It would appear that TripAdvisor is violating its own policy in removing negative hotel reviews. Is this an oversight on TripAdvisor’s part, or…?
In this post:
The reviews that TripAdvisor will delete
As you’d expect, hotels care a lot about the ratings that they get online. Many hotels will ask guests to leave reviews on TripAdvisor, and will respond to just about any TripAdvisor review, in hopes of appearing to be engaging. After all, online reviews are a major factor in helping people decide where to stay.
TripAdvisor is monetized in several ways, including with both consumers and hotels. Hotels can pay TripAdvisor for more exposure, though in theory it shouldn’t impact the reviews that are published about hotels, and whether they’re allowed to stay.
Per TripAdvisor’s terms, hotels can request to have reviews removed from the website if they contain any of the following:
- Profane or vulgar language
- Intolerant language
- Irrelevant information
- Bias or blackmail
- Secondhand information
That seems fair enough, right? Well…
Negative St. Regis Chicago reviews disappear
The St. Regis Chicago recently opened, which many Marriott Bonvoy members were excited about. Unfortunately that excitement subsided pretty quickly, as the hotel was violating Marriott Bonvoy terms and conditions in not offering breakfast to elite members. Many of us called the hotel out on that, and that caused the hotel to backtrack.
Well, there’s an interesting update, as flagged by Anthony at The Bulkhead Seat. Anthony was one of the first people to stay at the St. Regis Chicago, and exposed the game the hotel was playing. Anthony left a totally fair review of the hotel on TripAdvisor. He didn’t even give it one star, but rather pointed out (accurately) that the hotel wasn’t great in terms of elite recognition, and still had some work to do before it would become a proper luxury hotel.
Anthony now notes that his review of the St. Regis Chicago has been deleted. That’s despite the fact that it didn’t in any way violate TripAdvisor’s terms and conditions.
Then there’s the below review with the title “Excellent for paying customers; Sorry points bros.” This is clearly from someone who didn’t actually stay at the hotel, though that review hasn’t been taken down (even though it’s not a firsthand review of a property). That review reads in part as follows, essentially just attacking anyone who expects a luxury hotel to offer what it promises:
You can review the comments to see an uproar from the points crowd gnashing teeth about stingy policies towards freebies.
For those not accustomed to the points crowd, these are well meaning folks who are typically consigned to mid-tier hotels by regional airports, etc., for business or hyper focused on churning credit cards… all in the name of points. Rather than focus on making enough money to be rich, they focus their time on collecting points to act rich occasionally on a free stay at a “premium” property.
There is a reason you won’t find points at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Aman, Rosewood, etc. They don’t want to points crowd – who does not pay for hotel services.
Ask any concierge, front desk person, etc about “but I’m a diamond member or titanium platinum or extra special gold elite whatever.” “Great pal, I’m glad you spend 50 nights in a Staybridge Suites by the Grand Forks airport or the True in Topeka, Kansas.
They don’t tip well, they don’t pay for spa appoints, they don’t pay for laundry or room service. But… Marriott and Hilton love to dangle the prospects of luxury stays to keep the folks coming to the Hilton Garden Inn or the Courtyard by Marriott.
Sadly, this keeps Waldorf Astoria, Ritz Carlton, St Regis, etc. from ever being true luxury hotels. You can’t be a luxury hotel when you are filled with guest complaining about paying for breakfast.
Now, it’s anyone’s guess who reported some reviews to be deleted, but not others… I certainly have my suspicions. It’s not a great look when a paying guest at a hotel has their review removed, while someone who clearly didn’t even stay at a hotel and is simply attacking guests has their review remain…
Statement from TripAdvisor about reviews being deleted
TripAdvisor has reached out with the following statement regarding this story:
As The Bulkhead Seat mentions, this property wasn’t honoring expected benefits. As a consequence, Tripadvisor received a spike of review submissions, including numerous non-firsthand experiences – both positive and negative – which are not permitted on our site per our policy. This review spike deviated strongly from normal review behavior and consequently, Tripadvisor removed everything that was submitted to the property within that spike that appeared to be non-firsthand experiences.
However, any user who has had their review removed, in any situation, can always reach out to our support team. We know we’re not perfect, and we rely on our community to let us know when we may have gotten it wrong.
Bottom line
Officially, TripAdvisor only deletes reviews for a limited number of reasons, including profanity, secondhand information, etc.
However, negative reviews from the St. Regis Chicago have been deleted, including one written by one of the first guests, which was balanced. Meanwhile a review written by someone attacking “points bros” remains, even though there’s no indication that person actually stayed at the hotel (though he gave the hotel five stars, which is probably all the hotel cares about).
What’s your take on TripAdvisor deleting reviews?
It is clear that hotels have powerful sway in removing TA reviews - even if the posts are nothing more than undesirable from the property owner's perspective.
Revenue-driven policy where TA cearly prioritises hotel owners over transparency.
If you read TA's own transparency report, 70% of reviews on the site are 5 bubbles/stars. How likely is that with a hundred thousand businesses? Their own numbers reveals that they're manipulating the reviews. Maybe it's by allowing fake reviews that are positive, maybe by removing more often bad reviews that are legitimate, or some combination.
TripAdvisor has been selling review manipulation to offending hotels for years. It is their primary source of revenue. Trip Advisor reviews should be considered propaganda. I don't understand why travelers continue to visit TripAdvisor.
Trip Advisor keeps deleting negative reviews for hotels. They must get paid by the hotels are so other inappropiate relationship. As David wrote I no longer trust TripAdvisor.
They probably get a lot of heat from the Hotels themselves when it comes to negative reviews. So if course they remove them. Does that make it right...Of course not
If it doesn't follow the corporate rules, the hotel can get out of Marriott, then join the Four Seasons, Mandarin Orientals, or being an independent boutique hotel. If the reviews are on one side, I generally won't believe in any of them. TA should re-installed all the reviews so that consumers can make their own decisions based on the available reviews from both sides.
TA has been going downhill with their reviews for years. Tried to post a bad review of a hotel in the Maldives and a horrific experience with China Eastern Air and both were removed. Reminds me of Amazon and all their fake reviews, even with Fakespot scrubbing them. I try to look for trends in hotels that have 100+ reviews and cross checking with booking.com, but it's not very effective.
Have used TA for many years as both a consumer and contributor, and use Google (maps) as a cross-check. The fake or irrelevant reviews on TA are easy to spot. Can only recall one very negative resort stay we endured that totally defied the high TA rating and glowing reviews. My 2 star review was not deleted, but has since been diluted by many more fake or paid reviews. Just bring your salt shaker when...
Have used TA for many years as both a consumer and contributor, and use Google (maps) as a cross-check. The fake or irrelevant reviews on TA are easy to spot. Can only recall one very negative resort stay we endured that totally defied the high TA rating and glowing reviews. My 2 star review was not deleted, but has since been diluted by many more fake or paid reviews. Just bring your salt shaker when using TA.
On a more positive note, I find the TA travel forums to be very helpful, and relatively troll-free.
The same has happened at TrustPilot.
In fact I analysed Trustpilot, sitejabber and reviews.io.
On their own sites they are all rated 4.1 or above.
On each other's sites they are all rated 2.4 or below.
The era of reliable free crowd-sourced free reviews is over.
The challenge (which is why I did the analysis) is where a business should direct satisfied customers to leave reviews without the review platform trying to...
The same has happened at TrustPilot.
In fact I analysed Trustpilot, sitejabber and reviews.io.
On their own sites they are all rated 4.1 or above.
On each other's sites they are all rated 2.4 or below.
The era of reliable free crowd-sourced free reviews is over.
The challenge (which is why I did the analysis) is where a business should direct satisfied customers to leave reviews without the review platform trying to extort money from one (I have read comments about "pay us or we will 'allow' negative reviews")
tripadvisor is the LEAST source for reviews..
as long as you pay advertising, they will allow to post own (positive) reviews, even if you write them & point it out .. ( if 90% of 5* ratings are done by people, that have only 1 or 2 reviews overall .. ) but tripadvisor does not care ..
Trip Advisor is as much of a "scam" as other areas of the increasingly corrupt hotel industry. Aside from Trip Advisor taking down negative reviews (presumably at the request of the hotel companies) I have known retirees in the Far East being paid "pocket money" by the big brand chains to write positive TA reviews for hotels that need their ratings bolstered. Scam scam scam!
Happens all the time. Very common practice for hotels to flag negative reviews. I have been working in the luxury hotel industry for many years.
TripAdvisor is to hotels as Skytrax is to airlines.
I haven’t referred to either for a long time.
I use tripadvisor all the time, have been so for the last 15-20 years. I travel a lot internationally. I rarely have a bad experience due to TripAdvisor. It’s far better than google reviews where allcomers can post. Their search functions you can use on a hotel can quickly reveal if there are issues with a hotel. It’s clear that anyone with only one review is not worth reading. I have never got the impression that TripAdvisor has been removing negative reviews.
I use tripadvisor all the time, have been so for the last 15-20 years. I travel a lot internationally. I rarely have a bad experience due to TripAdvisor. It’s far better than google reviews where allcomers can post. Their search functions you can use on a hotel can quickly reveal if there are issues with a hotel. It’s clear that anyone with only one review is not worth reading. I have never got the impression that TripAdvisor has been removing negative reviews.
Sorry this got posted twice. I got an error message the first time but it had posted anyway.
I take Trip Advisor reviews with grain of salt. It’s been several years since TA was of any real value. I’ll briefly scan reviews for legit comments and look at photos by travelers. When I read a bunch of reviews that constantly name drop hotel staff, that hotel drops out of contention for my business.
I save my hotel points for overseas trips when I want to occasionally splurge. Overseas, I much prefer a...
I take Trip Advisor reviews with grain of salt. It’s been several years since TA was of any real value. I’ll briefly scan reviews for legit comments and look at photos by travelers. When I read a bunch of reviews that constantly name drop hotel staff, that hotel drops out of contention for my business.
I save my hotel points for overseas trips when I want to occasionally splurge. Overseas, I much prefer a boutique hotel in a local neighborhood with good transit options. Where 40K Bonvoy points might get you a room near Des Moines airport on a quiet day, it can also get you a really nice room at a 5 star hotel in Bangkok where the concierge remembers your name. I happily paid for the world class breakfast buffet, convenient but pricy laundry service and a private car to the airport.
Thanks Lucky. That is definitely disappointing.
Out of curiosity - did you ask Tripadvisor for a comment? Did they reach out to you with a response?
I have no idea how they operate, but most PR departments would make an effort to correct articles that suggests the entire premise of their company is flawed.
I guess if they choose not to comment, it can be interpreted as admission that this is how...
Thanks Lucky. That is definitely disappointing.
Out of curiosity - did you ask Tripadvisor for a comment? Did they reach out to you with a response?
I have no idea how they operate, but most PR departments would make an effort to correct articles that suggests the entire premise of their company is flawed.
I guess if they choose not to comment, it can be interpreted as admission that this is how they operate.
Personally I got great value out of Tripadvisor over the years, but it may very well be my luck, the destinations I travel to or the fact that my shortlist is usually pretty decent.
On Trip Advisor, I only really pay attention to the customer photos to see how they stack up against the professional company photos.
Main reason google maps reviews are better than trip advisor! Funny I haven’t use them in a while anyway and worked for a hotel and I know the sales department can remove them.
Proof that TA is a fraud. Disappoint as a I use it often to check reviews. No more now.
I think Tripadvisor may be up to more than just deleting bad reviews. Check out reviews for the #1 hotel in Hong Kong - Ritz Carlton Hong Kong. How this hotel ever got rated #1 of anywhere is beyond me, but check the reviews for yourselves. 75% of the reviews aren’t for the hotel at all, but are for one of their restaurants or disco. Also check out how many are from people that have...
I think Tripadvisor may be up to more than just deleting bad reviews. Check out reviews for the #1 hotel in Hong Kong - Ritz Carlton Hong Kong. How this hotel ever got rated #1 of anywhere is beyond me, but check the reviews for yourselves. 75% of the reviews aren’t for the hotel at all, but are for one of their restaurants or disco. Also check out how many are from people that have submitted only one review….suspect much?
I alerted them to these issues….they did nothing about it. Without their credibility Tripadvisor’s value goes down to 0.
It's sad about the Reviews Sites, generally they're on the same trajectory, legitimate when building their User Base, then when their growth flattens out, they cater to the Companies by selling them better reviews or weeding out the negative reviews.
It the same story throughout the Review Industry, very hard to find legitimate reviews. Either because of review site shenanigans or paid review trolls. Check out IMDB for an example of another type of...
It's sad about the Reviews Sites, generally they're on the same trajectory, legitimate when building their User Base, then when their growth flattens out, they cater to the Companies by selling them better reviews or weeding out the negative reviews.
It the same story throughout the Review Industry, very hard to find legitimate reviews. Either because of review site shenanigans or paid review trolls. Check out IMDB for an example of another type of Review site pulling the same nonsense, and be amazed at the number of brand new accounts posting a 10 star review for the latest studio dud.
I usually look for the lower ratings. There is in general some truth behind each of them, although I may prioritize the issue reported differently.
Based on this article, the life span of such reviews may be short.
They did this to me years ago removed some
Negative restaurant reviews. I don’t use trip advisor any more
I stopped using TA after writing more than 1000 reviews because it became a crapshoot if they would publish what I wrote and would go no explanation when they didn’t.
I also don't trust trip advisor any longer. It's similar to Amazon reviews... Don't believe them
Tripadvisor is owned by Expedia. They are most certainly biased and protect their partners at all costs.
Same as others on here -- I quit using or trusting TripAdvisor long ago, except for those occasional reviews where people post lots of real-life pictures of their rooms and the hotel facilities. Otherwise it's worthless. While it's not travel / hospitality oriented, Google reviews are at least pretty trustworthy.
I quite using and trusting tripadvisor long ago. They have been removing and pushing reviews for a very long time.
They are no longer a trusted and independent site. Don't believe anything you read in the internet
Follow the Money.
TA works for the vendor/hotel. Their business grows by driving more business to their clients, especially the ones subscribing to their business services, and thus there is zero incentive in allowing anything negative to slip thru. Yes, a few to maintain some semblance of balance, but the money comes from supporting the paying businesses, not the reviewers. I have spoken with guides who use them and they are quite candid about...
Follow the Money.
TA works for the vendor/hotel. Their business grows by driving more business to their clients, especially the ones subscribing to their business services, and thus there is zero incentive in allowing anything negative to slip thru. Yes, a few to maintain some semblance of balance, but the money comes from supporting the paying businesses, not the reviewers. I have spoken with guides who use them and they are quite candid about how well TA supports them and filters reviews to keep their folks signing up...especially thru the TA booking links! Gee, I'm shocked!
Its wikipedia page has no information about its management's poor attitude or their removal of valid Tripadvisor reviews, but someone could fix that.
A hotel can flag a review and claim its "unfair" etc or fake
Tripadvisor will then remove it.
Chain hotels have the resources to do it.
My buddy is a manager at a Hyatt, and they make sure to flag all bad reviews and have TA remove them. It doesnt take much.
I haven't used this site in years. I've learned that the average traveler using this site doesn't map to the same values I have.
For example, I don't consider Courtyard Myeongdong a 4.5 star hotel. But TA does, because the only priority is "cheap and clean and location" for the average user.
Particularly when it comes to dining, the top rated places in Italy are pizza by the slice or cheap panini or pasta served in a paper cup from hole in the wall establishments. If your goal is to eat for €10/day while on a European vacation, go to TP because you will find those places, usually with a half hour line out front.
Entirely irrelevant.
Tripadvisor is not a tour guide. It supposed to help you evaluate a place you are interested in going to.
If my nightly budget is $90, knowing the that the Ritz in Paris is amazing is worthless. What I can do is look at a few options at $90 or less, and then see how other travelers ranked them.
People who are on a budget still deserve a platform to...
Entirely irrelevant.
Tripadvisor is not a tour guide. It supposed to help you evaluate a place you are interested in going to.
If my nightly budget is $90, knowing the that the Ritz in Paris is amazing is worthless. What I can do is look at a few options at $90 or less, and then see how other travelers ranked them.
People who are on a budget still deserve a platform to help them make good choices.
The main issue this post highlights is that the reviews posted are not reflective of the experience of reviewers, and that negative reviews are removed.
I rarely utilize review sites. Fortunately when it comes to the way I travel, it's just not necessary.
But I always figured if I did, I could trust a site like TripAdvisor.
They'll probably play damage control if it does, but I think this should get more attention.
I pointed out the issue in the comments of the original article about St Regis Chicago not offering breakfast. TripAdisor is just like Yelp and BBB, travellers are not the customers, they're the products. It cannot be trusted. Google Reviews is slightly better, but still untrustworthy.
I only read FT now for reviews from regular folks.
Cheers. I saw that comment. Wish you would've gotten credit for it.
What is FT?
FlyerTalk.
Thanks!
What’s FT?
FY has regular folks? Who knew.
Let's Bud Light tripadvisor
I never leave reviews on hotels and restaurants. My experience reading reviews in advance of a hotel stay or dining experience has been that they are normally either very inflated or very underrated after a stay or meal. Pretty much useless!
That's why you select the three green dot reviews and read them to see what exactly the people complain about. If the problem is a missing crib or a terrible view, then I'm good and can book the hotel because I am not concerned by those things. But if it's bad wifi and no hot water, then I'll look elsewhere.
One dot reviews are mostly useless as it's almost always a case where one particular...
That's why you select the three green dot reviews and read them to see what exactly the people complain about. If the problem is a missing crib or a terrible view, then I'm good and can book the hotel because I am not concerned by those things. But if it's bad wifi and no hot water, then I'll look elsewhere.
One dot reviews are mostly useless as it's almost always a case where one particular thing has gone horribly wrong – and the odds of the same happening to me aren't big. Five dot reviews, while nice to read, are also pretty much worthless because I don't know the people behind them. Their "wonderful breakfast" might be something completely different from my idea of wonderful.
Agree, and people are generally more likely to leave a 1 dot for a disaster as some stree relief.
Although sometimes the sheer number of 1 dot reviews can be revealing.
When comparing car rental companies in Lisbon recently, both Sixt and Avis had appalling average levels, but (on both Trip Advisor and Trust Pilot) Sixt had about ten times as many.
Trip Advisor is TRASH. I never use them to gauge ratings.
TA regularly games the reviews. Before I figured that out, I would write a review, it would not appear. When I inquired, TA would say it did not meet their standards but would refuse to say why. My reviews, while not positive , met all their criteria. Positive reviews posted without issue.
Airbnb and VRBO do the same thing.
Could the rationale be that, to the extent a review was based on a quickly-reversed elite breakfast policy, the information was "irrelevant" to intended site users?
While I believe that an argument could be made for removing (or, better yet, deprecating in some way) negative reviews that refer to a some kind of temporary condition, if that's the case then Trip Advisor should at least include that in their list of reasons they might delete a review. Preferably they would include a indication that a review was removed and how many stars it had originally had.
That said, I doubt that's...
While I believe that an argument could be made for removing (or, better yet, deprecating in some way) negative reviews that refer to a some kind of temporary condition, if that's the case then Trip Advisor should at least include that in their list of reasons they might delete a review. Preferably they would include a indication that a review was removed and how many stars it had originally had.
That said, I doubt that's what's happening here. They simply don't want to anger one of their business partners. The Better Business Bureau has also gotten in trouble for this sort of thing.
Using Trip Advisor to research properties is like using Yelp to find a steakhouse: Outback is ranked 4.8 and Morton's is ranked 4.2.
What do you recommend for researching hotels?
You can probably consider cross checking TA review with booking.com. In theory booking.com has less incentive to mess with the reviews as they benefit whichever hotel you book.
And booking.com only sends a link to add a review following a stay at the hotel in question. I've found booking.com reviews to be the least worst.
I recently noticed on tripadvisor that for a hotel I was looking at in the Mauritius that there were over fifteen hundred excellent reviews and it's no terrible reviews which was very strange.
I checked Google reviews and there were quite a few negative reviews.
Another hotel had multiple reviews written on the same days praising the same two members of staff over and over using almost exactly the same wording.
These make the hotel...
I recently noticed on tripadvisor that for a hotel I was looking at in the Mauritius that there were over fifteen hundred excellent reviews and it's no terrible reviews which was very strange.
I checked Google reviews and there were quite a few negative reviews.
Another hotel had multiple reviews written on the same days praising the same two members of staff over and over using almost exactly the same wording.
These make the hotel and staff look amateurish, and should be deleted but obviously wont.
I don't at all believe that Yelp is pulling the same shenanigans that Trip Advisor appears to be doing. Rather, in my opinion, it reflects on the taste and sophistication level of its reviewers. Mortons probably doesn't deserve a rating higher than that. Since they were sold, I was informed they have changed meat providers, and from my experience, definitely gone down in quality,
As to the faux "excellent for paying customers" the review says points don't pay for room service. Huh. Because the St. Regis Chicago does not offer room service! They will however drop off your Uber Eats. This discovery occurred as I was checking current reviews for the Drake which as much as I love a historic hotel, I also felt were utter fiction
I stopped leaving reviews on TA in 2017, when I noticed that one of my reviews had been quietly deleted. I had a largely unfavorable experience at a hotel (Hilton, Greenville, SC). I was overcharged; I could never get the hotel to provide a response even after contacting corporate; and there were literal fights among guests (yelling, profanity, threats) that I witnessed but the hotel did nothing about it. To my recollection, I rated a...
I stopped leaving reviews on TA in 2017, when I noticed that one of my reviews had been quietly deleted. I had a largely unfavorable experience at a hotel (Hilton, Greenville, SC). I was overcharged; I could never get the hotel to provide a response even after contacting corporate; and there were literal fights among guests (yelling, profanity, threats) that I witnessed but the hotel did nothing about it. To my recollection, I rated a 2 out of 5 (executive lounge was adequate and onsite restaurant was fine). So I left a perfectly fair, factual review. About 2 days later, it was gone. Clearly, the hotel had complained to TA, so TA caved in to accommodate the hotel, even though I certainly violated no review policies.
That review sounds like Endre to me...
They removed almost all their reviews. When you wrote about it there were 13 reviews. (2) 5 star, (1) 4 star, (3) 3 star, (2) 2 star, (5) 1 star... now there are (5) 5 star reviews and (1) 4 star review. That's it. This is very frustrating and I now know there's no trusting Trip Advisor. Won't be using Trip Advisor ever again. Now where can I review Trip advisor???
A good way to detect phony reviews is to see how many reviews have been posted by the guest. If it's just one or two, I'm suspicious. However, when someone has more than 30+ reviews; these are dedicated travelers.
I've been posting on Trip Advisor since 2016 and I'm not afraid to leave negative reviews on hotels. However, I'm very specific (ie: request for clean towels ignored by cleaning staff too busy playing with...
A good way to detect phony reviews is to see how many reviews have been posted by the guest. If it's just one or two, I'm suspicious. However, when someone has more than 30+ reviews; these are dedicated travelers.
I've been posting on Trip Advisor since 2016 and I'm not afraid to leave negative reviews on hotels. However, I'm very specific (ie: request for clean towels ignored by cleaning staff too busy playing with their cell phones, etc). However, no cussing, no naming names, no insults. Just the facts of the situation as in a pros and cons list.
30 reviews could be a dedicated traveler. Or it could be a professional reputation manager. Or, in this day and age, ChatGPT.
I rely heavily on trip advisor reviews and I'm disappointed to learn that bad reviews are being deleted. I always read the reviews and try to firm an opinion as to whether I would like the hotel or not. What someone else dislikes might be a positive for me. I stayed in a really nice hotel in Marrakech that someone gave a one star rating to because the hotel didn't allow guests to wear swimwear...
I rely heavily on trip advisor reviews and I'm disappointed to learn that bad reviews are being deleted. I always read the reviews and try to firm an opinion as to whether I would like the hotel or not. What someone else dislikes might be a positive for me. I stayed in a really nice hotel in Marrakech that someone gave a one star rating to because the hotel didn't allow guests to wear swimwear in the restaurant in the evenings. I've seen poor reviews given because smoking wasn't allowed in the hotel. These were a plus for me.
Just read their prior reviews. If they gush too often about frivolous things, or how "exquisite" the food or service is, they are blowing smoke up your a**.