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In my opinion…‘No’ !

Now to be fair, Tripadvisor provides a great service to people looking to travel in that previous travellers can rate and review properties, hotels, restaurants so that you can get an idea of where to go and where to stay.

But for every positive there is a negative of course.

Tripadvisor also provides an excellent facility for those with one hell of a chip on their shoulder to grind their bitter little axe against a hotel owner/manager/staff;  for people who didn’t put enough thought and planning into their trip to blame someone other than themselves for the problems they experienced when they were away.

I have read Tripadvisor reviews quite extensively and one thing I have noticed is how very few there are of the Management Responses; hotel owners/managers have the opportunity to respond to a review posted and this is where I take issue quite strongly.

We have seen a few of our own previous guests post reviews about our property – and us – on Tripadvisor. They only total to seven which is nothing really to bother about for five years of business, however I note that out of seven reviews just one is positive in tone and the other six were – well – quite predictable given the attitude and behaviour of those guests when they stayed with us. Let’s just say that we knew they would make a beeline for their computer keyboards as soon as they got home…

What irritates me is how there appears to be rules for those posting a review and a different set of guidelines altogether for those posting a response to the review. Naturally TA quite rightly prohibit obscene language, threats, etc in their published reviews – but aside from that they pretty much allow full rein to a person to make the most outrageous, and false, claims as they desire. They also do not ask for any proof at all that the reviewer has even stayed at the property they wish to heap criticism on.

And this is wrong, don’t you agree?

We have managed to post three management responses with regard to three of our reviews and the process was something akin to pulling teeth.  It appears that Tripadvisor will publish a rubbishing review quite readily but to the contrary reject time and time again anything the property owner tries to write in response. I am experiencing this at the moment regarding a fraudulent review posted about us three weeks ago;  Tripadvisor have now ceased to acknowledge any communication  from us. So ‘their’ defamatory review stays ‘live’ – and ‘our’ attempts at any response remain binned.

Basically, when you do manage to get your response accepted, all you are left with to be published in response are a few benign lines that do not adequately express just how pissed you are with the nonsence written about you. The ‘guest’ may say in their review that you were dirty, scruffy and abusive to them – TA will reject your response if you refute this.  ‘No abusive, threatening, insulting language allowed’ will be the comment on your rejected response email. So how on earth did the reviewer get past the censors…!

Maybe this is why so few management responses appear. It would be a darn sight easier getting your 3 year old’s sticky finger painting accepted by the Tate Gallery than it is getting a management response accepted in it’s first, or even second, draft by Tripadvisor.

Then again, Tripadvisor relies heavily on those ‘reviews’ to generate income for their site…I have heard it said more than once that the negative reviews provide a form of morbid ’entertainment’ to the general public – they even promote the most negative reviews as ‘must read’ highlights!

Now, I will concede that some places do warrant criticism; some warrant alot of criticism. There are some hotels so badly run that they really do seem to have no function other than to make money out of ripped off travellers. But not all are like that – most are not in fact. And if you are in the latter category and feel ripped off by some cranky guest who had a bad flight home, or just is an out and out miserable sod – then make yourself heard…respond.

Until we hotel owners get our own online facility where we can similarly rate previous crappy guests for all the world to read (and we DO need one!) maybe Tripadvisor is our only means of standing up for ourselves, our self-respect and our livelihoods – for now.

Postscript: I have just read an excellent article on another blog which runs along the same lines as this; it will certainly strike a chord with most hotel/accommodation owners.

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The field of electronics as a career choice is no longer just the domain of the male. More women today are choosing this fascinating and extremely diverse industry as a career giving them employment options that can take them all over the world.

There are various fields of electronics in which you can choose to study and specialise:

* The defence forces

* Broadcast Engineering

* Wireless and Electronic Communication

* Industrial Electronics with PLC Technology

* Electronics Engineering

As an Electronics Engineer you will have the choice of working in the medical, scientific, defence and computer industry to name but a very few of the career options you have to choose from.

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The current fiasco following the collapse of the travel firm XL calls for the need for anyone booking a holiday, flight or package holiday to become very familiar with regards to their rights if their travel firm should go out of business – especially whilst they are on their holiday.

I have already covered broadly your rights as a traveller in a previous article, but the situation here is quite different and, in some ways, very complicated. Basically this is the rundown:

* If you have booked with a travel firm covered under ATOL’s bonding system you will be protected. You will be brought home at no expense to yourself. If you have booked a holiday and not yet left you will receive a full refund.

* If your flight is part of a pachage tour you will also be covered and compensated.

* If your holiday firm also operates their own flights and you have booked only a flight with them via a third party, or website, the story is more complicated. The Govt, at the moment, does not have a similar bonding scheme with airline carriers. Hence why so many thousands of people are stranded and unable to pay for replacement flights.

* If you have paid by credit card and the transaction is over £100 you are very likely to be able to claim the full cost back (Consumer Credit Act Article 75). If you used a debit card you will generally not be entitled to a refund, however, it is very well worth pursuing your debit card provider over the issue. If you have booked through a travel agency your chances of a refund are significantly higher. If you have paid by Visa Debit Card you may also be protected under the Consumer Credit Act Article 75

* Paying by credit card affords you far more protection than if you pay by cash or debit card

* If you have purchased travel insurance – and let’s hope you did – providing there is a clause in the contract protecting you against airline/travel firm bankruptcy then you should be able to claim compensation. If you are intending to book a flight think about purchasing Scheduled Airline Failure Insurance which protects against airline bankruptcy.

This is a very distressing situation for anyone involved when such a thing occurs; the above information will probably be of little assistance to those tens of thousands of British people stranded around the world right now – but maybe if you are thinking about a holiday in the near future you will have new food for thought.

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