KevinDTW

OP, I would have done exactly the same as you. Did you attempt to address the problems while you were there -- did you try to escalate beyond the sub to the actual owners?

kokonutz

Again, our only point of contact with the owners was an email address that the sub clearly was replying to during the week we were there.

emma69

In that case, I consider it the correct outcome, albeit a little delayed in its process.

Doc Savage

Drinks are on you at the next DO, kkn.

Clint Bint

I once left an poor TA review of the U2-owned Clarence Hotel in Dublin after a particularly awful stay there - it really is a poxy hotel.
I received a surprised but earnest response from the owner of another Clarence Hotel in the UK where I had mistakenly put the review.
I apologised profusely and contacted TA who organised the change almost immediately - I'd be surprised if there wasn't a way of removing this review.

javabytes

I don't see any problem with this. They screwed up, you complained publicly, they offered to make amends in a major way, and you revoking your public complaint was a condition of that. Plenty of disputes/grievances/etc. are settled privately every day. We don't hear about most of them and life goes on for all parties involved. This sounds like a legitimate one-time issue; after all, I doubt they'd be in business long if they had to frequently issue such refunds.

DenverBrian

Sorry I'm late to the party...I would have used their offer as the opening salvo in a negotiation, and countered with:

--I'll take the review down if you refund me half the total, AND
--Provide me with a free stay within the next year, where I will write a 100% honest review, not subject to any further negotiations. Whatever experience I get in the next (free) stay...that review will stay up.

Win-win for everyone.

kokonutz

They did offer another 5 night stay (with them rather than a sub hosting) OR a full refund.

Since I have no intention of returning to Como anytime soon that was a non-starter.

But that did provide some goodwill on my part.

sbm12

So you knew that during the week it was a sub. Did you contact them after the stay ended, when the real owner was back, to try to get a mutually amicable resolution before posting on TA?

I'm not surprised at all.

But one who appears to take pride in the content you generate online, both here and on TA, to help other travelers. Unless, of course, you're being paid to not tell the truth about your experience.



Also, http://www.tripadvisor.com/TripAdvis...-against-rules. I'm pretty sure the owner is violating at least the spirit, if not the letter, of this rule.

ETA: If I'm researching correctly it seems that the property has no reviews since 2013. If that's the case then I question whether this is the first time they've done this or if you got played a bit. Or I found the wrong property.

DenverBrian

Very nice. Also note that the managers could have simply responded publicly on TA to your 3-star review with an apology and a note that they've refunded your stay. Demonstrating and documenting their service recovery to the world might have provided more overall goodwill than trying to get you to redact your review, and is probably ethically more solid. (A criticism of them, not you.)

superangrypenguin

Well if they did this, wouldn't people just write a bad review and then know that the hotel will oblige and give them a refund? (eg abuse?)

747FC

I find your response to the OP quite rude. He/she had the cojones to come to FT, explain his/her situation and ask for advice. He/she obviously has to weigh the situation based on all the facts involved, much of which cannot be comprehensively shared in this forum. He/she does not deserve snarky commentary. Unless, you are perfect.

lighthand

I've only read Ops first post. But for me if I budgeted a fixed sum of money and time for my vacation, I would keep my honest posting as it is.

Maybe I'm naive, but I still believe in old fashion honesty. If the place is sub-par, it's sub-par. At best I would amend my post to reflect that the Owner themselves were not there, and point clearly to the facts of the matter. This will allow the Owner to put up their explanation in the comment, and defend themselves in a transparent manner.

If after that they still wish to compensate you as an act of good faith, then this show they were really sincere to correct this service lapse.

sbm12

Yes, he came for advice. And I offered mine. I don't think it is snarky nor do I think I'm prefect. But if one is going to write reviews of products then I believe one has the obligation to carry some integrity through that process. Choosing to not write a review - or to remove a bad one - because you've been paid off kills that integrity IMO.

Had he not written a review because he was lazy or because the stay was unremarkable then that's just the way life is. But in this case he put a price tag on his integrity and position as a "trusted adviser" in the TripAdvisor community and in this one. I think that's pretty crappy. I'm sure plenty of people will disagree with me, and I'm okay with that. But I'll continue to enjoy the opportunity to share my views on such things, especially when someone show up here and asks for them.

As I mentioned up-thread, I think there are several different ways the review could have been either avoided in the first place or updated following the contact with the real host after the stay to explain that, while it was a less than wonderful experience the host was responsive to concerns. It turns out that net promoter scores are often higher following service recovery than if the company just provides the good service in the first place.

But, personally, knowing that the OP chose to take a wad of cash to rescind a review means I will almost certainly not trust his opinion on such things in the future. (Ditto for many other people who have posted here saying that the money is more important.) And I believe that's the sort of input he was seeking when asking the original question.

I certainly am not perfect, but when I write a review of a product it is based on paying for it myself, not because I've been bought.

^^^

There are so many ways to make the point that the stay was not perfect but that there were extenuating circumstances which others should not expect. Of course, that assumes we trust the host that this really was an outlier experience.

DenverBrian

If it was a chain hotel with thousands of reviews, maybe.

You have a dark view of humanity.