Move up to page 1 on Google ... and make TripAdvisor work for you!
... how to get there, and how to take control!
This is the term used on the TripAdvisor website for the registered property manager's login page and control center. According to TripAdvisor, to be able to manage anything here, one of the following conditions must be met:
This is the biggest challenge for hotel and restaurant owners or managers. In light of such malice and vicissitude found in some of those reviews, how on earth can you keep cool, and answer in a way that will not damage your business further? As explained elsewhere on this website it is important to, above all, to:
*) We have even heard a story of one motel owner in South Carolina, who simply decided to ask her real clients at check-out
Whatever the real customer said was then inserted as a "management response" to the bad review. Talk about appreciation of Southern hospitality!
In your TripAdvisor "management center", as a manager of trip advisor hotels you have the option of writing a response to any "good" or "bad" review. Yes, you do have the option to say "Thank you, please come back soon" in response to all good, or pleasant reviews ... while simply ignoring the others. You also have the option of being selective about which "negative" review you comment on. If a review quotes good experiences, and also mentions some items worth improving, it will make sense to expressly thank that person for their input.
Regarding truly bad reviews, 2 "bubbles" or less, you have the option to "get into the ring", and try to sway the READER of that review (not the user posting the review!) over to your side. Remember: the reviewer might be fake (probably!), or might be an antisocial person (very likely), but the TripAdvisor users reading that review will understand that you, the property manager writing your management response, will definitely be real. There are multiple strategies for tackling these types of reviews, and making your response stick in the investigating reader's mind in a way that convinces her or him that you are the good guy, and the review-writer is the bad guy. And if there is only one thing they liked about your place before reading that misleadingly malicious review, your response will actually move that customer closer to booking with your establishment than they ever were before.
Remember, many Tripadvisor users immediately click their way to 1 "bubble" reviews to check what is written there ... before even looking at any five "bubble" reviews. Make sure you welcome that user with open arms when they click their way through to any 1 or 2 "bubble" reviews on your TripAdvisor listing!
The "Travelwriters" are here to help you pen an effective management response to deal with the Tripadvisor situation in a way that can actually help drive business to your property through bad reviews others have posted on your listing! We provide you with astutely drafted suggestions how to answer, you decide on the final version and upload it yourself through your TripAdvisor management center.
As explained elsewhere on this website, TripAdvisor thrives on fresh, new, interesting content published on their website every day. This content consists of new
There is no simple way to remove a bad review. You have several options:
Understandably, one might wish to avoid the entire TripAdvisor issue by simply deleting the property listing, and be done with it. Indeed that would be the most desirable scenario, and it definitely pays to put the emphasis on internet promotion on driving popularity of your own website. If anything, TripAdvisor should be a means of enhancing the effectiveness of your own web presence, of driving traffic TO your website ... not the other way around!
The "Travelwriters" have some programmer friends who would love to help you build, and expand your own online presence. This way you can have more control about what people post, and read about you, have a better change of your website being displayed on page 1 on Google, Bing, and Yahoo (the 3 main search engines), while providing a most delightful presentation of your property's charms and qualities, complemented by authentic and verified customer testimonials!
Regrettably, in this crazy world we live in, driven by "cloud data", and "virtual reality", anybody, really absolutely anybody can log onto TripAdvisor and simply start a new listing for your property. So in due time, deleting a TripAdvisor listing might simply present you with the same headache all over again, namely having to reclaim a new property listing using your name once more, and mitigating any reviews on that listing. Deleting the current listing might simply put you back to square one ... or worse!
TripAdvisor will consider removal of your property listing in certain scenarios, and if (you wish to proclaim that) any of these situations apply to you, the "Travelwriters" will be happy to help you make it happen!
Starting a property listing is much more simple than claiming ownership of a property already listed on TripAdvisor. However, if you start your own listing for your property you must still provide "proof of ID" all the same. The process of "ID verification" is only slightly more onerous than the simple process of starting a listing. Not surprisingly, most property listings on Tripadvisor are actually unverified (!) ... never mind the reviews! The "ID verification" does not in fact require any proof whatsoever that the person claiming the ownership of the property listing on the TripAdvisor website is in fact in any way - "de jure" or "de facto" - affiliated with that property. According to the TripAdvisor website, all you need to be a property owner for a business listing is a personal (!) verified Facebook account or a personal (!) credit card in your name.
There comes a point where one needs to leave the virtual world and move into the real world:
For property owners outside the United States: "International Registered Mail, Return Receipt Requested". Ask at your local post office for an internationally standardized pink form that looks like this (reverse side shown, i.e. fields to fill in):
Now the issue, where to send that letter? There are actually 2 different published legal entities affiliated with the TripAdvisor brand:
>Fortunately, both of these legal entities list the same postal contact address:
*) Investor Relations Website:
" Where are TripAdvisor's corporate headquarters? ... Our principal executive offices are located at 400 1st Avenue, Needham, MA 02494, and TripAdvisor's telephone number at that location is (781) 800-5000. "
**) TripAdvisor website, Copyright Complaint Policy
" SERVICE HELP ... For answers to your questions or ways to contact us, visit our Help Center. Or, you can write to us at:
400 1st Avenue
Needham, MA 02494
USA
..."
You may wish to consider addressing your letter to both entities, explicitly forcing them to assume a position that clarifies which legal entity is in fact legally liable for the content published on their websites, and claims legal ownership of that content.
DRAFT LETTER - CLAIM TRIPADVISOR LISTING
Reviews posted by users, as well as property listings published for your property name may contain references to persons working at your establishment. Likewise the mere act of allowing the publication of a property listing by anyone, regardless of whether their ID has been verified or not, without the expressed consent of the legal representative, or business owner of that property, has questionable legal aspects ... to put it mildly.
TripAdvisor has mitigated this issue by closing the TripAdvisor Website TERMS & CONDITIONS using the following statement:
" Fictitious names of companies, products, people, characters, and/or data mentioned on this Website are not intended to represent any real individual, company, product, or event. "
Using this one sentence, legal counsel at TripAdvisor proactively counters any scenario where a real property owner or a real person named in a review files a Cease & Desist legal action, and holds TripAdvisor liable for publication of slanderous reviews and incorrect data posted by third parties on their website: TripAdvisor may simply opt to claim that whatever was published - in their mind - refers to fictitious companies, products, people, characters, etc. and not any real person, place, or establishment!
Incredibly, when filing a Cease & Desist action, in order to remove any slanderous, libelous information published about you on TripAdvisor, the burden of proof is placed on you: You must prove that you are in fact real, and that the review - as published on the property listing - actually refers to you, and/or your property - and not the "fictitious" one claimed by TripAdvisor.
The catch is that their Terms & Conditions do not apply to you, unless you write to TripAdvisor as a "website user". In your Cease & Desist letter, clarify that you are not a website user! These Terms & Conditions can only apply if you, the actual legal representative and/or owner of the referenced business, or the actual person referenced in a review, are a TripAdvisor website user. Because you accept these terms automatically by navigating the site! If you do not access the site, there is no legal relationship between you and TripAdvisor whatsoever.
In addition, even if your property is listed, and someone has been verified as the "property owner" this does not necessarily mean that TripAdvisor has a legal contract or relationship with your business. The verification of a property owner, for access to the management center, is always done between TripAdvisor and an individual who claims (!) to be connected to your property. This does not, at least not necessarily, imply or establish a legally binding relationship between TripAdvisor (LLC, or Inc.) and the natural person, or legal person (e.g. LLC, Corporation) certified at your local magistrate or courthouse as being the legal business owner of that property referenced in the published TripAdvisor listing.
So if someone has committed libel and slander in a TripAdvisor review, against an individual or against your business, and if you, being that person or business, are not yourself a website user of TripAdvisor, then the Terms & Conditions on the TripAdvisor website can have no legally binding effect on you.
You can then file a Cease & Desist action against publication of such libelous or slanderous review content, or against other misinformation, or misrepresentation published by TripAdvisor without being subjected to their website's Terms & Conditions.
TripAdvisor is then fully responsible, and legally liable, for their role in enabling creation of, and global accessibility to that review or listing, thereby aiding, and abetting such libel and slander. They must remove the respective review or listing immediately following verifiable receipt of your Cease & Desist request.
For this logic to hold, obviously, someone else must be the website user and report the listing or review to you - without you ever visiting the site yourself. This could happen by that person taking a screenshot (CTRL + Print Screen) and then printing the TripAdvisor screenshot on paper, and sending it to you in a verifiable way, for example, by having a notary public verify the screenshot, and printing process untertaken by that third party (e.g., a friend of yours).
You may wish to seek legal assistance from a qualified attorney in order to determine the amount of damages you may recover from TripAdvisor in the event of their non-compliance with your request.
DRAFT LETTER - CEASE & DESIST