Tripadvisor to be sued, apprently

[Conrad]

I think the law firm will raise it if the story is genuine, probably why they are going for hotels rather than pubs though

Sorry if I seem overly passionate on this one, partly it is because I hate ambulance chasers. But mostly we have a nice site here that I would like to grow and I live in fear of this sort of legal case forcing us to just kill the site. It is not difficult to see a scenario where we get destroyed by a relatively small legal case, so I would rather it doesn't come into fashion.

[Quinno]

I live in fear of this sort of legal case forcing us to just kill the site. It is not difficult to see a scenario where we get destroyed by a relatively small legal case, so I would rather it doesn't come into fashion.

bloody hope not, I've spent several hours today uploading photos!!

[Conrad]

Well hopefully Strongers will be right and common sense will win through. In that respect this may prove a useful test case that makes a sensible law.

Regardless, I can't see it going wrong through anyone's efforts here, you are regularly reporting reviews and making us think about whether they are valid, and in most cases we remove them which is hugely useful and clearly different to many other places.

[Millay]

I've never used the Tripadvisor site myself, have any of you?

I do use Tripadvisor but not to choose a hotel, more to double check a choice I’ve already made. It’s the site with the most coverage and the most reviews so I tend to have a look just to see what people have said about a certain place. It’s much the same way, and for the same reasons, as I still use BITE now and again You can generally tell those reviewers with a personal axe to grind and they stick out even more if they are just one within a number of positive or neutral reviews.

I think Tripadvisor only has itself to blame as it has rather courted this bad publicity. As the article says they have taken to e-mailing newsletters to members highlighting not only the Top 10 destinations, hotels etc., but the worst. This was bound to lead to trouble, especially if they have based this on the members reviews rather than any independent research carried out themselves.

For my own travel writings I dabbled with Globosapiens for a while but found that a bit serious. The main site that I’ve used, and which holds a number of my musings on visits to the worlds beer drinking capitals, is one called Virtual Tourist. In my opinion it’s one of the friendliest around, it has some great forums and loads of good information. You can also build your own ‘website‘ within it with pages and tips relating to specific destinations. Even being technologically challenged I found it very easy to use and create pages as it uses it’s own VTML code which is, I think, a more simplistic version of HTML.

I did rather fall out of love with Virtual Tourist though when, a couple of years ago, it was bought out by ..... Tripadvisor so I haven't used it for maybe a year. Whilst it has still retained it’s community feel the Tripadvisor influence can certainly be seen in the advertising and other commercial aspects. It would be a bit like PuG being bought out by BITE and there are similar comparisons to be made. Whilst I will visit Tripadvisor & BITE for information I consider Virtual Tourist & PuG to be ‘home’

[Strongers]

It would be a bit like PuG being bought out by BITE

NOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Quinno]

NOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't worry Steve, if you recall the Companies House discussion I don't think a takeover is likely anytime soon...

[Farway]

I have used Tripadvisor to check out places I am staying, and have found it useful, for instance warning that the front bedrooms of a well known national chain hotel in St Austell [not naming it here Conrad, sleep easy] faced onto the car park of a burger chain & all local chavs raced around in their cars

I stayed there, but asked, & and got, a bedroom at the back

I have generally found the reviews to be a fair, and the few I have posted on there I have tried to be fair as I do with the pubs

I find it slightly annoying that hotels / pubs believe a good review but mainly seem to think a bad one is some nutter out to get them instead of an honest reflection of the poor service, beer, dirty room etc that a paying customer experienced

[rpadam]

I found this disclaimer on a site earlier today:

IMPORTANT: Read this first.
Some parts of this page are written in a foreign language. This language uses many words, and phrases that are also found in the English language. Occasionally this can cause sentences to appear (if read as an English sentence) to be untrue; offensive; or may even appear to represent the views of the author. Please bear this in mind when reading this document. Remember, if you find anything that appears to fall into one of these categories, it is your interpretation that is at fault, not the author of this document, or anyone else associated with it in any way. If you are not prepared to accept this, or do not understand this, please do not read any further, or do so at your own risk. The author, nor any person, company or small rodent, associated with this page will not accept any responsibility for any damages arising from, or offence caused by, the misinterpretation of the information herein, especially if interpreted using the English language.
Note that if, for legal reasons (or any other reason), you require a translation of any part of this page into English, a charge may be made, up to or exceeding an amount equal to, any legal (or other) costs arising from any legal (or other) action involving any aspect of this page, now or in the future. It should also be noted that this language is a highly complex, dynamic, and quickly evolving language, so if a translation is required, please ensure that you provide details of the exact time (to nearest millisecond) and place (12-figure grid reference is acceptable) at which the page was being read, and the shoe size, and marital status of the reader, and of the author. Please allow up to or longer than forty-nine lunar months for receipt of any translation.
If you do not have a sense of humour, for example if you have got this far already without laughing, please go away and don't come back. I don't like you, and you probably don't like me. This is not my problem, it is yours (and the people's around you).
If you are easily offended, for example if you have ever taken offence at anything in your whole life, ever, or if you think that something one day might just offend you, please go away and don't come back, this page is not for you.

Don't know how it would work with the lawyers, though...

[gillhalfpint]

Love the disclaimer. Sounds like something Brewdog might put on the back of their bottles!!

Re BITE. I remember a lot of trouble caused when some folks disagreed with the Top 20 pub lists as in "Why is that pub there?" kind of thing. There will always be disagreements, because after all, our reviews are different according to our expectations.

I had money refunded today for the Wetherspoons carvery that I ate at 4pm as the veg were all cold and sad.

Someone a couple of hours earlier could have praised it to high heaven. Hot it would have been a marvellous carvery.

[Strongers]

Is that cretin with short man syndrome now working for tripadvisor?