brand-republic

TripAdvisor in hot water over ‘red flag’ feature

TripAdvisor’s new “red flag” feature seems to have landed the online travel review site in hot water, as the firm is now facing legal action from disgruntled hoteliers. According to Brand Republic , Deborah Sinclair of the Riverside Hotel and Restaurant and Evesham has initiated defamation proceedings against the travel review site, after her hotel’s TripAdvisor page was red-flagged. Ms Sinclair’s TripAdvisor page now features a warning sign and red text explaining that TripAdvisor has “reasonable cause” to believe that the hotel and its affiliates “may have interfered with traveller reviews”. Ms Sinclair claims that TripAdvisor’s decision to red flag her hotel’s page has undermined her credibility and will likely badly damage her business. As a result, Ms Sinclair has petitioned the courts, requesting that TripAdvisor be made to fully disclose how and why it came to red flag the hotel’s page. The court case is set to be closely watched by hoteliers, travel companies, online review sites and online reputation management agencies, as well as by brands and marketers, as friend reviews and consumer reviews have grown to further influence consumer’s purchase-making decisions. TripAdvisor is currently under investigation from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), following a complaint from an online reputation management firm that the site hosted a high level of defamatory comments. Regardless of the outcome of ASA’s investigation, TripAdvisor has already modified its brand messaging to minimise references to “trust”. In September of this year, the firm replaced it’s well known strapline “reviews you can trust” with “reviews from our community.” It is expected that the court-case and ASA’s review will spark further investigation into how user-generated content and user-engagement is indexed and valued.

Here is the original post: 
TripAdvisor in hot water over ‘red flag’ feature