Tag Archives: cancellation policy

SA Hotelier slams TripAdvisor, and its blackmail threat!

TripAdvisorThe excellent South African tourism news service Southern African Tourism Update published a letter it received from Chris Harvie, owner of The Rissington Inn in Hazyview just over a week ago, expressing what many owners and managers of tourism businesses feel about the TripAdvisor demon.

Harvie is not only the owner of a guest house, but he is also a prolific and eloquent travel writer for the Sunday Times and other titles. His letter also appeared in the Sunday Times.   We salute him for being brave enough to tackle a topic that is a swearword in the hospitality industry, for the following reasons:

*    It is one-sided, being posted without a reply to the accusations from the owner/manager

*   It can be posted by aggrieved former staff, suppliers, neighbours, other hospitality businesses, or anyone else that has a gripe, without it being verified by TripAdvisor

*   All writers are anonymous – if they believed in what they have to say, why not reveal their real name?

*   It is often defamatory and downright dishonest, the events distorted to suit the impact and damage the writer wishes to make.  TripAdvisor is strict in not allowing one to be rude or honest in describing the (not always perfect) behavior of the guests.

*   Many complaints relate to booking cancellations, travellers not being happy to be held to the terms of the cancellation policy which they sign in acceptance when they made the booking!  This is when the blackmail Continue reading →

Hoteliers take a stand against dishonest guest reviews

The New York Times reported earlier this week that American hotels are looking to take legal action against accommodation and restaurant review websites such as TripAdvisor, given the often unsubstantiated and libelous comments and claims made by guests, with damaging effects on the reputation and income of such establishments.

A class action lawsuit is being planned in the USA against TripAdvisor , which has 35 million guest reviews posted for almost every hospitality business around the world.  Guests can have a free-for-all and report their views without any proof presented to TripAdvisor or input sought from the owners of the hospitality establishment.   This leads to an unbalanced perspective presented, and it is clear that there are many more negative than positive reviews posted, and that most negative reviews are about a dispute about money, often relating to a walk-out and refund demanded but not paid due to a cancellation or booking policy.

TripAdvisor does allow the management of hospitality establishments to respond to such reviews, but has very strict guidelines about such response, in that one may not even mildly disparage the guests who have posted the review (for example, describing the state of inebriation of the guest!), no matter how true it is, one may not use the same words as used in the guest comment, and one may not mention the guest by name, if one knows who the complaint comes from.  TripAdvisor does not remove negative reviews of a property that has been sold, and will not remove reviews identified by the management concerned as being dubious.   TripAdvisor has clear guidelines that guests may not be incentivised in any manner to write positive reviews.

In the past year TripAdvisor has been lambasted for the false positive reviews that many accommodation establishments have posted about their businesses, to raise the average rating, and to ‘suppress’ the negative reviews to a next page.    In addition, negative reviews have been posted by competitors or ex-staff members who wish to settle scores.  TripAdvisor does not validate the accuracy of the reviews posted, does not screen the content, and abdicates legal liability for the content of the reviews posted on its site via the USA Communications Decency Act.   Yet TripAdvisor sends owners of hospitality establishments regular summaries of its listed properties, and it is a recent e-mail that highlighted “Hotel horror stories” that showed that TripAdvisor was endorsing its reviewers’ opinions, and thereby no longer was protected by the Act.

Hospitality businesses say that many reviews are “unsubstantiated, inflammatory claims”.  “The world of the Internet and particularly social media has pretty much outstripped ethical guidelines, and some legal ones as well”, says the founder of KwikChex, an UK reputation management company that is managing the lawsuit against TripAdvisor.   Reviews that claim that staff stole money, assaulted guests or discriminated against clients may not be legal on such review sites, as they allege criminal actions, argues KwikCheck.

It will be interesting to see what the outcome of the lawsuit against TripAdvisor will be, and what affect it will have on greater fairness and balance in guest reviews.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com  Twitter: @WhaleCottage

S A Government blasts FIFA about World Cup bookings

In what is an unprecedented attack on FIFA, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the South African Minister of Tourism, has blasted FIFA over the low number of international visitors coming to attend the World Cup in 18 days from today, reports the Cape Times.   It is the first attack on FIFA by a member of the South African Cabinet.

Van Schalkwyk told Parliament that only a quarter of the 44000 tickets which had been allocated for Africa (excluding South Africa) had in fact been sold, and he blamed this on the lack of internet access for bookings to be made by soccer fans in African countries, and the exorbitant prices of the tickets.  “This is what I will tell Fifa to improve on when they next host the cup in developing countries: ‘Look at the way you sold tickets in Africa’.  ‘Africans do not buy tickets on the internet”, he is said to have added.

Van Schalkwyk’s outburst is interesting in that S A Tourism, the country’s national marketing tourism marketing agency, did little to make South Africa attractive to international soccer fans – other than some ads on CNN and SKYNews there was little visibility of advertising for this country.  Many soccer fans are not English-speaking, or from the UK and USA, and would not have seen the advertising.  The pay-off line for South Africa “It’s Possible” is hardly inspiring, exciting or informative about what South Africa stands for as a tourism destination. 

Van Schalkwyk also criticised MATCH, the FIFA ticketing and accommodation agency, about its strategy to book accommodation at small accommodation establishments, and then cancel the majority of these bookings as late as two months before the start of the World Cup.   “I think the escape clause in the contracts for accommodation is unfair to small operators.  We raised this issue with Fifa from the start”, he said.  

This writer criticised MATCH about the legally worded contract and the MATCH cancellation policy, which did not allow establishments to set their own cancellation terms, whilst a Director of FEDHASA Cape, via this WhaleTales Blog, and via the WhaleTales newsletters since 2006.   For the first time in its history, MATCH booked accommodation at ‘non-hotel’ establishments, at guest houses, B&B’s, and self-catering establishments. 

POSTSCRIPT:Poor Minister Van Schalkwyk is having a bad time – on Fin24.com today he is quoted as saying he was pained and embarrassed that guests were handed scarves with a “Made in China” label on them at a media conference, at which he outlined the country’s tourism strategy going forward, two days ago.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Performance Printer Solutions Sweet and Squirrel’s Nest Sour Service Awards

The Sweet Service Award goes to PP (Performance Printer) Solutions in Cape Town, and was nominated by Paula Wilson from Paula Wilson Media Consulting:  She writes: “Serrano Kindo & Michael Davids – were the technicians who came to see the laser printer – both incredibly professional and wonderful to deal with.  Their boss James Hendricks was also a pleasure to deal with on the phone.  We found them online when Googling the details of our printer looking for service people nearby! We had struggled to get hold of Hewlett Packard directly so went this route! They came out to assess the printer problem the day after we called, they sent a quote on email within hours, came back to get the printer on quote approval and it was fixed and delivered back to us the following day!  And they did not overcharge!  We will always use them in future and recommend where we can!   They specialise in HP but also do the others – laser, inks and fax machines.  “For professional service give us a call” it says on their flier – they live up to that for sure! 

The Sour Service Award goes to Squirrel’s Nest In Hout Bay, nominated by Hilary Djolov.   She writes:  “We had booked the cottage for six nights, but on arrival found that it was not suitable for our three-year-old daughter, especially because the pool was right outside the cottage and had no net or fence. In addition, the TV was not working and the owner simply stated that she could not afford to have it fixed when we queried this. Also there was no bath (our daughter is too young to shower) and it had a suicidally steep staircase – we felt that these should have been mentioned when we booked, as we made it clear we were bringing a small child.   Other than that, it was a bit of a dump, which perhaps we should have expected at R450 per night. We therefore cancelled on arrival, and at great expense and inconvenience found alternative accommodation. We feel that 60% of our deposit should be returned, as we had cancelled due to faults with the accommodation itself. The owner continues to refuse on the basis of late cancellation.” 

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.   Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.