{"id":32062,"date":"2012-04-29T10:10:30","date_gmt":"2012-04-29T08:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=32062"},"modified":"2012-04-29T10:12:57","modified_gmt":"2012-04-29T08:12:57","slug":"tripadvisor-gets-poor-rating-on-its-customer-rating-authenticity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/accommodation\/tripadvisor-gets-poor-rating-on-its-customer-rating-authenticity\/","title":{"rendered":"TripAdvisor gets poor rating on its customer rating authenticity!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>TripAdvisor is increasingly coming under pressure from KwikChex, a reputation management company representing major hotels in the United Kingdom and the USA. \u00a0Not only has the company threatened to take TripAdvisor to court over its unauthenticated ‘customer reviews’, taken TripAdvisor to the Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom and successfully been able to get its overstated advertising claims removed, but now it has introduced a system whereby hospitality establishment rating systems are rated on customer feedback authenticity, giving Trip Advisor a paltry 2 stars, reports Tnooz<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

On TripAdvisor ‘reviewers’ <\/em>rate restaurants and accommodation establishments on a five point scale. \u00a0The KwikChex rating evaluates the customer authenticity, a rating system earning 5 stars if the customer’s real name (and not an anonymous name as on TripAdvisor) is revealed, and verifying that a booking was made at the establishment. \u00a0A one star rating reflects that the system has no means of checking the authenticity of the content, one of the biggest complaints against TripAdvisor, given that reviews can be written by owners and their friends and family, or at the opposite end, by competitors, ex-suppliers, and ex-staff. \u00a0A rating of 2 out of 5 for TripAdvisor by KwikChex therefore is the second worst rating that the rating website could achieve, sharing the rating with Yelp. \u00a0Booking.com achieved a 5 star rating from KwikChex.<\/p>\n

KwikChex has also made a submission to the USA Securities and Exchange Commission about its concerns about TripAdvisor’s ability, or lack of, to authenticate reviews on its site, and it has made a submission to the European Court of Human Rights, in that ‘individuals are unable to defend themselves against defamation and harassment online’, <\/em>when personal attacks against named individual staff members are made in TripAdvisor reviews.<\/p>\n

Even though no South African hotels are unlikely to subscribe to KwikChex, the accommodation and restaurant industry worldwide should be grateful for the dogged determination of this company to make TripAdvisor a much more credible source of travel information.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a> Twitter:@WhaleCottage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TripAdvisor is increasingly coming under pressure from KwikChex, a reputation management company representing major hotels in the United Kingdom and the USA. \u00a0Not only has the company threatened to take TripAdvisor to court over its unauthenticated ‘customer reviews’, taken TripAdvisor to the Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom and successfully been able to get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[7,124,22,21],"tags":[32367,14201,15657,32378,15655,8255,15479,13,15658,1086,32373,15656],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t