hoteliers | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

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

Excellent news for Cape Town hoteliers is that the City of Cape Town has admitted that it has made an error in its proposed restrictive liquor trading hours, and has done an about-turn in extending trading until 2h00, even if accommodation establishments are in residential areas, reports the Cape Times today. Previously the draft called for liquor sales to close at 23h00, which would have had a devastating effect on the bottom line of hotels in particular, and on the employment of staff and tourism in general.

The draft Provincial Liquor Amendment Bill allows each municipality in the Western Cape to define liquor trading hours for hotels, restaurants and pubs. If they do not define them within the confines of the proposed liquor law, the Bill sets default liquor trading hours which they must abide by. The Western Cape Bill is a “test case”, in that other provinces are set to model their own liquor legislation on that of the Western Cape, once it has gone to the provincial legislature.

The proposed draft Bill had set liquor trading hours in accommodation establishments, hotels and pubs at 11h00 – 23h00, only allowing such businesses operating in built up business areas to trade until 2h00. The City of Cape Town’s councillor Taki Amira acknowledged at a Western Cape Provincial Liquor Conference over the weekend that ‘the city had made a mistake in its trading hours provision when it drew up the Provincial Liquor Amendment Bill, which will be passed before the end of the year’. The Vineyard Hotel and Mount Nelson Hotel operate within residential areas, and would have had to be rezoned to be able to sell alcoholic beverages until 2h00, a process that could take months. The City admitted that it did not know that not all hotels in residential areas were not rezoned.

Amira lambasted FEDHASA Cape, the hotel association, for not communicating with the City earlier in the process, as the draft legislation had been published more than two years ago. Whilst FEDHASA calls itself a lobbying body in the interest of its members, it seems to have become powerless in the past few years, rather wishing to stay non-controversial and in its publics’ good books than criticise negative developments on behalf of its members (signing up with MATCH and then losing the bulk of the bookings is an excellent example). However, the Cape Times quotes FEDHASA has having described the proposed Bill as ‘draconian’ and ‘verkrampte’, heavy words indeed. FEDHASA Cape only met with Amira a week ago!

Roy Davies, GM of the Vineyard Hotel, is delighted about the City’s about-turn on the trading hours. He said that a special plea had also been made about the serving of champagne and sparkling wine with breakfast before 11h00, and it would appear that such an amendment would be made.

Wine farms were also affected by the proposed draft, in that they were to close their liquor sales at 18h00, which would have affected weddings held at such estates as well as restaurants operating on wine farms, with sales banned completely on Sundays. It would now appear that Sunday trading will be allowed, and that restaurants and function venues on wine farms can serve drinks until midnight.

The Western Cape province is that with the highest alcohol-related problems, and sought to introduce the Bill to prevent the rise of alcoholism, and to reduce its impact on alcohol-related accidents.

POSTSCRIPT 26/10: Councillor Amira called this morning, and clarified that guest houses and other non-hotel accommodation establishments may serve alcoholic beverages until 23h00. A special allowance for sparkling wine to be served, in conjunction with a meal, between 8h00 – 11h00, has also been made.

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