TripAdvisor is not Better Business Bureau accredited. They have had many complaints lodged against them with the BBB, mostly over the last year. This is what a few people had to say.
Tripadvisor.com has a forum for Off Topic Chatter, which they say is for an exchange of ideas and opinions. All posts that shine a negative light on the president (even thoughtful, polite ones) are erased and the poster's privileges revoked. They need to warn that only happy posts are allowed.
Tripadvisor is extraordinarily non-responsive. No phone number to call. Just communicating via emails that they clearly don't even read. They are sloppy in their work and essentially hold business owners hostage. They manipulate rankings and I have had customers tell me they left glowing reviews only to never see them materialize. If you write a negative review, however, it is as if there is a jetstream carrying it to the page. Is the only way to be unbiased by leaving a negative review for a property? What about competitors that might write negative reviews? In addition, they posted photos that clearly do NOT reflect my establishment. So, false testimonials from guests I don't believe ever stayed at my establishment and false photos for a different hotel. I do not want to list my hotel name as there have been some who have been retaliated against by this mafia travel site. Either they are just incredibly inept to the point of gross negligence or they are malicious. Either way, they should be put out of business.
Tripadvisor is quite biased and will remove or not even post negative reviews if they are about any of their paid sponsors.
For additional information about TripAdvisor on the Better Business Bureau site, click here
Sep 13, 2011
Sep 12, 2011
TripAdvisor Exposed
I read last week that TripAdvisor is being sued under a class action suit in England by a fact checking company. It was on Pauline Frommer's daily blog. You can read about it in length here
Kind of sad another resource we all use turns out to be tainted. I have to believe it is the same in the states and Mexico as well. Recently the Danube Restaurant in Cozumel has dropped from grace with TripAdvisor, as they had too many glowing reviews. TripAdvisor's reviewers (whoever they are) determined that a new restaurant could not have that many excellent reviews, so they have dropped them from #1 to #113 of #114 restaurants in Cozumel. The owner has tried to contact them but to no avail.
So Carey and I put on our thinking caps and tried to help. That is where the tale becomes very dark. First of all, unbeknownst to me until yesterday, TripAdvisor is owned by Expedia .... one of the largest wholesale sellers of airlines tickets and hotels. Isn't this a clear case of conflict of interest? Also, TripAdvisor has the right to put reviews as pending until they post them (or they never post them.) I posted a glowing review that is pending review, so have my friends Gloria and Kandy. Unless you log in to facebook on TripAdvisor's site and are friends with us, you never see these reviews. Yet my cousin wrote a few reviews on Spain restaurants over the last few days, and all of those reviews are posted on their site. They also sometimes post reviews and take them off, back and forth depending on it seems .... the highest bidder? It works like this. TripAdvisor sells membership packages to hotels for $40 a month. Once you are a member, low and behold, your rating shoots way up, or that is the claim in the class action suit.
To muddy the waters even further, in these tough economic times, it seems that some owners are posting horrible reviews on competitor's sites and fake glowing reviews on their sites. TripAdvisor says they can spot the fakes. Well when Carey and I went on to defend Danube Restaurant, their "Destination Experts" ate us for lunch. Said we had ulterior motives and were up to no good, not who we said we were, etc. The sad part is with about two minutes of investigation, they could have qualified us. She is the webmistress of http://www.cozumelmycozumel.com/, a labor of love where she takes no advertising money and only promotes those she believes in. I also have a business here in Cozumel and two blogs that could be verified. The guys beating us up about a restaurant in Cozumel were from Santa Fe, New Mexico and even Canada.
Quite disappointing as I have relied on TripAdvisor over the years when making travel plans. I always knew to take the reviews with a grain of salt as it seems that inexpensive always trumps good quality, but now I know it is much more complicated than that. Any travel site that lists one of the best restaurants in Cozumel as #113 will no longer have my loyalty.
You decide for yourself.
Kind of sad another resource we all use turns out to be tainted. I have to believe it is the same in the states and Mexico as well. Recently the Danube Restaurant in Cozumel has dropped from grace with TripAdvisor, as they had too many glowing reviews. TripAdvisor's reviewers (whoever they are) determined that a new restaurant could not have that many excellent reviews, so they have dropped them from #1 to #113 of #114 restaurants in Cozumel. The owner has tried to contact them but to no avail.
So Carey and I put on our thinking caps and tried to help. That is where the tale becomes very dark. First of all, unbeknownst to me until yesterday, TripAdvisor is owned by Expedia .... one of the largest wholesale sellers of airlines tickets and hotels. Isn't this a clear case of conflict of interest? Also, TripAdvisor has the right to put reviews as pending until they post them (or they never post them.) I posted a glowing review that is pending review, so have my friends Gloria and Kandy. Unless you log in to facebook on TripAdvisor's site and are friends with us, you never see these reviews. Yet my cousin wrote a few reviews on Spain restaurants over the last few days, and all of those reviews are posted on their site. They also sometimes post reviews and take them off, back and forth depending on it seems .... the highest bidder? It works like this. TripAdvisor sells membership packages to hotels for $40 a month. Once you are a member, low and behold, your rating shoots way up, or that is the claim in the class action suit.
To muddy the waters even further, in these tough economic times, it seems that some owners are posting horrible reviews on competitor's sites and fake glowing reviews on their sites. TripAdvisor says they can spot the fakes. Well when Carey and I went on to defend Danube Restaurant, their "Destination Experts" ate us for lunch. Said we had ulterior motives and were up to no good, not who we said we were, etc. The sad part is with about two minutes of investigation, they could have qualified us. She is the webmistress of http://www.cozumelmycozumel.com/, a labor of love where she takes no advertising money and only promotes those she believes in. I also have a business here in Cozumel and two blogs that could be verified. The guys beating us up about a restaurant in Cozumel were from Santa Fe, New Mexico and even Canada.
Quite disappointing as I have relied on TripAdvisor over the years when making travel plans. I always knew to take the reviews with a grain of salt as it seems that inexpensive always trumps good quality, but now I know it is much more complicated than that. Any travel site that lists one of the best restaurants in Cozumel as #113 will no longer have my loyalty.
You decide for yourself.
Aug 14, 2011
French Quarter grand opening
Susan Johnson took over the French Quarter Restaurant & Sports Bar this month, August 2011. She has created a new menu and brought live music to the place. A good time was had by all at the opening party last night. The band is playing again tonight, San Juan Project from Guadalajara. There is a big surprise Susan has for tonight and she is being very tight-lipped, so I don't know what it is .. yet, anyway. I will keep working on that!
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| San Juan Project from Guadalajara jamming for the opening party |
Susan had a soft opening August 1st and has been so busy since then with all the locals and ex-pats coming out to enjoy the place. The big night was last night and there will be a repeat performance tonight.On Friday, the first 50 guests were given free tote bags (really cute.)
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| Susan modeling the new tote bag |
Live music, great food and awesome drinks ... it just doesn't get better than that! Some photos of the party last night.
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| Susan and friends |
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| Paul & Delfina |
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| Lisa & Teresa Jo |
I love the support from the community. Even the owner of Rock 'n Java, Lisa Ramirez, was there to enjoy and she loved the band as reported on facebook!
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| Susan & Marilu |
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| Masked beauties |
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| Christi & Michaela |
Needless to say, the opening was a huge success.
Susan, Cathy Martinez and I worked on the new paint colors, and I was very pleased with the results. Susan wanted the colors to reflect the French Quarter of New Orleans and also coordinate with the existing murals, which are awesome. Cathy found just the perfect shade of gold and Susan and I pondered over the greens and purples until we found just the right selections. Upstairs, we went with a base of cerveza (how appropriate as it means beer) and complimented with tomato and a light blue for accent colors. The paint came out great and reflects the new and improved look Susan is going for.
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| New gold and green |
P.S. Most of the photos were supplied by Katherine Robinson, who did a super job taking wonderful photos. Thanks, Katherine!
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| Katherine Robinson (in the middle) surrounded by friends |
Aug 12, 2011
Hello from Cozumel
The summers in Cozumel are humid, hot and buggy. I tend to get in to my typical routine to stay out of the heat ... coffee and oatmeal in the morning with the a/c blasting in my house, drive to work with the a/c on, stay until 5 working at the furniture and interior design store (also air-conditioned.) I guess you get my drift. It is really hot this time of year.
So while I need to be indoors, I decided instead of always working on my blog about my travels away from Cozumel, I would try to see where I live from a different point of view.
As you can see from the photos below, the weather was a lot cooler in the winter as we prepared for the opening of the Carnival parade.
This is dedicated to the wondrous island of Cozumel. May I see it from a different point of view!
This is a behind the scenes look at Carnival preparation from February of 2011. I walked the streets snapping photos before I went to work at the Humane Society booth. The local Humane Society works at placing all animals they take in and also does neutering and spaying. It is a great group. Information can be found at: Cozumel Humane Society
And if you do decide you want to see my photos from other parts of the world, check out my other blog about all the great architectural features and things that strike my fancy as I travel. It can be found at:Gargoyles & Graffiti
So while I need to be indoors, I decided instead of always working on my blog about my travels away from Cozumel, I would try to see where I live from a different point of view.
As you can see from the photos below, the weather was a lot cooler in the winter as we prepared for the opening of the Carnival parade.
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| Preparing for Carnival February 2011 |
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| Preparing food for Carnival |
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| Carnival hats on Kurt and Susanna |
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| Carnival clown |
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| Flinstones minus their Flinstone mobile |
This is a behind the scenes look at Carnival preparation from February of 2011. I walked the streets snapping photos before I went to work at the Humane Society booth. The local Humane Society works at placing all animals they take in and also does neutering and spaying. It is a great group. Information can be found at: Cozumel Humane Society
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| Joni working the Humane Society Booth |
And if you do decide you want to see my photos from other parts of the world, check out my other blog about all the great architectural features and things that strike my fancy as I travel. It can be found at:Gargoyles & Graffiti
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