Would you accept a full refund in exchange for taking down a TripAdvisor review?
 

Wrote a three star review for a three star experience at a VRBO property five night stay in Italy. The owners had subbed out management during the period we were there and the woman they left in charge was an absolute disaster (this wasn't a flat...it was more of a small resort on Lake Como).

After reading my review, the owner emailed and apologized for the poor service we received from their sub, said they rarely take time off from the business but did during the week we were there to accompany their daughter to a sporting event, and offered a full refund...if I would take down the review, stating that a 3 star review (especially from a senior reviewer) would really hurt their small business.

On the one hand, I feel like it was a fair but honest review based on my experience.

On the other, it was clearly a bit of an outlier experience, as every other review refers to the owners/host as the gem of the property.

Unless, of course, they bribe all bad reviewers to take down their less-than 4* review....

We're talking 1300 euros.

Would you take the 'bribe?'

Yes I would

Interesting conundrum. What I would expect in this situation is for the owners to make a public response to the review explaining publicly what they've explained to you in private.

I don't even see a way to delete my most recent review—is it something that can easily be done?

I'd be a big fan of getting $1300 Euros back, but I'm not sure I could bring myself to do this. Something just doesn't feel right.

Yes. It's not even a question. You weren't satisfied and they went above and beyond to make things right. You're not claiming to be a journalist or anything. Absolutely no moral reason not to do it.

I checked. It's not obvious, but relatively simple after a little research.

I would certainly take the EUR 1300 and take down the review. People settle disputes every day.

yes, without any more thought. Everyone can have a bad day

Would you accept a full refund in exchange for taking down a TripAdvisor review?
 

$1300 euros? Yes absolutely I would accept that!

I have done this.

Prior to our trip to Alaska in 2014, I had booked a specific helicopter pilot a year in advance, and paid him a year in advance.

When the day came he met us and said the heli was down, waiting for a part, but he could get us on a float plane. We really had no interest in going on a float plane, but there was nothing else we wanted to do, so we let him take us to the plane, dropped us off, so it had apparently been pre-arranged.

We get back from the float plane, it was OK, just meh, and there were some sales guys asking everyone who came by about booking different tours. I made the comment that we had booked the heli but X pilot said it was down. He told us the that X had had been flying all morning. Clearly he had double booked.

I was pi$$ed. I went on Trip Advisor and told it exactly like it was. Very shortly I got call from X pilot begging me to take down the negative review. That my review would drop him way down since I was a senior reviewer. He would give me a full refund, but please take it down, that was how he supported his family blah, blah, blah.

I told him exactly how I felt about what he had done. That I had been looking forward to his tour for a year. That I loved the doors off heli we did in Honolulu, was extremely disappointed with him operating his business like that, and canceling a year long pre-paid booking.

In the end I did go on Trip Advisor and deleted my review. I didn't change it, I just deleted it, so I know they can be deleted.

I would. Perhaps the only ethical conondrum here is, "by removing my 3 star review it doesn't give the full picture to future guests," to which I would say screw it, 1300 euro more than makes up for it.

Two cases:
1. The owners are being honest. Future guests all get the owners managing the property and get a 4/5 star stay.
2. The owners are refunding EVERY <4 star review. Future guests who end up getting 'conned' by the fake reviews ... leave a poor review and get their stay refunded as well. So no harm done.

I'll write a blatantly fake review of the place for that kind of money. Why should the travel bloggers get all the perks?

Would you accept a full refund in exchange for taking down a TripAdvisor review?
 

Would you do it for €500?

Would you accept a full refund in exchange for taking down a TripAdvisor review?
 

Not sure what came though but question should have read five hundred euros.

Three star, and they're willing to pay €1300 to have it taken down? Wow....

Do you mind sharing a redacted version of the review?

For our sake refuse the refund. For your sake- take the money.

I would do it. I can see some moral concern about changing a review for money, but taking one down? No problem.

that is called service recovery. you could have talked to sub / owner about problems.

good service includes good service recovery. problems can (and do) happen anywhere.

Maybe after I take it down. Which is how I am leaning after reading the advice here!!!

;)

Honestly, I feel like it's really fair. Blunt. But fair!

I turned down $500 US to take down a review. I don't want others to have to deal with what I went through. How about they give you back a good portion of your money because their service was poor? Why ask you to remove the review? Rather - I would add a second review (or EDITUPDATE) my initial review saying that the owners got in touch with me AFTER I posted this review to make things right. So they are stand up, but you should know what happened. I think that is fair

Hell yeah me too! I might of even taken it down for only for 300

If you feel guilty about taking that much, you can send half to me. I would take the review down.

Not legal

Of course it's legal. It's just a question of how invested OP is in maintaining the "purity" of TripAdvisor.

The owner is trying "erase" the stay, as if it never happened, by refunding the whole cost. Interesting stance, as it seems to indicate the owner is accepting full responsibility for a bad stay.

Whats not legal?

I would take my review down for a full refund in a second. I am also a Senior reviewer (in fact in the top 1%) on TA and it sounds to me the owners want to make it right. Take the money and run.

I would not change my review to 4*. I would remove it. TA allows this.

If you believe they are genuine, I'd consider taking it down. I've been offered a "bribe" to take down ebay ratings before, which I refused.

I'm a little surprised that a hotel would offer so much money to take down 1 3-star review. How many total reviews are there?

I have turned down money offered this way through a restaurant I reviewed on TA. I did end up after much consideration taking down the review because it was unduly harsh and probably not fully warranted, but there is no way I would accept money to do so if I hadn't bothered to bring my concerns to the management on the day of my visit.

On principle, I would not agree to this. If they offered to refund my stay in order to earn my satisfaction, I would accept it, and amend the review accordingly. However, I would not accept direct compensation for modifying the review.

If they offered this to me, I would amend my review to include their explanation of why the service was poor. I would urge future guests to inquire whether this sub will be dealing with them. I may even add a star if I feel it is justified by the response I received to my comments, but not directly for money.

I would take the money.

I've stayed in a lot of hotels in the last year and two of them gave me terrible experiences. Absolutely deserving no stars. One hotel apologised wholeheartedly, comped our stay, free drinks, etc. BUT thing that stopped me posting a terrible ta review was that the staff went out of their way to acknowledge fault and deal with it. They managed genuine (sounding) apologies and each staff member appeared to be trying their hardest. When we checked out they had even comped our parking which we hadn't asked for, nor expected.

The other hotel, however, gave us the impression that the staff thought we were whingers. Even though we had happily stayed there for years. We were frequent travellers who, instead of an upgrade, got a terrible & noisy room. Didn't notice the noise til nighttime & got next to no sleep. When we got the manager to listen he acknowledged the noise. Tried to move us to another noisy room (acting like we were lucky because it had a sea view.) A whole catalogue of hotel failures, not helped by 5 or 6 staff members giving us inaccurate info (or possibly lying?) One even pouted as we had mentioned his inaccuracies to the manager. Looking back I wished we'd checked out then but didn't want to waste precious holiday time seeking an alternative. We got the 1st night comped & eventually moved to a quieter room. It had a sea view but was accessible so not as nice.

Reading the ta reviews I could see others had posted complaints about the same things but none of them gave less than FOUR stars. So if that hotel offered cash back I would have snapped it up. If the other customers are so stupid they give 4/5 stars, then my review would make zero difference.

BTW, the first hotel did not ask for trip adviser reviews. The other hotel had notices asking for reviews plastered all over the place. So I gave them one.

I would accept the offer because, for reasons they explained, what you got was not the typical experience that other guests can expect. Even if this is explained by an edit or by the owner's response, people who read these reviews take them as representing what they'll find. This is not the case, so your review is misleading - not through malice or deliberate action on your part, you didn't know when you wrote it, but misleading nonetheless. The fact that they're offering you compensation to take it down is nice, but almost irrelevant.

Ditto. They screwed up, but it sounds like they are willing to make it right.

This shows how useless TripAdvisor is. Not useless, in fact, but dangerous and misleading. Why people rely on it is beyond me.

But, to the OP, why on earth not complain to the owner rather than in public? When things go wrong, assuming you want satisfaction rather than grandstanding, a complaint in the right place is the best way to sort it out.

Yeah, that's honestly my biggest concern: contributing to the unreliability of TA.

A good and fair question. My first impulse was to email the owner. But then it occurred to me that the sub must have been answering my emails to the owner about arrival logistics the day before since she told us the owners had been out of town all week (it was an [email protected] type of email address).

So I figured an email complaining about the sub sent to an email address that the sub was replying to would be pretty worthless.

Also, there were a couple of issues unrelated to the sub that seemed under-reported on TA (and that i wished i'd known about), such as accessibility issues and the ferry schedule.

Yes, the issue of the sub is apparently a rare occurrence. Maybe even a one-off, if i am to believe the email offering the refund.

And, assuming that's true, that's the strongest case for accepting the offer and taking it down.

I agree but what's the alternative? Trip Advisor reviews have saved me on several occasions.. like the time I almost booked in Frankfurt's red light district.

I have stayed at places with poor reviews and been fine and I also don't rely solely on positive reviews. It's more the information included in the reviews that I like. Other than that, you have to take it with a grain of salt and understand that people who are angry or extremely happy are more likely to leave reviews than the average person.

Using TA to make travel decisions is indeed an art. The overall rating is meaningless since some peole give one star becasue the pool was too cold or five stars because they had maple bacon. You gotta read, read, read. I always start with 3* reviews then work my way up from there. I also try to provide as much detail as possible in my reviews and appreciate it when other do as you never know what is important to someone.

But I start every travel investigation with a google of flyertalk: xyz hotel or whatever. I find Flyertalk reviews (when they exist) to be far more reliable and relatable than TA reviews. @:-)^

I do not think 300 would be enough for business class seat...

I'd take it down and NOT asking for money.

(I really expected something TOTALLY different from this thread)

Sure. If the hotel is willing to refund the full amount I'd take the money without a second thought.

if one lets the property know that they are going to check-out, that should usually clear up questions of motives.

would be nice to see more discussion of things like checking-out early, and service recovery, on FT. but of course service recovery requires good service, which seems to be less common in most places. sometimes may require experienced guest.

review sites by their definition are unreliable. that does not mean one cannot find information on them.

on a forum there is discussion, you get to know forum members, there is no business relationship between suppliers and forum (forum is not selling services to suppliers), moderation helps limit/prevent fake reviews (good/bad) and guerrilla marketing (and members do the same), AND the forum has a limited (primary) target audience. the biggest review sites have massive market/mainstream/public awareness. very different from say FT. forums like FT also avoid many negative aspects of social media, while review sites are / and have become very much social media.