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Tripadvisor fined in Italy over fake reviews

Tripadvisor fined in Italy over fake reviews

Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 11:52 AM
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Tripadvisor fined in Italy over fake reviews

Tripadvisor was fined €500,000 in Italy for misleading and false reviews published on their website. The fine was specifically for Tripadvisor Italy, and the issues seem to be that 1) they don't do enough to keep fake reviews off their site; and, 2) they don't warn that the reviews are not necessarily posted by verified guests.

The initial complaint was lodged by an association of hotel owners, so they must be annoyed by bad reviews. I don't think they complained about the many hotel reviews that say, "It was the highlight of my trip!"

Tripadvisor announced of course that they would appeal and said that they had a rigourous mechanism for ferreting out false reviews.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 12:30 PM
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On Trip Advisor, I have read scores of reviews for certain "family resorts" in southern Italy which have an unusually high number of "sterling reviews", all seemingly posted by Canadian visitors! I've wondered myself about the veracity of such postings.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 12:35 PM
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There are very few review sites I put any faith in at all and Tripadvisor is certainly not one of them. Neither is this (Fodors) forum.

Unless I know the person who is writing the review personally, why would I assume that A: They know what they are talking about or B: That their taste is in any way similar to my own.

Someone who works for a magazine, newspaper, website or is just adding a review on a site like Tripadvisor writes and says, 'restaurant X is great with wonderful food'. I'd say there is a 1 in 10 chance I would agree at best.

Now if Michelin lists that restaurant, then yeah, I would expect to agree that the food is wonderful. Any review is no better than the knowledge/expertise of the reviewer and the degree to which it is in line with your own experience/expectations.

I'm glad to see they got fined. Too bad so many people don't know any better than to look at their site for reviews. It would just seem to me to be common sense that you don't blindly believe what some stranger says about a place. But then if common sense were 'common' in that everyone had it, then the phrase 'common sense' would have no reason to exist.

The other website issue I get a laugh at are all the ones that purport to find you the lowest airfare or hotel price. They can't all be right. But people happily advise you to use Travelocity or Hotels.com or CheapOAir, etc. etc. etc.

They should all be fined for misleading advertising as far as I am concerned.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 12:56 PM
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Agree with PP
Never post on or trust TA
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 01:06 PM
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There are very few review sites I put any faith in at all and Tripadvisor is certainly not one of them. Neither is this (Fodors) forum.>>

which rather begs the question, SJ, why you bother to turn up here at all.

>

Alternatively, they were annoyed by the great and in their eyes unjustified reviews that their competitors were getting.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 01:46 PM
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I usually check the hotel reviews on www.booking.com and www.venere.com (an Italian reservation site that was bought by Tripadvisor). They at least accept reviews only from people that were verified guests at the hotel. Of course, some people will complain about petty things or expect luxury at hostel prices, or rave about things I don't care about. I can usually form a basis for judgment from reading multiple reviews, blending them, and adding salt.

Even Tripadvisor's reviews are useful if you discount the raves and the rants and critically read the others.

I doubt that the fine will stick after the appeal. Probably TripAdvisor will agree to put a caveat on their review pages and beef up their monitoring.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 01:46 PM
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I still trust reviews, you just have to be smart enough to decipher the bs. If it is from a new poster with no reviews or very little then I ignore. The TA forums have very good info if you follow long enough. I have been helped far more than not.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 01:47 PM
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Well I won't go so far as to say never. I've had some good experiences with recommendations from both TA and Fodor's. I just look for certain criteria on the reviews I read. Also I think exchanging the private e-mails with people who post on the TA forums can work too.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 02:30 PM
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I trust the people on Fodor's. There are only a couple of flacks to be aware of, but 99% of the people give their honest opinion, whether you agree or not, is another matter.

On Booking.com and Expedia.com they will send you a questionnaire after you have stayed at the hotel. We have used Booking in about 10 countries and only one hotel did not live up to the what was said.

Not only is TA full of lies, that and Yelp have many people who have not idea of which they speak. I look at cities, countries, restaurants, I know well and measure the reaction. It is just people trying to act knowledgeable and sophisticated.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 02:53 PM
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I never read TripAdvertiser. I'm sure there must be some useful reviews there, but I haven't found them. Between the fake reviews and the ads, I'm amazed anyone uses the site. I "know" many of the posters here (especially on the Asia board) so know that their reviews are real, and often know whether I would like a place that they liked or not.

And I agree that Yelp is worthless.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 03:32 PM
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I have used the travel forums on Trip Advisor and have found them an important source of information. The local experts are excellent. As far as hotel and restaurants reviews, I use them too. It doesn't take an especially keen intellect to sort through the relevant and real reviews and those posted by those with a personal interest or dispute. Of course, it's a good idea to use several different sources in order to make the best choice.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 04:20 PM
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I often find value in TA reviews, but of course I don't believe everything I read there. Many of the reviews give me hints of things to look for in other reviews or when looking at a hotel's website.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 04:37 PM
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I agree with bvlenci and others who say there is lots of useful information on TA, booking.com, etc as long as you read a number of reviews and listen to the majority and are smart enough to disregard the picky stuff and the things you don't care about. I've been booking hotels based on reviews from these sites for years and have almost always felt the hotels were just what I was expecting.

I find picking hotels based on TA, booking.com and venere.com reviews much more reliable than the 'reviews' from Fodor's and other major guidebooks.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 05:01 PM
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I always read reviews on Tripadvisor for hotels. I am keenly interested in comments about the quality of wifi, noise issues and room temperature. The fake negative reviews are usually so over the top, telling tales of bugs and filth, they look fake -- but it was the failure to police for negative reviews that caused Tripadvisor to get fined. Too many rivals were conducting vendettas against other businesses, and they were more than annoying. They were ruining businesses.

For restaurants, the Michelin guide is actually a poor guide to restaurants in Italy unless you want 3 star restaurants, which serve a kind of Michenlized food. Using Italian guidebooks is a much better bet, and even if you dont read Italian, you can figure out the gist and see prices. I don't put any stock in TripAdvisor or Yelp restaurant reviews when it comes to others judging food, but I read them and the Italian reviews on TripAdvisor and Yelp as well, to get some idea if the restaurants is noisy, cramped, unairconditioned, prone to padding the bill,, etc.

Most TripAdvisor restaurant reviews are for places near hotels, and for Italy, most show an astonishing lack of understanding of regional Italian dishes and seasonal eating, etc. Most TripAdvisor and Yelp reviews in Italian (and on other social media sites) complain endlessly about prices and service -- and are equally unreliable when it comes to judging food quality, although Italians generally order much more knowledgeably.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 05:20 PM
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I've written a few reviews on TA and gave my opinion with specifics and descriptions whether it was a restaurant or lodging. If I was a little disappointed in a meal, I said exactly why and which dish(s) I ordered. If I really enjoyed something - the same, exactly what and why.

Same with lodging.

That said, I've been on Fodor's for many years and have found some long time posters whose taste and travel style are very close to my own. I happily admit to following along on some of their itineraries - with a detour of my own here and there!
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 08:14 PM
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"which rather begs the question, SJ, why you bother to turn up here at all."

Really annhig? Do you think I come here to read reviews? It's a forum, not a review site. A forum is for discussion and while that might include discussions on places to stay or eat or how to buy an airline ticket, it is not limited to those subjects.

I read another thread today that asked what restaurants to try for Tapas in Barcelona or somewhere. I didn't bother answering but if I did, my answer would have been simple.

Don't eat in any place that tour groups go. Go into the Tapas bars that are obviously full of locals. That's all you need to know. Having some middle aged housewife from Omaha say the tapas in X were wonderful means nothing to me. Nor do I think it should to anyone else unless she is their Mother.

I am happy to provide factual information about places I know that someone asks about on a forum but that to me is simply 'dues paying'. I come to forums to discuss travel in general and in more philosophical terms. That's what interests me.

Why do people pack too much? Why do people believe they must follow a pre-planned itinerary? Why do people insist on thinking they can 'visit Europe' in 2 weeks rather than thinking in smaller and actually doable terms?

Where to eat in Barcelona? Who cares, I know I will have no problem finding good food anywhere if I simply use my brain and not look to strangers to tell me where to go.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 09:29 PM
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Why favorite criticism of a tapas bar, and I think it was Yelp, not TA, "The portions were too small."
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Old Dec 23rd, 2014, 09:51 PM
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I remember a similar case in Scotland a few years ago. But this was brought by an individual hotelier against Trivadvisor for a fake review. I don't think it got resolved as the legal costs for the hotelier were unsustainable against TA'a financial resources.
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Old Dec 24th, 2014, 05:55 AM
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This past May we spent some time in eastern Sicily as part of our annual trip to Italy and after conversing with many restaurant people, it seems they were very fearful of Tripadvisor. Every person told me that the main problem, in their opinion, was the ability of anyone to make a negative post when they've never visited the establishment.

After exploring the castle on top of the mountain in Calatabiano, I asked the owner of a restaurant where we stopped for lunch for her business card so I could make a post on Tripadvisor. She was in a panic and told me she didn't have any. I tried to reassure her the post would been positive, but she was really scared. Her chef came out and explained their fear because the posts can mean the difference between success or failure and their competitors can make negative, ficticious posts. By the way, we did enjoy our lunch there.

Businesses do deserve negative reviews if they've earned them,but the significant impact of Tripadvisor seems unfair and dishonest when it's possible to make totally false accusations. The positive aspect of agencies like venere.com or booking.com is that you must have stayed at the property before you can create a review.

Buon viaggio,
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Old Dec 24th, 2014, 08:52 AM
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Rbciao47, you make a very good point about the power some websites have today to influence people and thereby affect a business.

There should be a legal 'duty of care' that would force such sites to 'police' their reviews etc. but that is very difficult to achieve since the internet spans all countries obviously. I think more countries should be taking sites like Tripadvisor to task.

All the traveller can do is ignore sites like Tripadvisor as unreliable. If you don't click on their site and thereby give them 'hits', the advertisers will stop paying to advertise on their site. That is after all how they make their money. So vote with your finger (don't click on the site)and hurt them in the wallet which is all they care about obviously.
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