Every now and again, someone will post an inflammatory article on the web that gets the tongues wagging for days after its publication.
The travel industry and the major players that operate within it are obviously not exempt from such attacks.
In fact, perhaps even more so given that the general public touches the world of travel throughout the year and, whether the industry likes it or not, often have experiences which drive them to vent their anger or furstration on the interweb.
Everyone's a publisher these days, the saying goes.
But extreme criticism about a particular brand from someone who operates within the boundaries of the industry is reasonably rare, even if the subject of the attack is one of the brands that manages to polarise opinion perhaps more than any other: TripAdvisor.
Heather Stimmler-Hall is one of those who has been sufficiently moved by TripAdvisor's apparent poor behaviour ("anything but honest and unbiased") and penned a mammoth 7,100-word article for the Medium platform last weekend.
Within hours of appearing online, Stimmer-Hall's article ("What you don't know about TripAdvisor") was being shared on social media or sent directly between people in the industry.
To say it has raised eyebrows and also cheered from the rooftops would be an understatement.
Stimmler-Hall, who is a tour guide, guidebook author, journalist and has run the Secrets of Paris website since 1995, says in her article (which Medium helpfully points out will take only 28 minutes to read):
"The purpose isn’t to rant, but to provide information travelers can use to make better decisions when planning a trip, and to raise awareness in general about how TripAdvisor’s profit-driven practices affect both travelers and small businesses."
In short, Stimmler-Hall's beef with the company rests on a number of a issues.
She argues that the number of fake reviews has "sky-rocketed", but claims the only measures the company has put in place are to change its slogan from "trust" to "the biggest".
Furthermore, Stimmler-Hall takes exception to TripAdvisor's new model as a "booking engine", where it "charges companies for preferential visibility". Like Google.
As many of those in the tours and activities sector will know, TripAdvisor has become a major player in how the sector is evolving following its $200 million acquisition of Viator in 2014.
In particular, Stimmler-Hall says TripAdvisor is profiting via Viator "from the tours they supposedly recommend without bias, and pressuring companies to give up 20–30% of their sales in commissions for added 'access to traffic'".
She concludes in her summary:
"The lack of transparency hurts travelers because they think all of the businesses are fairly represented on TripAdvisor, and because their size and power now means they are too big to ignore, pressuring small businesses to work 'with' them in order to protect their business reputation.
"Travelers also don’t realize that when they use third-party booking sites that it represents a serious bite into any business’s revenue, and they make up for that by charging more, so eventually the consumer ends up paying for TripAdvisor’s commissions."
The full article deserves a read, not least because Stimmler-Hall raises many interesting points (though most industry figures will be aware of them) in a large slab of criticism that is not often seen of TripAdvisor (beyond the Kwikchex of the world and consumers).
Stimmler-Hall did not ask TripAdvisor to react to any of the points she raised in the story. So we did.
TripAdvisor, perhaps rather surprisingly, did have a lot to say about the article - presumably in part because the piece is getting a lot of attention and is extremely critical of the company (including Steve Kaufer, who Stimmler-Hall notes on a number of occasions is one of the highest paid CEOs in the US).
An official says the article "showed a real misunderstanding of how our site works", including the different products such as Popularity Index and Business Listings, as well as the fraud prevention strategy and content in the travel guides.
"Contrary to the claims made in the blogpost, commercial factors – whether they relate to revenue, subscriptions or consumer traffic - have no influence on our rankings, our awards or our recognitions.
"We are deeply proud of our independence as a site, and as such maintain a strict firewall between our sales team and the traveller content on TripAdvisor. So when travellers see a hotel or a restaurant or an attraction is ranked #1 in the Popularity Index on TripAdvisor, they can rest assured that it is based purely on the quality of the reviews and ratings that establishment has received, and nothing else."
In particular on the commercial elements of the debate, TripAdvisor says there is a "big red line" dividing its content and sales teams.
Businesses "do not pay a penny" to be listed, or to receive or respond to reviews, with the Popularity Index based on reviews and ratings based on feedback from travellers, it continues.
The official concludes:
"Ultimately, if consumers weren’t finding the information on TripAdvisor useful, they wouldn’t keep coming back to the site. And yet they do, in their millions, and in ever increasing numbers."
Stimmler-Hall's article raises enough important points about the ecosystem in which TripAdvisor operates to be considered and accepted as far more than just the rant of a frustrated tour guide. (She doesn't outline her motivations beyond saying that is it to "offer some suggestions on how travelers can protect themselves with a more balanced and responsible travel planning process".)
Equally, TripAdvisor's forceful (and somewhat unexpected) response illustrates that it, too, has a lot to defend and obviously doesn't take kindly to an essay outlining its alleged misdemeanours and culture.
NB:TripAdvisor image via Shutterstock.