False ratings are hurting our trade, claim restaurants (From Swindon ...

False ratings are hurting our trade, claim restaurants

8:20am Saturday 4th August 2012 in News By Josh Layton

THEY come with glowing reviews from far and wide, with most customers regarding them as two of the best restaurants in town.

It?s unlikely, however, that anyone from TripAdvisor?s headquarters in Massachusetts has dined at Hotel 20 Twenty or Bistro Les Chats.

Both have had brushes with the leading travel review website for reasons which they say are no fault of their own. Darren Turner, owner of Hotel 20 Twenty, formerly the King?s Arms, said: ?It?s been a nightmare.

?We were No1 for four months until a member of staff put a dodgy review on someone?s else?s listing. It wasn?t on and we got rid of them.

?However we then went down to 80 despite having overwhelmingly great reviews, possibly because they demoted us. I have tried to speak to TripAdvisor on a number of occasions but have got nowhere.

?I?ve been a chef for 20 odd years and it?s a waste of time trying to complain, even though they can kill your business overnight.

?I haven?t even been able to change the restaurant?s name on our listing.?

Mr Turner estimates the restaurant?s trade has gone from ?5,500 a week to around ?650 since it lost top billing.

TripAdvisor can demote venues dozens of places if it suspects they have been involved in a fake review. ?It has affected the restaurant in a big way,? Mr Turner said. ?We are talking about somewhere that has won awards and has a Les Routiers sign on the door.

?There have been lots of emails back and forth but the best you can hope for is to speak to someone in America. I have given up trying.?

Phil Saunter, who runs Bistro Les Chats across the road in Wood Street, was sent a cryptic warning by the website that could have affected the French restaurant?s listing.

The message said ?individuals or entities? associated with the venue were trying to submit positive reviews. A phone call to TripAdvisor?s US offices followed, but the website, which had spiked the submission, would not divulge the details.

Les Chats has now had to warn all of its staff and suppliers not to post fraudulent reviews on the online guide, which sent a short email acknowledging the steps taken by the restaurant.

However Mr Saunter is confident that today?s web-savvy diners will ultimately see through the fog of fake reviews.

?The concept is a good one, as long as people use it properly,? he said. ?If you look at the way reviews are written you can get an idea about which ones to trust.

?If someone has only written one review it?s likely they have set up their profile for the purpose of reviewing that one establishment. If they have 20 or 30 it?s much more likely they were a genuine customer.?

Carmela Pungitore, assistant manager of La Dolce Vita, has suggested customers be given a unique reference number by the place they have visited. She thinks serious damage is being done through fraudulent and inaccurate postings on TripAdvisor.

She said: ?TripAdvisor is a flawed review site, how can you trust the comments written by its users when they have no evidence of visiting a place??

Miss Pungitore said she was disgusted by the reaction of one reviewer ? who threatened to counter-sue for freedom of speech ? after being contacted by the restaurant over a review it regarded as defamatory.

The author said the restaurant, in Groundwell Road, had no stars for food hygiene. In fact it has the maximum five stars rating.

?To our knowledge no such matters written in this person?s review have happened or were mentioned to staff,? she said.

?This person has no proof of being in our restaurant and this is very damaging to our family business where we take great pride in preparing and cooking food.?

TripAdvisor responded by saying: ?Attempts by property owners to boost their ratings with fake reviews are rare as the vast majority of businesses understand the tremendous risk to their reputation and their business if they attempt to post fraudulent information on review sites like TripAdvisor. ?We take serious steps to penalise businesses for attempts to game the system, including affecting their popularity rating on the site and posting public warning notices on property?s listing. We evaluate these situations on a case-by-case basis, but any action taken against suspicious activity will be based upon patterns unearthed by a number of different filters on our systems. ?It is important to note that we warn the business that we have identified the suspicious activity, confirm why this is in violation of our policies and request it stops before a penalty is applied.

?In the case of Restaurant 20, we identified violations by a number of individuals associated with the business. We sent the owner multiple communications warning them about this, yet the activity persisted. In accordance with our policies we applied a red badge to protect consumers.

?We understand the importance that the reviews and opinions on TripAdvisor have to properties and businesses listed on the site. It?s our top priority to ensure the content we feature is authentic and we dedicate significant time and resources to that end, including a host of over 25 sophisticated filters, a team of detectives, and our community of over 56 million users who help us police reviews. ?If an owner feels they?ve been subjected to an unfair review, we urge them to contact us immediately. They can report the review through the site or, if they are unsure about how to do this or have any other queries, they can call our dedicated freephone UK customer care line. Every single report of suspicious content undergoes a detailed investigation by our content integrity specialists, and if a review is found to be in breach of our guidelines, it will be removed from the site.

?We value the insights of the business owners as well as travellers and both are given an equal opportunity to speak to the TripAdvisor community ? in fact, owners always have the last word in the management response tool.?

Source: http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/9855969.False_ratings_are_hurting_our_trade__claim_restaurants/?ref=rss

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