October 01, 2010
With customer retention and attraction key to surviving the recession’s aftermath, an ever growing number of hoteliers are taking legal action against popular review site TripAdvisor following a barrage of negative comments.
As many as 700 owners of guesthouses, Bamp;Bs and hotels are joining forces to tackle what they see as unfair reports by unregulated site contributors which have had a serious effect on bookings and profits.
According to the Guardian, one claimant says she has been branded a racist after turning a potential guest away, another says he is giving up the Bamp;B business he has run for 30 years following an online review claiming his rooms were dirtier than a “sewage works”.
TripAdvisor has become the go-to site for prospective holidaymakers wishing to double-check the credentials of hotel bookings. Compiled almost exclusively by fellow travelers, the site undergoes little to no regulation and any comment can be posted to its forums, libelous or not.
So far, TripAdvisor has refused to comment on any of the cases which are the subject of "threatened or pending litigation".
However, a spokeswoman told the Guardian: "We believe our more than 35m reviews and opinions are authentic and honest from real travellers, which is why we enjoy tremendous user loyalty and growth. If the reviews people read didn't paint an accurate picture users would not keep coming back.”
All reviews were screened by online tools and "quality assurance specialists" investigated "suspicious" ones, said TripAdvisor, and Hoteliers had the chance to post a response.
