Comments on: Can You Trust Trip Advisor?

By: Julie

Julie — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:11:10 +0000

Maybe it was because TravelZoo, their competitor was mentioned in the review. Perhaps you can re-submit your review without the mention of TravelZoo to see what happens. I’ve seen them remove links to competing websites on many reviews.

By: Rob

Rob — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 21:14:31 +0000

Thanks for your comments Pua. We asked Trip Advisor twice to publish our review or explain why they couldn’t. They refused and would only say that it did not meet their criteria.

Regarding the impact of a bad review on a small hotel or B&B, Trip Advisor allows the owner to write a management response if they disagree with a review.

You’re right that consumers need to do their own research. Jeff has a follow-up post coming this week on, “What travel industry consolidation means to your trip plans.”

In his upcoming post, Jeff mentions that Trip Advisor allows you to click on the name of the reviewer to see everything that he/she has written. This may help people decide if the review can be trusted.

We hope that we feel better about Trip Advisor in the future. After submitting many reviews over the years to them (without issue), we’re left wondering.

Aloha from Rob at Beat of Hawaii

By: Pua

Pua — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:12:56 +0000

I would definitelely contact Trip Advisor and ask them what the problem is with not publishing your review. Seems you are right there with conflict of interest.

I just talked to a Big Island B&B owner who has been running a quality B&B for 15 years on the Big Island about trip advisor reviews. She is not all so happy about it. It can really damage your reputation when people take tripadvisor as a vent for not having been happy with the weather or other parts on their vacation, not related to the accommodation.

But guess what this even happens with the ‘Big Island revealed’ (and other Hawaii Revealed Books) book. I was so astonished by a few really bad reviews which I could not agree with but there it’s printed, so tourists take it for granted. Always use your own judgment and do your own research. Aloha, Pua