TripAdvisor Article in New York Times

Title: %26quot;The Web Gives Hotel Guests the Last Word %26quot;

Date: April 11, 2007

|||

I%26#39;ve not read it yet but here%26#39;s a link to the article for anyone who%26#39;s interested: …nytimes.com/2007/04/08/travel/08prac.html

|||

Thanks for the link. Interesting article. More hotels should follow Affinia%26#39;s actions. I don%26#39;t totally agree with the comment that the opinions are anonymous. We are not 100% anonymous. They can contact us via e-mail. Personally, I would tell them who I am. If I gave an honest review I would have nothing to hide. And long live Tripadvisor. It has become an addiction!!!

|||

Also, if you remain anonymous, there is no possibilty that the hotel can offer to make amends, which is likely to happen in the case of a good hotel that values its reputation. Interesting article.

|||

The article is interesting. But it%26#39;s also a little wacked, if not just super-hyped drama.

The reporter interviews the manager of the Affinia Chicago who%26#39;s quoted as being %26quot;obsessed%26quot; with TA and logs on every day to check for reviews....%26quot;If the review is positive he moves on. If it’s unfavorable...he’s on it immediately.%26quot;

What a crock!

The hotel has had a total of 126 reviews since June of 2002. That averages out to about 2 a month. With 140 rooms averaging a 60% occupancy rate and a 4 night stay, that%26#39;s 7000+ check-in%26#39;s a year (or 600 a month). Seems a little wacked to me to be %26quot;obsessed%26quot; with the reviews on TA. The guy needs to get a hobby.

And the %26quot;on it immediately%26quot; thing apparently was a little exaggerated as well. While the response mentioned in the article appears on the reviews, the guest comments were made on March 9, and the management%26#39;s response wasn%26#39;t posted until March 28, long after the March 15 post stating the hotel was %26quot;very deceiving%26quot;...which stills sits without any management response. On it immediately?? Ha.

I%26#39;m not sure if this was actually a paid advertisement for TA, or just a couple of hotel managers trying to get their names in the paper. It clearly drove some people to the site. Three reviews appeared the day the article came out about the Parker Meridien in NYC. Two of the posts were from members who joined and posted the same day.

|||

-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-

This topic was inactive for 6 months and has been closed to new posts. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.

To review the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html

We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.

Removed on: 5:21 am, August 30, 2009