Originally Posted by
lavedder
I have been a regular contributor to Tripadvisor and my one negative review of a touring company was deemed not acceptable to be published. However I heard from the owner of the company wanting to know the reasons for my negative review. Since my post wasn't published, I would have to assume that all reviews are submitted to those who advertise heavily on Tripadvisor first and they can nix the negative reviews.
This tour company has over 400 positive reviews and I wonder how many are shills. From this experience, all reviews are not to be trusted.
Likewise I recently wrote a review on TripAdvisor about a hotel lobby cafe. It was removed initially. Then reinstated. Then moved away from the hotel itself to the hotel restaurant (not where we were) after the general manager had replied to a few other reviews.
All without any action on my part.
I also noticed other negative reviews had been completely removed.
A Google search indicates that this is common and there has been newspaper reporting that TripAdvisor is less than reliable.