andrew8

When I was looking at the reviews for the Gastonian in Savannah, GA, TripAdvisor had a message printed in red stating that they had reasonable cause to believe that either this property or individuals associated with the property may have attempted to manipulate its property index by interfering with the unbiased nature of its reviews.

Has anyone else seen this warning before on a hotel or B and B review on TripAdvisor ?

janisj

yes - they've been posting those sorts of warnings for several months at least.

beachbum

Wonder why TA would do that when they don't seem to care about all the mis/disinformation posted in the forums.

OO

Have not seen the warnings, but we stayed there when we lived in Savannah...a hoteliers' night out, put on by the owners when they sold, as a GTG and thank you to others in the industry who were friends. At that point in time, it was an absolutely fabulous place, one of the two most highly regarded B&B's in Savannah, the other being the Ballastone.

I would think that they'd have to be pretty sure of their case to state something like that, and I'm well aware that the wonderful place we knew could very well deteriorate without care and upgrades between now and then. The physical structure though, an old historic home is gorgeous. I hope it has not fallen on hard times!

OO

Oh...the new owner's name was unforgettable, Ann Landers. Not The Ann Landers of course, but that's the only reason I remember it now. I wonder if she is still listed at owner/manager? She was one of those "dam*ed Yankees" come south, (as am I) very reserved compared to the owners who were our friends. We are talking a 12 year interval and lots can happen in that space in time!

spirobulldog

A lot of the time, it is pretty obivious when someone has manipulated the results. It usually occurs just after a bad review and then someone posts several "just general comments" positive. You can tell by the date it is posted. Usually three or four posts made in three or four days in a row.

What is bad about tripadvisor, is that just one person giving a bad review, just because something didn't go there way. So the toilet ran all night long and they give the place a 2 for that. Things do break and things do happen.

spirobulldog

I do think that TA is a good place to check things out. I use the sight a lot.

Jed

TA is best digested with a smidgen of suspicion, a dash of doubt, and an iota of interpreting the rants and raves.

When you wade through the process, you have a good chance of success.

This has been discussed here many times.

suze

Yes that's something new-ish added to the TA hotel reviews section.

Their forums are an entirely different section of the website. On the forums you can sort out the information that's true or false, partly by "knowing" the poster or viewing their posting history, same as here on Fodor's.

Keith

Although I know of places that have blatantly manipulated Tripadvisor, and have pointed them out to the Editors, I have never seen that.

One group of motels with the same owners was so bad that if you attempted to go to Tripadvisor's website while on their wifi, you were automatically redirected to a bogus site made to look like it was Tripadvisor, which only listed their businesses and gave only glowing reviews.

Keith