Censorship at TripAdvisor re bogus hotel reviews
 

TA just removed an entire thread of several pages regarding bogus reviews of a hotel in Rome. It was on the Rome destination forum and contained very valuable contributions from experts regarding the "star system" in Italy and how it differs from other systems. There are a selective few members on some TA forums who like to bully and delete posts. Also, TA staff do not tolerate questions about investigation of suspicious reviews and regularly delete them. I also just learned that the helpful votes are not audited so a hotel or reviewer can vote for themselves. We should all ignore helpful votes. I'd like to post more information about the hotel and the suspicious reviews without fear of censorship. Can I do that here at FT or on some other venue?

Thanks for listening.

This topic was discussed in another thread. I analyze 18 TA reviews for the Hotel Rival in Stockholm and conclude most of them are fake. I submit that TA and similar review sites have devolved into uselessness. The better info is here on FT.

Most interesting: I discovered some people actually write reviews intentionally that sound like ad copy from an 8-year old: "The balmy Indian summer made the panoramic view from the plush 150-thread count couch even more dreamy."

These days I mainly use Tripadvisor for the reviewer pictures. I find it's a great way to see what hotel rooms actually look like, rather than what they advertise on their websites. I saw one stellar review that had pictures included only the pics were the same as the hotel's official ones. Oops!

Good for you! I agree with you on your analysis plus the fact that TA reviews have been severely devalued by their lack of enforcement. I'm also pleased to learn that FT has not censored you and therefore values your contribution.
I will now take the risk and post my own suspicions.

"use Tripadvisor for the reviewer pictures".

Would you be surprised to learn that TripAdvisor censors reviewer photos? I've had quite a few rejected with no reason. In one case, I uploaded a photo of a pizza chef with the backdrop of his wood-fired oven and wonderful ingredients. The restaurant manager gave me permission to take his photo and they looked forward to seeing it since it was the chef's birthday. But, rejected for no reason and no way to add photos later. Go figure.

Oddly enough, I have one fewer review on TA than I did last week. Not sure which one they excised yet.

How can a reputable company behave so irresponsibly? Perhaps they didn't watch Social Network "The Internet's not written in pencil, Mark, it's written in ink". TripAdvisor is written in pencil and they give big erasers to not only staff, but also to senior forum members.

On Yelp they allow you take a look at all the reviews they have filtered out of the results for each establishment for various reasons. Amusing to find restaurants with a dozen or more sham reviews.

TA could use something similar, as both the # and % of fake reviews is just getting absurd.

I would like to see them at least give me a challenge first, before unilaterally deleting. I could at least try to dig up an old receipt to prove I had the experience in question.

What a cool feature to discover on Yelp! Thanks so much for mentioning it. At the very bottom of all the reviews on the left side is a note saying how many reviews have been filtered out. If you click on it, it shows the hidden Yelp reviews. I can't say I agree with their censorship, but it is certainly more helpful than TripAdvisor's stance on fake reviews.

Grand Hotel Plaza Rome
 

OK. I am trusting FT members with my suspicions regarding a hotel in Rome Italy. My belief is that they are manipulating reviews on TripAdvisor, yet TA has done nothing to investigate this property. Yes, we did stay there and found it to be the worst European hotel in our many years of traveling. We checked the public areas again in January and found it to be unchanged, filthy, smelling of sewage, and badly in need of renovation and maintenance.

Yet, this TA member writes a glowing review stating that he is a UK tour operator traveling undercover and will now send his clients to this dump.

See his review here:

Suspicious review

It appears he also gave himself "helpful votes" to increase his credibility.

This property has "78 terrible" votes plus 72 voted "poor". TA does allow you to click on the bar chart of traveler ratings and see these honest reviews.

Other hotel reviews

Thanks for listening and any advice is appreciated.

Exhibit A while searching for hotels in Jordan (from two completely different reviewers):

"I stayed in Movenpick petra for 3 days and I had a great experience with this hotel. My room was clean, spacious and the hotel facilities were quite wonderful. I was also lucky to have a nice view from my hotel window. Toiletries were actually Dead Sea products which I very much liked! The staff were very helpful and I can say that I was well taken care of, they sent me complimentary fruitr basket. They had nice selection of restaurants and surprisingly they have an oof garden which was closed (open only summer ) I will recommend this hotel to my friends. "

Stayed April 2012, traveled as a couple

"I stayed in Grand Hyatt Amman for 5 days and I had a great experience with this hotel. My room was clean, spacious and the hotel facilities were quite wonderful. I was also lucky to have a nice view from my hotel window. Toiletries were actually Dead Sea products which I very much liked! The staff were very helpful and I can say that I was well taken care of, they sent me complimentary food and they also advised me which places to go to in order to see nice views of the city. They had nice selection of restaurants and surprisingly they have an awesome Asian restaurant at this hotel (one of the best Asian restaurants I ever experienced)! "

Stayed September 2011, traveled on business

For that review the key for me is " I went largely “under-cover” "

By that I am guessing he did no such thing, the hotel were fully aware that he was a travel agent scouting the property and thus a) gave him a good room that had been well cleaned b) ensured the service he received was top notch, and perhaps different to what Joe Bloggs experiences and c) for things like breakfast they perhaps increased their usual offerings to give a good impression.

Also, I am guessing he focused on the positives, having decided he will send people there (It is a good location, he seems correct in the type of decor - if you like that sort of thing (antique / historical isn't my thing, but I know people who do like it), and things like a roof terrace (which may well be lovely, as he said it was closed for the season).

I have to say I don't find his review surprising, considering that 'Largely undercover' comment at the start.

Thanks very much, lancebanyon, for compelling proof of fraudulent reviews at TripAdvisor. If you posted even a hint of your information on the TA forums, you would be attacked by the "volunteers", your posts would be deleted, and your account disabled. I was hoping their censorship would change when they became a public company, but it hasn't happened. Also, it has been reported that some hotels have taken legal action against TA regarding dishonest reviews. From what I recall from Business Law, it is illegal to destroy or withhold evidence - which is what they are doing by deleting posts.

Thanks emma for your supportive comments which might very well sum it up. I tend to think more negatively about the hotel's manipulation since much of what is wrong is very hard to hide i.e. the smell and condition of the hallways and public areas. The location is perfect as you say, which gives me hope that it will be renovated someday. Meanwhile, they continue to defraud travelers and TripAdvisor does nothing about it.