I must disagree and offer Yelp as an example. Their business is growing rapidly and it did not suffer when they started filtering reviews.
See this link for an explanation:
http://officialblog.yelp.com/2010/03...explained.html

TA is certainly capable of implementing something similar and probably better. The fact that they haven't, and yet continue to censor discussion of this topic, is the whole point of this thread.

If it 'didn't suffer' I would expect similar volume of reviews etc.

I put in a middle of the road, frequently used by both business and leisure travelers, non-destination hotel not to far from me. Yelp has 2 reviews - one from 2008, one from 2012. TripAdvisor has 111 reviews, the first page all from the last 2 months.

Just because TripAdvisor is more hotel oriented, I checked the Indian restaurant I went to at the weekend - it is a small place in a small town - TripAdvisor 13 comments, Yelp 1 comment.

I stopped posting reviews on TA when I realized I didn't need to waste my time writing content for them that they make money off of and instead I could just use the site truly for free. Someone on a TA forum asked why I stopped writing reviews, I told them and not only was my post deleted but my account got banned. Don't need the account either to use the site so no worries.

Thanks for sharing, trajanc. So, it seems there a few of us on this thread who have been censored and then disabled by TA. I wonder how many TA members in total have had their accounts deactivated while TA continues to make money from those member's reviews? Perhaps thousands and enough for a class action lawsuit?
I agree about the free use of the reviews and use TA myself to double check on hotels. Their censorship is shameful, immoral, and perhaps illegal, but there is valuable information in many of their member's reviews.

I would have a real problem with any of this. First, a number of people visit hotels who do not even stay at the hotel. What about people attending a conference or convention? What about someone who is invited in as a guest of someone staying at the hotel? None of these people may have any receipts to prove they visited the place. Second, why should I be forced to provide any receipts? It takes time and money to fax or mail documentation to anyone and more time for them to review this information. Finally, I would be very concerned about the hotel receiving the guest information from TA once documentation is revealed. Documentation equals the loss of anonymity. Reviewers are apt to be less honest with the loss of anonymity. I believe TA would be under great pressure to share this information with hotels (and restaurants). Retribution could occur. I might post negative information about a property yet still need to stay there (due to business reasons). The property could give me crappy rooms in the future, etc.

I don't disagree that being asked for proof would be a real hassle. That is why I believe TA should first review all suspicious hotel reviews that have been flagged X times. If the reviewer claims to have stayed at the hotel, TA should require proof or delete the ad. The proof should be anonymous i.e. room number, name, and address blacked out. Anyone not wanting the hassle could ignore the request and the suspicious review would be removed. I can't imagine why TA would ever provide a member's personal information to a hotel, so I'll let someone else address that point.

That's very interesting (and quite believable).

I submitted a critical review of an Accor hotel recently, and it was never posted. I was being honest, but it wasn't what TA wanted to hear. It's interesting though that the online booking agency that I made the reservation with posted my review verbatim.

So, I agree, its caveat emptor with Tripadvisor and I won't be submitting any more reviews to them.

#199 -- I was censored but my account was not deactivated (yet.) They removed a negative review.

Different issue: I travel a lot in China and have tried to post reviews of hotels in secondary cities that are not already in their system. It's extremely difficult to do.

They just are not running a good ship.

This is a fascinating thread. I will offer an example that may be germane to the topic of "valid" reviews on hotels. I worked for Starwood for a few years here in central Texas and I distinctly remember customers who called the reservations agent (myself and many others) complaining about the most piddling things such as the room service breakfast that had only two slices of bacon and not 4-5, the provided bath robe was too short, the view from their room did not face the ocean (though they admitted to me that the ocean view room was more than the room they booked and that they could not afford the view)....jeez, I could go on and on.

The point?? MANY of these people threatened me (and my fellow agents...believe me when I say we all used to laugh about many of the calls we dealt with) with statements like "I am going to trash your hotel on TripAdvisor or any other travel site I can find", etc etc etc....thus, those types of reviews based on petty dislikes are useless..period. I will use TripAdvisor for images of a property and nothing else. I would rather base a stay on the opinions and experiences of the many seasoned travelers here on FT and another forum I visit frequently. My $.02!!

Cheers,

I just wish the hotel operators who pad their reviews would be a little more creative. Where I live we have a Staybridge whose TA reviews are all 5*. The most recent 10 reviews all mention the "excellent staff" and the hotel is "very clean" and all 10 reviews were posted by first time posters. :rolleyes:

Has anyone else noticed a prolifertion of obviously professional, hotel provided photos on tripadvisor recently?

Given how useless the reviews have become, I have been using the site more and more as a way of just getting real, candid pictures of the property so you can at least get a sense of the physical property.

Here is but one example:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev..._Colorado.html

Look at the "traveler" photos. Those provided by VFM Leonardo Inc are clearly professional images that I can just get from their website. I do know that TA is reviewing and censoring images that are being uploaded, so they are clearly complicit in allowing this to happen.

I submitted a news article about prostitution busts at the local hooker hotel.
They denied my entry. Wouldn't you like to know about news reports about the hotel you might choose, whether a murder or rash of car break ins? I haven't trusted them since. Censorship is alway wrong.

TA's reviews have been scammed for a long time. IMO they still have value. You just have to filter out the blatantly bogus ones (like a user who joined very near the review date with a single very positive review).

I don't know about TA's photo review policy. But I have seen obviously professional photos in the pictures for other hotels. I just skip them. I agree it is a PITA.

I wish TA would use Yelp's review filtering technology. It seems to work really well.

http://officialblog.yelp.com/2009/10...ew-filter.html

Yep, that about gets it. There are obviously fake reviews and professional photos, but so far they are fairly easy to mentally filter. TA still has value, you just have to filter out the junk, plus any place that does have a number of fake reviews is automatically suspect.

You don't think the hotel's are one step ahead? Signing up new users to write single reviews is so 2010. Now you can find people advertising long-standing profiles complete with pictures of "real" people to make people think their reviews are genuine. A well established and "respectful" online profile has monetary value. So don't think it is so easy to avoid fake reviews.

But the photos is just a clear cut example of where TA is clearly turning a complete and utter blind eye to it's own apparent rules.