore it.
I might add that when people 'solicit' their guests to post they could be asking for trouble. Some people will go out of their way to find something negative to post just because they feel that something can't be all good. When I talk about ignoring Trip Advisor I mean ignore it completely. Who cares where you place on it? Trip Advisor is NOT the primary spot on the web for finding accommodations!

 

[NW BB]

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?

 

[NW BB]

My point is - quit going to look at it. Quit worrying about them. It's not worth all the stress that some of you seem to be going through. Yes, people read the reviews but really - anybody with common sense reads through them and reads between the lines. If somebody is getting a lot of negative reviews there's probably a reason for them. I know that someone in this town got bad reviews and those reviews were deserved even though that accommodation owner denied that the bad stuff existed.
Anyway, I don't see people on Canadian or English boards being so concerned about Trip Advisor. You all need to just let it run it's course and put your faith in how you conduct your business.
None of us are perfect and the odd bad thing might be mentioned. So what? And in some cases "a complaint is a gift" if one just listens to it. If the review is false then ignore it.
I might add that when people 'solicit' their guests to post they could be asking for trouble. Some people will go out of their way to find something negative to post just because they feel that something can't be all good. When I talk about ignoring Trip Advisor I mean ignore it completely. Who cares where you place on it? Trip Advisor is NOT the primary spot on the web for finding accommodations!.

I agree with you in principle...stop obsessing about it. I also agree that TA is not the primary spot on the web for finding accommodations. But, it IS the primary spot where people check reviews. The more this social media becomes the mainstream (and it will), the more people will want to look at reviews.
Especially in the past year I have heard over and over from my guests that they either "found" us on TA or they booked with us because of our reviews. I think that putting your head in the sand about TA or other review sites is dangerous to your business. Again, don't obsess about it...if you get any negative comments, analyze if there is any truth to it, fix it and get over it! Definitely do an owner's response.
I kind of look at this social media like how innkeepers looked at online availability/reservations years ago. Most innkeepers didn't want to have them...then kicking and screaming they had to accept them and now they see the positive nature of them. I think that's what this social media is for us now. We're in the kicking and screaming phase and in a few years we really will come to accept it, embrace it and use it to our benefit.

 

[muirford]

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?
.

We have a guest computer - if TA sees the reviews coming from the same IP address it is quite likely they will disregard them, or if the guests don't confirm the reviews when asked to. I suspect that is a bigger problem.
About one out of every 5 guests mentions looking at us on TA, so my guess is that even more do it than that. It would be nice to think everyone looks at it reasonably, but we all know that doesn't happen.
I think negative fraudulent reviews are particularly awful. People who do that for spite or to malign the competition are really despicable.

 

[EmptyNest]

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.

 

[NW BB]

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.

 

[springlady]

My point is - quit going to look at it. Quit worrying about them. It's not worth all the stress that some of you seem to be going through. Yes, people read the reviews but really - anybody with common sense reads through them and reads between the lines. If somebody is getting a lot of negative reviews there's probably a reason for them. I know that someone in this town got bad reviews and those reviews were deserved even though that accommodation owner denied that the bad stuff existed.
Anyway, I don't see people on Canadian or English boards being so concerned about Trip Advisor. You all need to just let it run it's course and put your faith in how you conduct your business.
None of us are perfect and the odd bad thing might be mentioned. So what? And in some cases "a complaint is a gift" if one just listens to it. If the review is false then ignore it.
I might add that when people 'solicit' their guests to post they could be asking for trouble. Some people will go out of their way to find something negative to post just because they feel that something can't be all good. When I talk about ignoring Trip Advisor I mean ignore it completely. Who cares where you place on it? Trip Advisor is NOT the primary spot on the web for finding accommodations!.

I agree with Ginocat - I consult TA when I plan a trip but it's the OVERALL tone of the reviews that I pay attention to, not the one oddball review that's out of sinc with all the others. If a bad review is followed by good reviews I ignore it.

 

[EmptyNest]

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.
.

Would you mind sharing WHO gave that kind of information? Was it an industry person or an innkeeper presenting? I think that is a bad mistake!

 

[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?
.

We have a guest computer - if TA sees the reviews coming from the same IP address it is quite likely they will disregard them, or if the guests don't confirm the reviews when asked to. I suspect that is a bigger problem.
About one out of every 5 guests mentions looking at us on TA, so my guess is that even more do it than that. It would be nice to think everyone looks at it reasonably, but we all know that doesn't happen.
I think negative fraudulent reviews are particularly awful. People who do that for spite or to malign the competition are really despicable.
.

We have a guest computer - if TA sees the reviews coming from the same IP address it is quite likely they will disregard them, or if the guests don't confirm the reviews when asked to. I suspect that is a bigger problem.
About one out of every 5 guests mentions looking at us on TA, so my guess is that even more do it than that. It would be nice to think everyone looks at it reasonably, but we all know that doesn't happen.
I think negative fraudulent reviews are particularly awful. People who do that for spite or to malign the competition are really despicable.

We now have a guest computer setup (and it's in use right now!) but I do not ask guests to leave reviews while they are still here. I think that's being too aggressive and may result in negative-sounding reviews.
I agree with you that anyone who would post a false review is despicable.

 

[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?
.

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 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.

It's been encouraged on here as well from bandb.com. Make sure the guest has the review card in hand when they leave, or have a convenient place for them to do the review online before they go, talk up the review process, etc. I would feel pressured unbelievably if, on vacation, I were hounded for reviews before I even left. And I would include in the review that I was hounded for a review.

 

[Morticia]

Been there, done that and you definitely don't want to go down that road. I too thought that having guests send the review from the inn computer was a good idea, since most of them don't want to open an account and get spammed forever by Trip Advisor.

What you appear to be saying is that the guest is NOT opening an account with their own name, but is using an account that is already opened by the inn. If the guest wants to leave a review they HAVE to use their own email address in order to avoid TA thinking these are just spam reviews.
So, are you saying that the reviews you got that were good all got deleted because your guests were using your computer? That stinks.
But, the idea that the reviews all seem to be coming from the same computer address is what may also be a concern.

 

[NW BB]

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.
.

Would you mind sharing WHO gave that kind of information? Was it an industry person or an innkeeper presenting? I think that is a bad mistake!
.

It's been industry people, but I can't remember exactly who. By the way, I do not have a computer set up, it's people using my wi-fi. Also, I don't solicit while the guest is here and only on occasion will I speak with them about posting reviews while checking them out.
There have been some reviews done on their own laptop, but on my wi-fi system. These guests have told me they did it because the TA reviews were so helpful to them when looking for a place to stay. They had already done their TA review while here, and I didn't know about it until after it happened. They thought they were helping us.

 

[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?
.

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.
.

Would you mind sharing WHO gave that kind of information? Was it an industry person or an innkeeper presenting? I think that is a bad mistake!
.

It's been industry people, but I can't remember exactly who. By the way, I do not have a computer set up, it's people using my wi-fi. Also, I don't solicit while the guest is here and only on occasion will I speak with them about posting reviews while checking them out.
There have been some reviews done on their own laptop, but on my wi-fi system. These guests have told me they did it because the TA reviews were so helpful to them when looking for a place to stay. They had already done their TA review while here, and I didn't know about it until after it happened. They thought they were helping us.
.

And that's an issue, too. Using the WiFi at the inn, not just an inn-supplied computer. Another reason to not push guests to do reviews 'on site'.

 

[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.

 

[EmptyNest]

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.
.

Well lets hope that those "industry people" read this thread and quit giving out that bad advice!

 

[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?
.

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.

 

[SweetiePie]

I am quite familiar with Jay's post and PAII. I was one of the 300 people who contributed to the list of issues he presented to Trip Advisor in his meetings with them.
The Attorney General told me that in her response to my complaint about Trip Advisor last year and it was part of Jay's notes on his meeting with them. Unfortunately, no action was taken nor has any real change come out of the meetings with PAII, at least on that issue, so far.
I don't know what constitutes the number of complaints that will move the Attorney General to action or the FTC for that matter, but my goal is to raise awareness that there is recourse and instead of simply complaining, innkeepers can actually do something constructive to solve the problem.
PAII is actually in somewhat of a bind as Trip Advisor is also a vendor. So I think they have to walk a fine line between the two groups.