TripAdvisor Perks: Bribery Or Just Good Marketing?

Agreed with Madigan.... TA is markedly unpredictable and oft times quite strict with how it interprets it's TOS. I think the problem here isn't whether the line of ethics is crossed from our perspective... it is whether the line is crossed from a user / content generator's perspective. Look at Yelp... when a business owner overextends himself they will turn on it. Worse than TA staff filtering your content and objecting to it are the TA reviewers revolting due to perceived unethical behaviour. You are correct that, by the book, this is ethical grey area. But it might not be worth risking your brand's image or position right?

Definitely some valid points and more vaild in areas with hotels in close proximity to each other. If you look at the Waikiki hotels you will notice their are some nice unknown hotels that don't get a fair amount of review or other run down hotels that get huge amounts of reviews.

Adam: See you're a Golden Eagle. I'm a Warrior (Al Mcguire era). MU Rah! Rah!

Adam: Virtually every guest who books one of our luxury hotels has first checked it out on TripAdvisor. So let's not underestimate the power of TA. And let's not underestimate the consequences of TA removing a hotel from its site. From experience I can tell you they are sometimes very (overly) stringent in the way they interpret their policies. It is against their policy to offer an incentive to guests to post a positive review. A hotel that offers a guest an incentive to write a positive or a negative review is still offering an incentive to post a positive review. So, depending upon how TA wants to interpret THEIR OWN policy the hotel will have to live with it. A hotel has very little (i.e., nothing) to say - it's out of their control. There are plenty of other ways to encourage positive reviews without putting a hotel to such a heavy risk.

Trip advisor like any blog or comment board is open to abuse by both the hotelier and the guest. It is one of the twists of such open free speech in the information age. I agree totally that bribery ( in any form) is not in anyway ethical however I think the writer is also under estimating the intelligence of the public. Guests that have truely had a negitive experience at a property in general will not be swayed by such offers as the likelihood, they will not return to a property if they feel they have not recieved value for money.

The marketing incentive states "tell your friends on www.tripadviser.com,...Then after informing the world of what a GREAT experience you had, upon your return, we can thank you in our special way", they are encouraging you to leave a GREAT review, and if you do so you will be rewarded..with Trip Adviser, Its not about a good or bad review, its about leaving a good one only on Trip Adviser, its a marketing push and in only one direction, and for that you will be rewarded, as you noted Adam in A..3 it is wrong to do so and as Madigan points out it is also against the rules, Mr Frasier has the right approach, you should be encouraged to give a good or bad review in every medium, and any Hotel would then take comments on board and then give the appropriate discount personally, yes I agree in the fact people should be encouraged give positive reviews to balance out the bad ones and give a clear reflection of the property and management.

This is pandering, guests that are truly moved positive or negative will bring their feelings first to management and then in good faith express to the world via Tripadvisor. Problem guests are never "

Madigan: As I noted in both this blog post and the last, Mela does not require POSITIVE reviews. They merely require reviews, of any stripe. You raise a good point, generally speaking, but please realize it doesn't apply here.

It pays to know TripAdvisor's Policies. Q - Can an owner offer an incentive to users for a positive review? A - No. Property owners are welcome to encourage their guests to submit user reviews upon their return home but they are not allowed to offer incentives, discounts, upgrades, or special treatment on current or future stays in exchange for positive reviews. Check it out in TripAdvisor's policies In the meantime you should know TripAdvisor has removed hotels from its site for offering incentives. TripAdvisor is mentioned regularly on www.HospitalityMarketingBlog.com

When a guest has a horrible stay they are more likely to post something about the hotel then if they had a good stay. Sometimes if somebody has an good stay they will post something, but under rare circumstances. If you get only a couple of good ones and the bad ones are the only ones to report then it appears that you have a horrible property when in fact in might not. Something could have happened, that does not usually happen and it will adversely affect you.

I always encourage guests, atleast those who have booked through 3rdparty sites such as expedia, lastminute.com, to tell the world how their stay was, good or bad when they get home. I think this approach allows the opportunity to take the good with the bad, and gives your hotel a good cross section of comments. I believe we should not be afraid of what our customers feel, but should concentrate on ensuring our front line is delivering the service standards that will provide the guests no reason to be negative.