Beware of Tripadvisor -- now heavily censoring negative reviews for partner hotels

[Dan Druff]

I used to really like Tripadvisor. I found it to be superior to Yelp for rating hotels.

However, I just ran into a pretty shady experience, and upon reading further reports on the net, I believe they are now showing blatant favortism for high-performing partners.

Tripadvisor mainly makes their money when you book through them. So if you read a good review on Tripadvisor and click the button to book the hotel, they get a commission.

Unfortunately, this introduces the incentive for Tripadvisor to stamp out bad reviews for the properties making them the most commission.

I took a trip in August up the California/Oregon/Washington coast. I was happy with most of the hotels on that trip, which I researched pretty thoroughly before booking.

However, one of the hotels near the end of the trip featured a non-working toilet on the first night of our two night stay. They tried to fix it, and couldn't until the maintenance man showed up the next day. Keep in mind that I noticed this at 6:30pm, so it's not like I was demanding they fix it at 4:00am or anything like that. They were sold out and could not switch our room.

When I woke up the next morning, whatever was wrong with the toilet fixed itself. Fortunately I had proof that the toilet was really having issues the day before, as two different employees came up and examined it (and unsuccessfully had tried to fix it).

The place was over $200/night, meaning my total bill was well over $400 for the 2 nights. I asked the manager to give me a reduction because of not having a working toilet for half the stay. She argued and debated with me for 20 minutes, saying dumb things like, "The toilet works now, so I don't see what the problem is", completely ignoring that I had to deal with a non-working toilet for half of my stay! She got more and more obnoxious as the conversation wore on, and eventually offered me a whopping $18 (lol) off the $400+ bill.

Only when I threatened to post a video of the broken toilet (which I actually didn't have) on social media did she up that $18 to $50, calling me a "blackmailer" and some other unflattering names.

I wasn't looking for a comped stay or anything huge, but I felt I was entitled to something decent off my bill because no working toilet was pretty major.

In general, I also found the staff of this place to be phony and condescending, even before this toilet issue.

The reviews of this place average 4.5 stars out of well over 1000 entries. There are very few 1 star reviews posted there.

I attempted to post a 1-star review because of my horrible experience there, and the review was rejected. Tripadvisor would not give me a reason, simply stating I violated their terms. They would not tell me which term I violated.

I tried rewriting the review and toning it down. No good. Rejected again.

I checked carefully, and I am following their rules to the letter.

They just don't want to post my 1-star review.

I have since read more about Tripadvisor, and this seems to be a common occurrence with their "high performing" partners. Simply put, they want to suppress bad reviews for those properties.

This makes the reviews on Tripadvisor unreliable, which is how I got steered to this poorly managed hotel in the first place.

So beware of Tripadvisor. Don't assume that a property with 1000 reviews and 4.5 stars is going to be a great experience. It may not be.

[FRANKRIZZO]

Lol at her calling you a black mailer. I always look at trip advisor. That is unusual that they would sensor because I have seen some scathing reviews on there. Does Trip Advisor have support you can contact to find out why they are not allowing you to publish your review? Obviously biasing their reviews by censoring when not abusing their tos makes them unreliable.

[4Dragons]

So just because you took TripAdvisor's advice, did you at least check yelp for that property? Did it make you feel stupid now or did it not give you a hint that you were steering into trouble?

[tgull]

Can you post what you posted on Trip Advisor here? I'd like to inspect it to see if they had a point or if you were wronged.

[handicapme]

I used to really like Tripadvisor. I found it to be superior to Yelp for rating hotels.

However, I just ran into a pretty shady experience, and upon reading further reports on the net, I believe they are now showing blatant favortism for high-performing partners.

Tripadvisor mainly makes their money when you book through them. So if you read a good review on Tripadvisor and click the button to book the hotel, they get a commission.

Unfortunately, this introduces the incentive for Tripadvisor to stamp out bad reviews for the properties making them the most commission.

I took a trip in August up the California/Oregon/Washington coast. I was happy with most of the hotels on that trip, which I researched pretty thoroughly before booking.

However, one of the hotels near the end of the trip featured a non-working toilet on the first night of our two night stay. They tried to fix it, and couldn't until the maintenance man showed up the next day. Keep in mind that I noticed this at 6:30pm, so it's not like I was demanding they fix it at 4:00am or anything like that. They were sold out and could not switch our room.

When I woke up the next morning, whatever was wrong with the toilet fixed itself. Fortunately I had proof that the toilet was really having issues the day before, as two different employees came up and examined it (and unsuccessfully had tried to fix it).

The place was over $200/night, meaning my total bill was well over $400 for the 2 nights. I asked the manager to give me a reduction because of not having a working toilet for half the stay. She argued and debated with me for 20 minutes, saying dumb things like, "The toilet works now, so I don't see what the problem is", completely ignoring that I had to deal with a non-working toilet for half of my stay! She got more and more obnoxious as the conversation wore on, and eventually offered me a whopping $18 (lol) off the $400+ bill.

Only when I threatened to post a video of the broken toilet (which I actually didn't have) on social media did she up that $18 to $50, calling me a "blackmailer" and some other unflattering names.

I wasn't looking for a comped stay or anything huge, but I felt I was entitled to something decent off my bill because no working toilet was pretty major.

In general, I also found the staff of this place to be phony and condescending, even before this toilet issue.

The reviews of this place average 4.5 stars out of well over 1000 entries. There are very few 1 star reviews posted there.

I attempted to post a 1-star review because of my horrible experience there, and the review was rejected. Tripadvisor would not give me a reason, simply stating I violated their terms. They would not tell me which term I violated.

I tried rewriting the review and toning it down. No good. Rejected again.

I checked carefully, and I am following their rules to the letter.

They just don't want to post my 1-star review.

I have since read more about Tripadvisor, and this seems to be a common occurrence with their "high performing" partners. Simply put, they want to suppress bad reviews for those properties.

This makes the reviews on Tripadvisor unreliable, which is how I got steered to this poorly managed hotel in the first place.

So beware of Tripadvisor. Don't assume that a property with 1000 reviews and 4.5 stars is going to be a great experience. It may not be.

I mean........

[TheXFactor]

I used to really like Tripadvisor. I found it to be superior to Yelp for rating hotels.

However, I just ran into a pretty shady experience, and upon reading further reports on the net, I believe they are now showing blatant favortism for high-performing partners.

Tripadvisor mainly makes their money when you book through them. So if you read a good review on Tripadvisor and click the button to book the hotel, they get a commission.

Unfortunately, this introduces the incentive for Tripadvisor to stamp out bad reviews for the properties making them the most commission.

I took a trip in August up the California/Oregon/Washington coast. I was happy with most of the hotels on that trip, which I researched pretty thoroughly before booking.

However, one of the hotels near the end of the trip featured a non-working toilet on the first night of our two night stay. They tried to fix it, and couldn't until the maintenance man showed up the next day. Keep in mind that I noticed this at 6:30pm, so it's not like I was demanding they fix it at 4:00am or anything like that. They were sold out and could not switch our room.

When I woke up the next morning, whatever was wrong with the toilet fixed itself. Fortunately I had proof that the toilet was really having issues the day before, as two different employees came up and examined it (and unsuccessfully had tried to fix it).

The place was over $200/night, meaning my total bill was well over $400 for the 2 nights. I asked the manager to give me a reduction because of not having a working toilet for half the stay. She argued and debated with me for 20 minutes, saying dumb things like, "The toilet works now, so I don't see what the problem is", completely ignoring that I had to deal with a non-working toilet for half of my stay! She got more and more obnoxious as the conversation wore on, and eventually offered me a whopping $18 (lol) off the $400+ bill.

Only when I threatened to post a video of the broken toilet (which I actually didn't have) on social media did she up that $18 to $50, calling me a "blackmailer" and some other unflattering names.

I wasn't looking for a comped stay or anything huge, but I felt I was entitled to something decent off my bill because no working toilet was pretty major.

In general, I also found the staff of this place to be phony and condescending, even before this toilet issue.

The reviews of this place average 4.5 stars out of well over 1000 entries. There are very few 1 star reviews posted there.

I attempted to post a 1-star review because of my horrible experience there, and the review was rejected. Tripadvisor would not give me a reason, simply stating I violated their terms. They would not tell me which term I violated.

I tried rewriting the review and toning it down. No good. Rejected again.

I checked carefully, and I am following their rules to the letter.

They just don't want to post my 1-star review.

I have since read more about Tripadvisor, and this seems to be a common occurrence with their "high performing" partners. Simply put, they want to suppress bad reviews for those properties.

This makes the reviews on Tripadvisor unreliable, which is how I got steered to this poorly managed hotel in the first place.

So beware of Tripadvisor. Don't assume that a property with 1000 reviews and 4.5 stars is going to be a great experience. It may not be.

What was the name of the hotel?

What was the hotel's rating on Yelp?

Yelp is good to check for hotels too but you may have to discard posts from elite users because they get special discounts and free upgrades at most hotels.

I guess the staff at the hotel feel that even if the toilet doesn't work you can still shit in the sink.

[OSA]

Did you create an account just to write the review?

[mulva]

when you snapped a pic of the broken toilet was your terd in it? and did you just piss and shit in it for a day and a half while broken?

[OSA]

I used to really like Tripadvisor. I found it to be superior to Yelp for rating hotels.

However, I just ran into a pretty shady experience, and upon reading further reports on the net, I believe they are now showing blatant favortism for high-performing partners.

Tripadvisor mainly makes their money when you book through them. So if you read a good review on Tripadvisor and click the button to book the hotel, they get a commission.

Unfortunately, this introduces the incentive for Tripadvisor to stamp out bad reviews for the properties making them the most commission.

I took a trip in August up the California/Oregon/Washington coast. I was happy with most of the hotels on that trip, which I researched pretty thoroughly before booking.

However, one of the hotels near the end of the trip featured a non-working toilet on the first night of our two night stay. They tried to fix it, and couldn't until the maintenance man showed up the next day. Keep in mind that I noticed this at 6:30pm, so it's not like I was demanding they fix it at 4:00am or anything like that. They were sold out and could not switch our room.

When I woke up the next morning, whatever was wrong with the toilet fixed itself. Fortunately I had proof that the toilet was really having issues the day before, as two different employees came up and examined it (and unsuccessfully had tried to fix it).

The place was over $200/night, meaning my total bill was well over $400 for the 2 nights. I asked the manager to give me a reduction because of not having a working toilet for half the stay. She argued and debated with me for 20 minutes, saying dumb things like, "The toilet works now, so I don't see what the problem is", completely ignoring that I had to deal with a non-working toilet for half of my stay! She got more and more obnoxious as the conversation wore on, and eventually offered me a whopping $18 (lol) off the $400+ bill.

Only when I threatened to post a video of the broken toilet (which I actually didn't have) on social media did she up that $18 to $50, calling me a "blackmailer" and some other unflattering names.

I wasn't looking for a comped stay or anything huge, but I felt I was entitled to something decent off my bill because no working toilet was pretty major.

In general, I also found the staff of this place to be phony and condescending, even before this toilet issue.

The reviews of this place average 4.5 stars out of well over 1000 entries. There are very few 1 star reviews posted there.

I attempted to post a 1-star review because of my horrible experience there, and the review was rejected. Tripadvisor would not give me a reason, simply stating I violated their terms. They would not tell me which term I violated.

I tried rewriting the review and toning it down. No good. Rejected again.

I checked carefully, and I am following their rules to the letter.

They just don't want to post my 1-star review.

I have since read more about Tripadvisor, and this seems to be a common occurrence with their "high performing" partners. Simply put, they want to suppress bad reviews for those properties.

This makes the reviews on Tripadvisor unreliable, which is how I got steered to this poorly managed hotel in the first place.

So beware of Tripadvisor. Don't assume that a property with 1000 reviews and 4.5 stars is going to be a great experience. It may not be.

What was the name of the hotel?

What was the hotel's rating on Yelp?

Yelp is good to check for hotels too but you may have to discard posts from elite users because they get special discounts and free upgrades at most hotels.

I guess the staff at the hotel feel that even if the toilet doesn't work you can still shit in the sink.

Incorrect.

[Dan Druff]

I tried one more time, with an even more toned down review. Rejected again.

Dear TripAdvisor Member,

Thank you for your review. We have opted not to publish your review as it does not meet our guidelines for traveler reviews. We have listed the guidelines below; you may also view them at:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/help/our_...aveler_reviews

*Not substantive
General discussion that does not describe a substantial experience or that does not contain enough relevant information about the establishment will not be posted.

*Original
Reviews should contain only original content and no substantial quoted material from other sources, including (but not limited to) websites, e-mail correspondence, other reviews, etc.

*Authentic guest reviews of first hand experiences
We accept reviews that detail first-hand experiences with the facilities or services of an establishment. No second-hand information or hearsay (unverified information, rumors or quotations from other sources or the reported opinions/experience of others).

*Age requirement
No reviews by children under the age of 13

We also would like to remind you to refer to the guidelines for this promotion.


Best regards,
TripAdvisor Support Team

------original review-------

Title: Combative staff & manager

This is a middle-of-the-road property with a nice lobby and okay rooms. It's nothing special, and you will be paying high dollars for it in the high season. You also are not at all close to downtown.

My stay was quite unpleasant due to the staff & management. I had a serious maintenance issue: Our toilet did not work from the moment we set foot in the room. They were full and could not switch us.

Despite it being 6:30pm, they were unable to fix the problem, and their maintenance man would not be arriving back on property until the next day. Two different employees attempted to fix the toilet without success.

The next day I spoke to the property manager. Shockingly, she did not seem to find it a big deal that we went a full day without a toilet, and offered a $18 discount on our $400+ bill. We were on the phone debating for 20 minutes, and she was very aggressive and combative throughout. Rather than simply give me a fair bill reduction for going a full day without a working toilet, it was a 20-minute exercise in telling me why this wasn't a big deal.

Won't be returning here.

Dirty site.

Too bad, I used to like Tripadvisor.

[SrslySirius]

Dirty site.

Too bad, I used to like Tripadvisor.

Seems inevitable for any for-profit review site. Yelp is dirty as hell too.