TripAdvisor tries to respond to fake hotel reviews

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.
Good points: "Nevertheless, Elliott's advice to travelers is sound:
"Ignore the best and worst reviews (those are typically the fake ones)."
Except we have some great reviews that are real, I hope no one ignores them.
cry_smile.gif
 
Good points: "Nevertheless, Elliott's advice to travelers is sound:
"Ignore the best and worst reviews (those are typically the fake ones)."
Except we have some great reviews that are real, I hope no one ignores them.
cry_smile.gif
.
OK, so a few nights ago I was following a reviewer's trail on TA to get a sense of what their reviews were like. Came across one place in NYC that they stayed. Close to 500 reviews (big hotel). Most of them fell in the 3-1 category, about 35% were in the 4-5 star category.
Here's the breakdown-
Guests who hated the place hated this: dirty rooms, stained carpets, broken furniture, rooms not cleaned between guests in spite of being made to wait until after 5 PM to check in, no water, no heat, no A/C, rude, uncaring staff, broken elevators.
Guests who loved it the place loved this: pristine clean rooms, beautiful furnishings, lovely renovation, attentive staff.
No matter what the rating, tho, everyone said the location was great. Were these guests even on the same planet much less in the same hotel? Some of the reviews (I read a lot of them) even mentioned the SAME room number and one guest had a lovely room, nicely renovated and the same room had a guest within months who said the room was filthy, looked like the furnishings were from the 80's and the linen was blood stained when they pulled back the covers.
Which ones of those do you throw out?
Also, something I learned from reading these...don't book on any discount booking engine. Anyone who mentioned booking on those said they were given substandard rooms where they couldn't even turn around without one of them leaving the room. I guess there are rooms and then there are cheap rooms. Some of them had seen into the 'full price' rooms and said they were twice the size but no indication was given when they booked that they were getting a closet.
 
Thanks Joe. Round Two is on. I just faxed the CEO, Mr. Stephen Kaufer regarding this reader's comment.
I submitted a review to TripAdvisor warning other travelers of the B&B owner's manipulation attempts and advising them to think carefully before taking all of his B&B's 5 star reviews at face value. Unbelievably, TripAdvisor refused to publish my review, saying that I was accusing the B&B owner of fraud and therefore was violating their terms of service.
I want to know why this violates their "terms of service" while my offending fraudulent review does not?
We'll see what he has to say.
 
I had a fraudulent review posting to my TA and bb.com listings. A "gentleman" called for a two-room reservation, and they had an infant. We do NOT accept infants, tho I have been known to make an exception for children 5 and up. (My signifigant other has a touch of pedaphobia).
He was very nasty with me on the phone, and very insistent that I was going to take his reservation. As luck would have it, I had a honeymoon couple booked for that same week, so I stood my ground. He ended up hanging up on me after a spate of hate. I was watching him manuever my website while we were talking, and watched him click through to both TA and bb.com and he left putrid reviews on both right then about our uncooperative "staff". Being the dumba@@ that he was, he put right in his review that he was traveling with small children.
I contacted both places and explained what happened, about our policy and the fact that we have no staff, nor do we take small children. Both removed the reviews pending proof from him that he had stayed, and of course he hadn't, so the reviews never re-appeared. I had his IP number and his entire website visit printed out in case I needed it, but I never did.
That was pretty aggravating. And, I'm not one to wait patiently while things get done, so thank goodness TA and bb.com were both responsive.
 
How do you know what they are clicking on at your website while you are talking to them on the phone?
 
I had a fraudulent review posting to my TA and bb.com listings. A "gentleman" called for a two-room reservation, and they had an infant. We do NOT accept infants, tho I have been known to make an exception for children 5 and up. (My signifigant other has a touch of pedaphobia).
He was very nasty with me on the phone, and very insistent that I was going to take his reservation. As luck would have it, I had a honeymoon couple booked for that same week, so I stood my ground. He ended up hanging up on me after a spate of hate. I was watching him manuever my website while we were talking, and watched him click through to both TA and bb.com and he left putrid reviews on both right then about our uncooperative "staff". Being the dumba@@ that he was, he put right in his review that he was traveling with small children.
I contacted both places and explained what happened, about our policy and the fact that we have no staff, nor do we take small children. Both removed the reviews pending proof from him that he had stayed, and of course he hadn't, so the reviews never re-appeared. I had his IP number and his entire website visit printed out in case I needed it, but I never did.
That was pretty aggravating. And, I'm not one to wait patiently while things get done, so thank goodness TA and bb.com were both responsive..
Yes, you sound like you have some pretty sophisticated tracking going on! I am clueless on that stuff. Is there anything you are willing to share?
 
I use OpenTracker. You can see every visitor on your website in real time, see every page they visit, where they came from, where they went from your site, how long they spent on each page. It gives very sophisticated reporting not only on each guest, but also for your top referrers, most popular pages, top exit links, everything!
Go to opentracker.net to do the demo. They offer a four week free trial, so no reason not to try it. All you have to do is inset a snippet of html code that they give you on each page of your website.
 
I use OpenTracker. You can see every visitor on your website in real time, see every page they visit, where they came from, where they went from your site, how long they spent on each page. It gives very sophisticated reporting not only on each guest, but also for your top referrers, most popular pages, top exit links, everything!
Go to opentracker.net to do the demo. They offer a four week free trial, so no reason not to try it. All you have to do is inset a snippet of html code that they give you on each page of your website..
Thank you for sharing!
 
I use OpenTracker. You can see every visitor on your website in real time, see every page they visit, where they came from, where they went from your site, how long they spent on each page. It gives very sophisticated reporting not only on each guest, but also for your top referrers, most popular pages, top exit links, everything!
Go to opentracker.net to do the demo. They offer a four week free trial, so no reason not to try it. All you have to do is inset a snippet of html code that they give you on each page of your website..
Thank you for sharing!
.
I'm all about sharing...the more professional and successful we all are, the more professional and successful we all are...if that makes sense!
Here I have compiled a list of directory sites where you can list your Inn for free:
http://michiganinnguide.com/innkeepers/marketingtips.html
And Here, I have compiled a list of my favorite resources to help me run my Inn (many of which offer a free trial)
http://michiganinnguide.com/innkeepers/resources.html
And here, a little something to tickle the funnybone
http://michiganinnguide.com/innkeepers/innkeepinghumor.html
 
I use OpenTracker. You can see every visitor on your website in real time, see every page they visit, where they came from, where they went from your site, how long they spent on each page. It gives very sophisticated reporting not only on each guest, but also for your top referrers, most popular pages, top exit links, everything!
Go to opentracker.net to do the demo. They offer a four week free trial, so no reason not to try it. All you have to do is inset a snippet of html code that they give you on each page of your website..
Thank you for sharing!
.
I'm all about sharing...the more professional and successful we all are, the more professional and successful we all are...if that makes sense!
Here I have compiled a list of directory sites where you can list your Inn for free:
http://michiganinnguide.com/innkeepers/marketingtips.html
And Here, I have compiled a list of my favorite resources to help me run my Inn (many of which offer a free trial)
http://michiganinnguide.com/innkeepers/resources.html
And here, a little something to tickle the funnybone
http://michiganinnguide.com/innkeepers/innkeepinghumor.html
.
Little Blue Inn said:
I'm all about sharing...the more professional and successful we all are, the more professional and successful we all are...if that makes sense!
Here I have compiled a list of directory sites where you can list your Inn for free:
http://michiganinnguide.com/innkeepers/marketingtips.html
And Here, I have compiled a list of my favorite resources to help me run my Inn (many of which offer a free trial)
http://michiganinnguide.com/innkeepers/resources.html
And here, a little something to tickle the funnybone
http://michiganinnguide.com/innkeepers/innkeepinghumor.html
Thanks, but it's not going to do me any good.
cry_smile.gif

 
I use OpenTracker. You can see every visitor on your website in real time, see every page they visit, where they came from, where they went from your site, how long they spent on each page. It gives very sophisticated reporting not only on each guest, but also for your top referrers, most popular pages, top exit links, everything!
Go to opentracker.net to do the demo. They offer a four week free trial, so no reason not to try it. All you have to do is inset a snippet of html code that they give you on each page of your website..
Thank you for sharing!
.
I'm all about sharing...the more professional and successful we all are, the more professional and successful we all are...if that makes sense!
Here I have compiled a list of directory sites where you can list your Inn for free:
http://michiganinnguide.com/innkeepers/marketingtips.html
And Here, I have compiled a list of my favorite resources to help me run my Inn (many of which offer a free trial)
http://michiganinnguide.com/innkeepers/resources.html
And here, a little something to tickle the funnybone
http://michiganinnguide.com/innkeepers/innkeepinghumor.html
.
Little Blue Inn said:
I'm all about sharing...the more professional and successful we all are, the more professional and successful we all are...if that makes sense!
Here I have compiled a list of directory sites where you can list your Inn for free:
http://michiganinnguide.com/innkeepers/marketingtips.html
And Here, I have compiled a list of my favorite resources to help me run my Inn (many of which offer a free trial)
http://michiganinnguide.com/innkeepers/resources.html
And here, a little something to tickle the funnybone
http://michiganinnguide.com/innkeepers/innkeepinghumor.html
Thanks, but it's not going to do me any good.
cry_smile.gif

.
Take a look at the marketing tips link, those are not all MI links. My place is on a lot of them already. The only thing most of them are good for is the link love, tho. I rarely see any referrals from them.
 
Back
Top