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Nothing is more important to us than the authenticity of our reviews. We have a world-class international team of specialists who spend 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, making sure our reviews are real.

If the above impressed you, just wait until you hear the rest of what the TripAdvisor Crew is capable of doing.. But first..

For 10 years now, TripAdvisor has been shouting from the top of the trees that they do not have a problem with fake reviews, blackmailing, defamation of character, online bullying and lots more..

Back in August after yet again TripAdvisor claimed they don’t have a problem with Fake reviews, and Stephen Kaufer explained the following ;

you can read the whole article HERE

Stephen Kaufer had the following to say about Fake Reviews 

Some people may not be aware of just how extensive and sophisticated our fraud detection systems are. The legitimacy of the reviews on TripAdvisor is a fundamental part of our value and, ultimately, our success…

… we know occasionally some people will attempt to manipulate our system so our fraud detection efforts are an absolute priority.

… we use evolving and highly sophisticated fraud detection filters, which scan the reviews. Anything suspicious is then flagged for inspection by our dedicated fraud detection team, who investigate fully, drawing upon their expertise in credit card fraud, identity theft, and loss prevention.

… there is little room to hide for anyone attempting to circumvent the systems we have in place. 

article can be seen here

TripAdvisor’s Kevin Carter reckons the following

 … TripAdvisor has a zero tolerance policy for fraud and has sophisticated tools for detecting it…

… We take the authenticity of our reviews very seriously and have numerous methods to manage the legitimacy of the content on TripAdvisor, including automated screening tools that are constantly upgraded…

… A team of quality assurance specialists investigates suspicious reviews which are flagged by our proprietary tools…

There you have just a few examples of TripAdvisor NOT acknowledging they have a HUGE problem with FAKE Reviews….

 Their story was very impressive, but it was the complete opposite to what we are seeing, we post 100′s of opinion reviews a week, and at least 95% get approved and posted.

So the question is, is TripAdvisor full of shit, or are we full of shit?.. So we challenged TripAdvisor to a “Fake Review Challenge”  as see below

The Fake Review Challenge

We publicly challenge TripAdvisor to a “Fake Review Showdown”  We will post 10 completely random Fake Reviews, and see how many get approved and posted on TripAdvisor.

We will gladly work with the media to supply us with 10 random establishments to post reviews, and we will “record” all the steps we take to get the reviews posted.

TripAdvisor, stop just walking the walk, step up to the plate and allow us to show you just how easy it is to post fake reviews and use your site to destroy reputations and livelihoods..

TripAdvisor, this is YOUR chance to make a fool of us…

Can you REALLY stop Fake Reviews TripAdvisor?

Of course we never heard back from TripAdvisor. They finally had the chance to show everyone that WE are full of shit, and they with their Billions and sophisticated technology would have no trouble at all stopping 9 people with nothing better to do than claim to post fake reviews from actually posting them.

Of course we and everyone else knows the REAL Truth, and that is TripAdvisor has not got a clue how to stop fake reviews..On average  MORE than 9 out of 10 reviews we post get approved by TripAdvisor.

Just a few days ago, TripAdvisor again started ranting about the the authenticity of their reviews, it was obvious that the statement was made by someone that OBVIOUSLY did not have a clue what he or she was talking about.. It was embarrassing !!

The whole article can be read HERE - but we have just taken out a few of the best bits..

Nothing is more important to us than the authenticity of our reviews. We have a world-class international team of specialists who spend 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, making sure our reviews are real

People continue to join and visit TripAdvisor in increasing numbers because of the usefulness that the traveller reviews and opinions provide.

We understand the importance that the reviews and opinions on TripAdvisor have to properties and businesses listed on the site. TripAdvisor has been monitoring tens of millions of reviews submitted over the past decade, and as a result, we can identify patterns of suspicious activity by utilising sophisticated filters and behavioural modelling to scan reviews. We monitor and evaluate hundreds of different attributes associated with electronic correspondence, such as IP address, the type of browser being used and even screen resolution of the reviewer’s device. Suspicious activity is then flagged to our investigations team of dedicated agents who use a variety of additional confidential investigative methods designed to identify potential fraud.

We have a world-class international team of nearly 100 content specialists. This team is able to work in all 21 languages that we support on our global sites. The team has a wide range of fraud detection backgrounds, from a range of industries, and utilise sophisticated data mining, visualization and analytic tools to uncover trends and patterns of abuse.

As well as our automated tools, we encourage our community of travellers and businesses alike to report any content they feel is suspicious or inappropriate. Every single report is investigated by the team above and any review found to be in breach of our policies will be taken down immediately.

Hahaha.. you gotta luv it!!.. whoever wrote the above, must be sooo embarrassed !!.. he or she had probably enjoyed the company of “Mary Jane” while watching The Matrix.

Anyway, our  Fake TripAdvisor Review Challenge still stands, we will gladly let TripAdvisor prove to EVERYONE what they loudly claim. 

But until then, here are just a few Opinion Reviews that ….. let’s make sure we get this right…  

Got passed a world-class international team of specialists who spend 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, making sure our reviews are real, dodging all the sophisticated filters and behavioural modelling scans, also getting past the evaluation of hundreds of different attributes associated with electronic correspondence, such as IP address, the type of browser being used and even screen resolution of the reviewer’s device. If that is not enough they also got pass the world-class international team of nearly 100 content specialists. The team that is able to work in all 21 languages that they support on our global sites. The team has a wide range of fraud detection backgrounds, from a range of industries, and utilise sophisticated data mining, visualization and analytic tools to uncover trends and patterns of abuse…. AND these FAKE reviews however based on our  opinion still made it onto TripAdvisor… Now THAT is nothing but a miracle .. or least if you really believe TripAdvisor..

Miracle Fake Reviews

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60898-d1657115-Reviews-Holiday_Inn_Express_Suites_Atlanta_Airport_West_Camp_Creek-Atlanta_Georgia.html

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60898-d1556831-Reviews-Loews_Atlanta_Hotel-Atlanta_Georgia.html

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g56003-d247108-Reviews-Hilton_Garden_Inn_Houston_Northwest-Houston_Texas.html

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60795-d1510002-Reviews-Hotel_Palomar_Philadelphia_a_Kimpton_Hotel-Philadelphia_Pennsylvania.html DOUBLE WHAMMY

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60795-d122343-Reviews-Sofitel_Philadelphia_Hotel-Philadelphia_Pennsylvania.html

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g186338-d236350-Reviews-Sofitel_London_St_James-London_England.html

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g154943-d1108305-Reviews-L_Hermitage_Hotel-Vancouver_British_Columbia.html  - DOUBLE WHAMMY

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g154943-d1063797-Reviews-Rosewood_Hotel_Georgia-Vancouver_British_Columbia.html

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g154943-d156565-Reviews-St_Regis_Hotel-Vancouver_British_Columbia.html

The post Fake TripAdvisor Review Challenge part 2 of many appeared first on TripAdvisor Warning.

TripAdvisor has a 3rd party respond to critics { they are too obnoxious to respond themselves } - http://www.accomnews.com.au/industry/154-news-in-brief/2365-tripadvisor-responds-to-critics

In short what it boils down to, is that critics rightfully claim TripAdvisor is useless, full of lies, unreliable and outdated, and it owns the bragging rights to the worlds largest blackmail platform.  TripAdvisor being as arrogant as they are felt they are too good to have to respond to the critics, so they got someone else to do it for them.

We being open and transparent as we are feel we have to respond to TripAdvisor’s feeble response   

Now you have read all of that, lets see what REAL people have to say about TripAdvisor, and not some survey TripAdvisor paid for [ these real responses can be found at http://www.accomnews.com.au/industry/154-news-in-brief/2365-tripadvisor-responds-to-critics ]

I had a guest stay who complained about my business on Trip Advisor, even though I had gone out of my way to help him. He complained about my Business on Trip Advisor in a foreign language.. I converted the complaint into english … I tried to respond on Trip Advisor but was told I couldnt because it wasnt written in English by the Guest… Why can it be allowed to be posted on there if I cant respond? and it cant be removed

We had guests stay recently from NZ for the Bathurst Race Weekend. Their first words upon arrival in Reception to checkout “give us a discount on everything otherwise we will write bad reviews on all the websites about your business” This lady’s threat at blackmail was cautioned with advice I would be happy to call the local police to address her issues of which she declined. And yes she mostly certainly wrote a vicious, defamatory review on Trip Advisor’s website. We had complaints from other guests about these guests behaviour and noise during their stay. A couple who stayed with this group advised they enjoyed their stay with us, apologising for their friends behaviour and thanking us for the service we provided during their stay. Have to agree “what about a global supplier care team”. Definitely not Trip Advisor. 

Why is it that a “client” of Trip Advisor is defending Trip Advisor ? Why can’t someone from the organisation speak for it ? As usual no employee of Trip Advisor is identifiable. Why is it that no guest writing a review is identifiable by their real name, yet when a Mamnager responds his full name is listed ?
It is not true that fake reviews are taken down by Trip Advisor. I formally advised them of one such review applying to my property and they refused to acknowledge it or remove it from the site.
Why is it that you cannot actually speak to any employee of Trip Advisor ? What are they hiding from ?
A “global customer care team” – that’s a good one ! What about a “global supplier care team” ?

I’m sorry but we have had a complaint which was pretty bad and when we contacted Trip Advisor they would not put up our side of the complaint.We could not talk to anybody after about 3-4 attempts I asked them if such a bad complaint was made surely it needed justification as there are always 2 sides. This was ignored with a generic answer. I dont care for all the statistics. I do care about integrity. For which I believe they dont have. trip Advisor have done a lot of damage to a lot of people. They need to realise that there are some revolting guests out there that cannot be trusted.Mind you 99% are quite good. but when you see a really bad review you have wonder! I would like to be clear though that we had no way of getting rid of our bad complaint which was mostly lies. All this stuff you have written here sounds great but in reality does not exist.
So needless to say we are not big advocates of Trip Advisor 

I would like to address some inaccuracies in this propaganda
Untruth 1 Reviews are verified
Guests can write anything they like, truth or lies, slander or praise etc, owners cannot write in response as it is heavily 100% censored
Untruth 2 Reviews are not personal
Guests can use personal names of our staff, yet owners cannot refer by name the guest. We only have one staff and a guest referred to her by name in a review and now guests arrive saying they read about her
Untruth 3 Reviews can be responded to
Owners can respond via the management centre, but nothing is done. There is no way to follow up, no contact numbers it is a big black hole (deliberately)
Untruth 4 Reviews are from guests
Posts are not verified by Tripadvisor. I read a review yesterday and the review started by saying, “I never stayed here” but was all hearsay from their friend who did.
Untruth 5 Tripadvisor is concerned
Tipadvisor is not concerned about blackmail and threatening behaviour. Nothing is done about this 

You see TripAdvisor, these are your REAL users thoughts, not a survey that you paid for.. and YOU talk about transparency !!

PS – Our review challenge is still on the table, have Stevie or Babs call us.. 

The post TripAdvisor hopes we are all idiots including YOU appeared first on TripAdvisor Warning.

On Veterans Day we offered Veterans that owned or managed an establishment FREE reviews to boost their listing on TripAdvisor. We were saddened that 32 Veterans had to take us up on our offer, but were very happy to help them.

Yesterday we received the following email, that we would like to share with YOU.

FYI, we asked for permission to post this email. We were asked to remove any personal bits that would link it to their restaurant, afraid that TripAdvisor will make things worse for his wife, because of contacting us. This in itself  is a VERY sad issue. Here we have a disabled Vet. that put his own life on the line, spent 2 tours in Afghanistan, and he is worried about TripAdvisor destroying his wife’s restaurant… He was quick to say that TripAdvisor has already destroyed his wife’s zest and her restaurant, but was still hoping they would remove the reviews.

Can we help him he asked us?.. hell yeah we can help him, WE will do what TripAdvisor SHOULD have done and be doing.. Helping people like this. It would take TripAdvisor just 5 MINUTES to see a mile away this couple is being destroyed by ONE person.. Problem is, TripAdvisor doesn’t care, never has done.. and probably never will.

We will be offering ALL Veterans that own or manage an establishment listed on TripAdvisor FREE ongoing reviews  for unlimited time, just contact us with your details, and we will start boosting your listing. Unlike TripAdvisor, we REALLY appreciate what you have done or are still doing for our country.

TripAdvisor, Stephen Kaufer you must feel great after reading the above cry for help, sad that people that get ignored by you have to come to us for help…  Nice One, keep up the good work!!

The post Veterans being destroyed by TripAdvisor appeared first on TripAdvisor Warning.

At first we just assumed that someone at TripAdvisor stuck his or her thumb up his or her ass, and then held the thumb in the air to see which way the wind was blowing, because no matter how much, or how many listings we studied we could not find a pattern. We had owners contact us with 85 reviews 73 excellent 10 very good and 2 good reviews, they had been listed on TripAdvisor for 9 years and were ranked 6th out of 47 hotels. The hotel listed 1st only had 9 reviews, 7 excellent and 2 very good and had only been listed on TripAdvisor for just over a year,  BOTH hotels had very recent reviews. So how the hell does TripAdvisor rank the new hotel higher than the first hotel?.

We were very relieved when TripAdvisor themselves put this video together, so everyone would finally understand how it all works. Sit back, pour yourself a nice drink

** Spoiler Alert ………………… ( you might want to make it a very strong drink ) and try and enjoy this movie that will answer your question once and for all.. 

What!!? are you serious TripAdvisor? Is some warped sick joke?  This is a prime example of how TripAdvisor thinks and treats everyone like idiots!!.. The above video is completely worthless, and doesn’t explain a damn thing. Or it explains something, but definitely NOT how TripAdvisor REALLY ranks your listing 

We now believe there are TWO options of how it’s really done,  the first option is mentioned above, they stick a thumb up their ass and hold it in the wind.. Or, and this is the most likely method, they accept payments for improving the rankings. If you look up any city on TripAdvisor, and check the rankings, it never makes sense when you look at the review details, BUT it is as clear as daylight that nearly all the highest ranking listings are also “Paid Listings”  coincidence?  well that is for you to decide.

So, TripAdvisor claims the rankings are based on THREE categories : QUANTITY – QUALITY and AGE of the Reviews..

Now we have that information, we would like you to study the below properties, remember to look at the Quality of the reviews, the Quantity of reviews and the Age of the reviews.

Here are the details of property ONE : [ can also be seen here on Tripadvisor ] 

The Golden Key Motel in Pleasantville – New Jersey – USA

Ranked number 7 out of 17,  with just 4 ONE TIME reviews, last review posted on July 5th 2011

 YEAH, we know exactly what you are thinking.. Holy Shit! if this place is ranked number 7 out of 17 on TripAdvisor, the site THEY claim you can trust, then what the hell are the other 10 like that are ranked below this dead zone. Well lets take a look at the hotel that is ranked number 8 out of 17 so rated worse on TripAdvisor than the above hotel..

Here are the details of property TWO : [ can also be seen here on Tripadvisor ]  [ we only copied the first page of reviews ]

Quality Inn in Pleasantville – New Jersey – USA

Ranked number 8 out of 17,  with 21 reviews, last review posted on September 30th 2012

YEAH, don’t worry, we know exactly what you are thinking, and we totally agree with you all.. HOW the hell does TripAdvisor rank this hotel lower than the Dead Zone hotel ranked number 7 ??.. Maybe we are missing something, lets double check with the three categories TripAdvisor uses..

Quantity –  

4 reviews vs 21 reviews in favor of the second hotel..

OK, lets try something else..

Property 1 : 3 out of 4 Reviews rated Terrible which is 75%

Property 2 :  8 out of 21 = 38% are rated terrible.  not bad at all compared to the 1st one

Damn!!..  that doesn’t work, property 2 is FAR better than property 1  going by quantity..

Quality – ( just check the 4 latest reviews seeing as property 1 only has 4 reviews )

Property 1 has only received reviews from ONE time Reviewers  which totals 4 reviews

Property 2 has received reviews from reviewers totaling 32 Reviews  from among other 2 Contributor’s

So, Hotel number 2 wins by a mile yet again

But WAIT, maybe the AGE of the Review is the most important category, Yes, this one probably counts double, so let’s check..

Property 1 : The last review which was rated Terrible was posted on … July 5th 2011

Property 2 : The last review which was rated Very Good was posted on … September 30th 2012 

So yet again Property 1 wins hands down, which makes it a clean 3 out of 3 win.

So, there is no doubt property 2 should be well above property 1, but maybe TripAdvisor knows something we don’t, and as always, unlike them we are transparent, and we contacted TripAdvisor and asked if they could explain what we did wrong.. We understand they are very busy fixing their more than 25 sophisticated filters that aren’t working, and their detectives ( haha) that obviously haven’t got a clue. When we hear back from them, we will post their response below.

So, for anyone that wants to know how TripAdvisor ranks a property, just pay them, that always works, it works with reviews and it works with rankings. How much you will have to pay, we don’t know, we would suggest contacting them, but we all know you will be ignored.. or maybe not if you are willing to pay..

The post TripAdvisor and how they claim to rank your listing appeared first on TripAdvisor Warning.

Total new accounts : 15 ( 1 new account each )
Total reviews posted : 105 ( 7 reviews each )
Accounts from countries : 5 different countries ( USA, CA, UK, NZ and Italy )

From the 100 reviews posted, 97 got approved and posted on TripAdvisor – 65% got posted within 24 hours – the longest took 9 days ( even though the other 6 posted by the same person at the same time were posted within 24 hours )

OK, OK we know what you are thinking, WHAT has this got to do with TripAdvisor approving unvalidated reviews that destroy reputations and break laws?, and the answer is simple.. NOTHING!.. But it does show you how easy and fast someone can get a review posted on TripAdvisor, in our case no damage was done, all the reviews were rightfully positive.. However it could also be reviews like these..

FIRST, before we post a few reviews from our vast collection, ( we have 1000′s for an up and coming legal case ) we would like to quote the following from Emma Shaw

OK, just so you can rest assure that the reviews below have all been authenticated, filtered, investigated and policed by 60 million TripAdvisor Nazi’s, and the fact that they are on TripAdvisor means they are all reviews you can trust… Oh, and yes they are almost all ONE Time posters that have had nothing else to share with others since they got this trashed someone’s reputation. Either that, or even they are shocked that TripAdvisor posted their reviews, and want nothing to do with them..

ENJOY, and yes, you will want to laugh out loud, but remember someone’s reputation is being dragged through hell by a sad probably lonely person and an arrogant and pathetic TripAdvisor. Remember this can EASILY happen to you and your business - Also, when reading these reviews, ask yourself, if this happened to YOU, what would YOU have done, would you have handled these problems the same way as the (one time) reviewer did… ( we doubt it very much , unless of course you work for TripAdvisor)

There you have it, these extremely strong acquisitions can and will destroy a person and even a family’s reputation. These reviews are on the internet for EVERYONE to see.  Reviews you can trust ? … Yeah sure TripAdvisor, you carry on doing what you do best, destroying the reputations of those who work hard to put food on their plate..

The post TripAdvisor approves unvalidated reviews that destroy reputations and lives appeared first on TripAdvisor Warning.

An unvalidated TripAdvisor review from a one time unvalidated reviewer claims that Butlins is ” Full of Pedophiles ”  

The more than 25 sophisticated filters,AND their team of detectives, AND their community of over 60 million users allowed a ONE TIME unvalidated Reviewer to post an unvalidated review, claiming Butlins is Full of Pedophiles.. HOW this reviewer knows it’s FULL of Pedophiles, we don’t know, we can only assume that as the saying goes ” It takes one to know one”.. It’s obvious that this sad and pathetic person has a grudge against Butlins, and is using the gutter blackmail site TripAsvisor to damage the 76 year old reputation. However is is an absolute DISGRACE that a site that claims it’s their Top Priority to ensure the content on their site is authentic still goes ahead and posts this unvalidated damaging review.

This is not the first time that TripAdvisor has destroyed reputations and livelihoods by posting PEDOPHILE accusations, last year they destroyed the life of a happily married father of three, who was accused on TripAdvisor as being a Pedophile. He was on suicide watch for more than three months.. read about this disgrace ” TripAdvisor accuses father of 3 as being a pedophile “

Now there is of course a chance that it’s true, maybe Butlins is full of Pedophiles. You have to admit, it would be almost impossible for a lie of this magnitude to pass more than 25 sophisticated TripAdvisor filters AND a team of DETECTIVES ( haha ) and lets not forget 60 million “whinging know alls ” .

We contacted Butlins, but have not yet heard back from them, we also contacted TripAdvisor, but we all know they always ignore everyone, so we are not holding our breath.

Just ask yourself, If a site that claims to have 60 million users posts an unvalidated review claiming you are a Pedophile, or that your business is full of Pedophile’s, what do you think it would do your reputation, or that of your business ??.. Cos don’t forget TripAdvisor at the end of the day is the site you can trust..and 25 sophisticated filters, a team of detectives and 60 million “policing” users worldwide can’t be wrong.

Just another fine example of how disgraceful and clueless TripAdvisor really is…

The post TripAdvisor claims Butlins is full of Pedophiles appeared first on TripAdvisor Warning.

Now you can get fake TripAdvisor Reviews from well established and trusted Senior and Top Contributors

You requested and Real TripAdvisor Reviews  have listened. As of today Friday October 19th 2012 they are giving you a choice of Opinion Review Options. They have successfully posted more than 3100 opinion reviews on TripAdvisor within just 10 months. They are happy to say that 92% of all their reviews have been posted. It is for this reason that they are so confident that they can boost your listing on TripAdvisor that theyoffer a 100% guarantee, this means that as a client you NEVER donate anything upfront, they will do all the hard work, and you only donate AFTER the review has been posted on TripAdvisor.

Just over a year ago TripAdvisor introduced “Badges” to reviewers, in short this just means the more pathetic and sad you are the better the badge gets. see chart below.

During the past few months Real TripAdvisor Reviews have been flooded with requests for their opinion reviews, it goes without saying that everyone want’s reviews from the saddest of all, the “Top Contributor”. However, this is not how they had set about things.

When we started, we just added the client to the list, and our 15 reviewers would just go down the list and post a review, if they were “On Going” clients they were added back to the list. This meant that no one knew what badge the reviewer had. As mentioned we too are moving forward with our hundreds of reviewers accounts. We can now offer opinion reviews from EVERY badge TripAdvisor offers, and YES they all come with our 100% NO donation upfront guarantee, you only donate AFTER the review has been posted on TripAdvisor, and don’t forget, 100% of ALL proceeds goes to charities that help abused animals It goes without saying that that an opinion review from a Top Contributor will cost more than that of a Reviewer ( see above chart )

Real TripAdvisor Reviews  NEW price structure is as follows :  

• Reviewer: 1-5 reviews : price $20 per review
• Senior Reviewer: 6-10 reviews : price $25 per review
• Contributor : 11 – 20 reviews : price $30 per review
• Senior Contributor : 21-49 reviews : price $40 per review
• Top Contributor : 50+ reviews : price $45 per review

Senior Contributor and Top Contributor reviews are not available in all countries please contact us for more info.

For more details on how to boost your listing using reviews from TRUSTED Senior and Top Contributors  Real TripAdvisor Reviews

Remember, establishment owners can now get FREE reviews from the worlds largest network of TripAdvisor Opinion Reviewers – Owners helping Owners. For more info visit www.tripadvisor-reviewers.com

The post Fake TripAdvisor reviews from Senior and Top Contributors appeared first on TripAdvisor Warning.

 Luckily for every establishment owner who had NO choice to be added to TripAdvisor, you can rest assure that TripAdvisor will have NOTHING to do with extortion practices..It’s true, take a look at what they themselves claim about this issue.

We take allegations of blackmail or threatening behavior by guests against property owners very seriously. Not only is it strictly against our guidelines, but it may also be illegal in many jurisdictions. If an owner experiences this, we urge them to contact us immediately and our content integrity team will investigate.

WOW, at least they are serious about something…. Thank god you can rely on TripAdvisor…

FORGET IT!!… TripAdvisor sits back and does absolutely NOTHING about stopping hard working establishment owners from getting extorted using their site. We managed to get our hands on some back and forth details between an establishment owner that was extorted and the disgraceful response from TripAdvisor.

Before we share the details, we would like to point out that this establishment had absolutely no problems with TripAdvisor [ 125 excellent reviews and 6 terrible reviews (of which 3 are from the same person) ], until it became clear with this issue that TripAdvisor does not care at all about any of the establishments or owners.

On April 5th 2012 the owners of the Green Parrot Belize received the following email.

—– Original Message —–

From: Meg Brossy

Sent: 04/05/12 09:39 AM

To: David & Linda Allardice

Subject: Recent visit to the Green Parrot

David,

I am sure that by now you have heard of our disappointing visit to The Green Parrot from Leo. It was pretty much downhill from our arrival. Our boys ran ahead to the beach when we first got there and came back dejected, describing the four feet wide, two/three inch thick stretch of nasty wash-up that ran along the entire beach. No one had raked it (for a long time, it seems) and they didn’t want to walk through it. To be fair, we sat at the bar for about an hour, and no one else did either.

When we first got to the bungalow, I asked Leo if it cooled down at night because we realized immediately that there wasn’t any A/C. He said “We don’t advertise A/C on the web site…true, but you don’t say there is none either. In 85 degree weather, with 90 percent humidity, it was oppressive.

When it got time to go to bed, it hadn’t cooled down at all, but we went into the bungalow and I went upstairs to lie down. Even with all windows open, it was stifling, so I turned on the ceiling fan (which was advertised on the web site). It vibrated so badly, I was afraid to continue using it. To top all of this off, we were all sweating and Meg decided to go down and take a shower before coming to bed. When she turned the water on, immediately the bathroom began smelling like a decayed animal and the water was brownish…to the point where she didn’t to take a shower because then she would then smell like the water.

It got to the point where all combined, it was too mich to take. We checked out at 8:30 and found another place.

While travelling is always a risk/adventure, we are happy to pay for the first night. We understand your cancellation policy, but under the circumstance, do not think we should have to pay for the other two nights and ask that we settle this where it stands right now (assuming you haven’t put the charge for the second and third nights through). While not quite splitting the difference, you get the idea.

We are avid users of TripAdvisor.com and will refrain from a report if we can end this amicably. Hope you understand. Let us know.

Sincerely,

Guy and Meg Brossy

Also, we did have dinner at your restaurant. While you may not be there that often, you should know that we were the only ones there for dinner, the service was non-existent and the food was poor.

—– End Original Message —–

As the owner of The Green Parrot wrote on the TripAdvisor’s Owners Forum [ that got removed by TripAdvisor for reasons unknown to anyone except the TripAdvisor Nazi's that removed it! ], there is nothing wrong with this email, and YES it could have been solved amicably, ALL BUT the last sentence, “We are avid users of TripAdvisor.com and will refrain from a report if we can end this amicably. Hope you understand. Let us know.“..

This is a clear threat to use TripAdvisor as a scare tactic to extort the owner. The owner David did the right thing, ignored the threat, and sent all the details to TripAdvisor.

Of course Mr Allardice never heard back from TripAdvisor… ( probably too busy working on their very sophisticated fake review filters )..

Four days later The Green Parrot received THREE negative reviews, 1 from Meg Brossy and 2 from Guy Brossy, that’s correct, Guy Brossy using TWO accounts to maximize damage… TripAdvisor does NOTHING about this..

Like anyone would do, Mr Allardice AGAIN contacted TripAdvisor to ask WHY one couple can post THREE negative reviews??

Date: April 11, 2012 10:30:56 PM EDT

To: “userreviewsupport@tripadvisor.com”

Subject: Re: Your Review Dispute

This couple posted 3 reviews. Explain that policy to me

On Apr 11, 2012, at 9:26 PM, userreviewsupport@tripadvisor.com wrote:

Dear TripAdvisor Listing Owner,

Thank you for expressing your concern about the following review:

Title: Beware … dishonest owner/manager

ID#: 127523846

Each reviewer is only allowed to write one review per property. That said, two reviewers who have shared an experience are both entitled to post independent reviews about this experience. For example, we would allow a husband and wife traveling together to post individual reviews of a shared experience.

We understand that there are two sides to every story and encourage you to write a management response to be posted on our site. Your response will appear immediately below the review in question.

Yet ANOTHER template “droid” answer, that yet again DOESN’T answer the question ” WHY IS 1 COUPLE ALLOWED TO POST 3 REVIEWS?“

So, TripAdvisor completely ignores the “call for help” from Mr Allardice, AND hasn’t yet answered a single question, so the only thing left to do, is to explain HIS side of the story by posting a “Management Response”, which he did…

—original management response—–

Subject: Green Parrot Beach Houses

Location: Placencia

Title: Owner response

ID#: 127384404

This review is the result of a billing dispute and should never have been posted as a Trip Advisor comment about the services of the Green Parrot Resort. The guest arrived and decided that they did not want to stay. This was after they had signed our refund policy statement that requires a 21 day notice prior to arrival to receive a full refund. The guest never stayed over night at the resort. Then the guest demanded a full refund – or they would write a bad review at Trip Advisor. In fact, the guest emailed us that: “We are avid TripAdvisor.com and will refrain from a report if we can end this amicably. Hope you understand” If any prospective guest would like a copy of the threatening email that was sent to us – just send us a request and we will email a copy back to you.
This is an example of what we call Trip Advisor extortion. This is where a guest demands some type of payment -money, free food, free trips, etc. – or else they will post a negative report on Trip Advisor. We will not be intimidated by such threats. This is an example of a person that thinks they can use threats to destroy a business that has been built up over 12 years of hard work. All of our guests know what our refund and cancellation policy is – they sign a copy and know the terms.We fully disclose this information up front before you arrive.
We try to accommodate guests that have a problem with our services – however we will not bend to undue pressure. We feel that our history of positive Trip Advisor comments speaks for themselves.
Sure we have had bad comments, but we try to make improvements as a result of them. In this case the comment is biased and designed to cause great harm to the staff and operations of our business.

—end original management response—–

[ Of course the Management Response got rejected, every owner knows that a managers response only gets posted if you kiss ass response and NOT your side of the story ]

Mr Allardice received the same automated email as every other owner / manager receives when trying to explain their side of the story..

— original TA response —–

On Apr 7, 2012, at 9:33 PM, hotelrelations@tripadvisor.com wrote:

Dear Owner,

Thank you very much for taking the time to write a management response on TripAdvisor. Unfortunately, we cannot publish your response because it does not meet our posting guidelines.
We do not post management responses that contain [comments regarding TripAdvisor policy].
You are welcome to edit and resubmit your management response at any time through the management response form. For further information on our management response guidelines, please visit:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/help/management_response_guidelines
Please let us know if you have further concerns. We value your contributions and look forward to receiving your edited and resubmitted response.
Best Regards,
TripAdvisor Support Team

— end original TA response —–

So at this point lets break things down:

1 – The Green Parrot in Belize receives an email from Guy & Meg Brossy threatening to post negative reviews on TripAdvisor UNLESS..

2 – The owner of The Green Parrot refuses to bow to the extortionists, and sends the details to TripAdvisor.

3 – TripAdvisor completely ignores the situation and does NOTHING.

4 – Guy & Meg Brossy post THREE negative reviews using THREE accounts to maximise damage calling the owner / manager dishonest and swindlers!

5 – Mr Allardice contacted TripAdvisor AGAIN to point out 3 reviews were posted by 2 people

6 – TripAdvisor ignores it, and advises Mr Allardice to tell “His side of the story” with a Mangement Response

7 – Mr Allardice follows TripAdvisor’s advice, and posts a Management Response explaining his side of the story.

8 – TripAdvisor REJECTS Mr Alladice’s side of the story, and suggests he posts a different version of his story or better still “Kiss Ass”

9 - TripAdvisor dropped The Green Parrot ranking from #3 to #7

[ So TripAdvisor, what is it you actually do when an establishment is being or has been extorted?.. It seems you do absolutely NOTHING! You just sit back and do nothing when evidence is sent to you. You allow 2 people to post 3 negative reviews thus maximizing the damage. You suggest owners / managers post a management response, giving them the chance to tell / share their side of the story... but you never post them !! Why is it that the reviewer can post almost anything, even personal stuff about individuals, but the owner has to adhere to a complete list of rules.
Yeahh, get the Truth.. the one sided truth!... Transparency my ass! ]

Lets take a closer look at the THREE reviews TripAdvisor approved and posted. [ click on image for full size ]

Here is what other guests have to say about the rooms at the Green Parrot .. seems like the Brossy’s are the only ones with issues..

Check why more than 90% of visitors rate The Green Parrot Excellent and Very Good

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g291977-d308848-Reviews-Green_Parrot_Beach_Houses-Placencia_Stann_Creek.html#REVIEWS

Sorry TripAdvisor, what was your Policy against Blackmailing and Extortion again??

The post TripAdvisor does nothing to stop extortion of establishment owners appeared first on TripAdvisor Warning.

For the past 2 months establishment owners from around the world have been helping each other posting and validating  fake reviews from around the world.

We ourselves, and 0ur partners at Real TripAdvisor Reviews have been using this method of posting “Opinion” Reviews for the past year. We do not use or need to use proxy servers or VPN’s, we have been and are still using real people from around the world using local genuine everyday IPS’s. For the past year 15 friends from 6 countries 0n 3 continents have posted more than 3500 opinion reviews for establishment owners around the world that are being destroyed by TripAdvisor’s blackmail platform.

Two months ago we decided to create a new much larger network of review posters and validators. We contacted 100 establishment owners that had made use of our review service, and asked if they would be willing to help and be helped by other owners,  creating as far as we know the largest network of review posters in the world. Last weekend  Sept. 1 and 2 just over 200 reviews were posted on TripAdvisor. In doing so numerous Senior Contributor  accounts were reached by multiple reviewers from numerous different countries.

Now we are opening up to all owners from around the world that would like to help and be helped by other owners that are also having their reputation and livelihood destroyed by TripAdvisor. We are no longer just 9 people posting 20 reviews a week, we will be hundreds, possibly thousands of like minded  people posting reviews on TripAdvisor, and until TripAdvisor finally get their arrogant heads out of their fat corporate ass’s and put an end to unvalidated lies and the damage and suffering they cause, there is very little they can do about it…

How it works :

Bob lives in the UK and owns a hotel, He wants to posts a fake review on TripAdvisor to boost his rating, cos his competition is using TA to slate him.

Here is how he will do it…

1) Bob logs into Validate TripAdvisor Reviews, and notes where the other members are from.. He decides that his Fake Review will be from the Boston MA area, seeing as there are a few members from that area..

2) He creates an email account for his review for example stephen_kaufer@yahoo.com using a basic password seeing as it will be shared later  [ he keeps this in a safe spot ]

NEVER USE A PERSONAL EMAIL ACCOUNT FOR FAKE REVIEWS

3) He then creates a fake USA account on TripAdvisor using his NEW email and again using a basic password seeing as it could be shared later [ His new account is Stephen K from Newton Falls MA ]

He Does not worry about logging into an American Account using an English IP ( we will let you know why at the time )

4) Bob uses his new TA account to post a positive review about his hotel

5) He then logs into his account on Validate TripAdvisor Reviews and gets in touch with for example Larry, a fellow member that lives in the Boston / Newton Falls MA area.

6) Bob keeps an eye on his REAL TripAdvisor listing AND his email account for the TripAdvisor Validation Email… If the review gets posted, all is well and Bob tells Larry he wont need to validate the link.. OR if Bob does get a Validation Email, he DOES NOT open the email, instead he gives Larry the login Details, and Larry then Validates the Review with a GENUINE IP

7) Bob can now allow other members to use the Reviewer’s TA Account for other reviews… and Bob can pick up someone else’s TA account repeat Steps 4 – 6

This is just a basic explanation of how it works, once you have joined fellow establishment owners against TripAdvisor, you will get a detailed and step by step explanation of how to make this work. You will also get a list of tools we highly recommend using for Steps #3 and #4 There is also a forum where owners can discuss TripAdvisor issues, and get help / advice from people that CARE

This service is 100% FREE, HOWEVER we do ask for $1 that MUST be paid by PayPal [ reason will be given to you at the time ] it’s only for establishment owners that are listed on TripAdvisor AND must have a personal / business website / blog [ we will tell you the reason for this at the time ], all the members are by invitation and are validated by us.

So far we have signed up 130 establishment owners from 28 countries on 5 continents. In the coming weeks we will be testing this system, however so far it has been working without any glitches.

As it is now more and more quality TripAdvisor Reviewer accounts are being created and shared by members. Numerous accounts have even reached Senior Contributor and even a Top Contributor.

If you are a establishment owner, and TripAdvisor is treating you like shit and using bully tactics to manipulate you, and you would like to meet, help and be helped by others going through the same, contact us for more info. Anyone contacting us for more info MUST supply their TripAdvisor listing AND a link to their personal website. Sorry, at the moment we can not accept anyone that does not have a personal website / blog.

Once you have been given the link and password to the forum, you can create you personal account, just like any other forum, you will be asked for your country / state or province and the largest town nearest to your home.  You will have the choice to offer your services as a “Poster” a “Validator” or Both. Once in, you will see a map of the world with the list of users and countries. The support forum is just like any other forum, you can meet others and decide where your next fake  reviewer will come from.. It’s no different than getting in touch with a very good friend and asking him / her to post a fake review for you.. NO proxies or other shit needed.. clean, genuine opinion reviews. And a very good thing is, each fake review account can be used by multiple people, which means the fake reviewer gets stronger and more reliable in the eyes of TripAdvisor.

For example…

Bobs fake reviewer Stephen K has already posted a review about Bobs hotel and a restaurant and is now being used by Paddy in Dublin to post a review about his hotel, and 2 of his friends restaurants.. Stephen K now has 6 reviews. A month later  Stephen K is being used by Bud in San Francisco to review his B&B, and 2 tours and 3 restaurants, Stephen K, which is Bobs fake reviewer has now grown to 12 reviews using 3 different owners from 3 different countries… ALL from a forum and a network of owners..

For those owners that are just too busy to post their own reviews, you can still rely on our friends at Real TripAdvisor Reviews, they research your establishment and post their opinion for just $20

Contact Us  for more info

The post The largest TripAdvisor Review and Validation Service in the world appeared first on TripAdvisor Warning.