One of Asia Pacific’s largest accommodation lobby groups
says dealing with powerful review website TripAdvisor has become a huge issue
for its 2000 members with the “possibility for abuse” having the “strong
potential to undermine a business and damage it”. The Accommodation Association
of Australia says operators regularly complain of “malicious”, “bogus” and
“vexatious” reviews they feel powerless to stop.
“It is here where there is a strong concern that the process
is weighted against operators, with their responses more likely to be moderated
than those of the reviewer,” wrote Michael Georgeson, Manager National
Operations for AAA.
“In a recent case presented to us, the site was used in a
personal attack on a property manager via a review where the manager was
accused of inebriation (amongst other complaints) whilst on duty.
“In this case, the property was able to identify that the
reviewer was the disgruntled former partner of the manager. Despite
having this fact pointed out to TripAdvisor, the site refused to remove the
review.
“The property was fortunately able to go directly to the
reviewer and have the listing removed. However, this case underscores the lack
of control and severity of attack that is possible.
“The possibility for abuse can mean that TripAdvisor has the
strong potential to undermine a business and damage it quite substantially.
“This potential has been realised quite acutely in at least
one UK case, where a targeted campaign was launched by an individual posting
negative bogus reviews on a restaurant they had not even visited.
“Whilst it is unfortunate that this is not the only example,
it is amongst those which have led to legislative changes in the UK.
“The issues are not limited to these negative reviews and
the potential for attack either – even the positive reviews have pitfalls which
may be questioned.
“Ghost-writing opportunities are available for the posting
of reviews, in some cases specifically identifying TripAdvisor and the process
to generate numbers of reviews from multiple profiles.
“To date, the advice of the Accommodation Association to
members has been to attempt to respond to reviews through TripAdvisor.
“However, the consistent feedback from operators is that
getting a response from the site operators is difficult, and when successful,
responses to reviews can be heavily moderated, with one member saying the final
response allowed was almost pointless.
“It is here where there is a strong concern that the process
is weighted against operators, with their responses more likely to be moderated
than those of the reviewer.
“Regardless, at this stage a measured response via
TripAdvisor seems the only productive means of engagement with reviewers.”
(Source: Travel Trends News)
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