It's a concept that has been talked about for years - companies that work on behalf of hoteliers to deliberately seed reviews on TripAdvisor for a fee.
But we now have evidence of a company - Hotel Oracle - that is targeting hoteliers around the world (and claims to have had some success) with promises of the following:
"...writers from across the world write reviews about your establishment. These reviews are guaranteed positive, and each review is written by a different writer."
Tnooz was sent an email from the owner of a hotel in Australia.
The hotelier says Hotel Oracle approached the company over email by explaining how it could help the hotel increase revenue by upping his hotel's rating in TripAdvisor, offering seeded-review services in various sites like TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Hotels.com.
Entire email received from Hotel Oracle:
Dear [X],
We've spent a bit of time going over your Tripadvisor and Booking.com ratings.
I'll explain the Tripadvisor process from your ie. [Hotel X]'s perspective.
Tripadvisor senior reviewers from across the world will post favorable reviews of the [Hotel X] on Tripadvisor. Minimum 4 star, and mostly 5 star.
We've worked with hundreds of hotels across the world - to great results, often bringing them from an early 100 rank in their region, down to a top 10, within a few months.
I noticed your rank of #3 in [Location X]. To get you to #1, we'd do the following:
1. Post the more recent positive reviews - Tripadvisor gives recent reviews more weight than old ones.
2. Post reviews using our Senior Reviewer and above account - Tripadvisor gives much more weight to reviews by senior members
3. Increase your average rating, from its current 4 to 4.5
4. Increase your total number of reviews
With the combination of the above 4, it's possible to rank even higher than a hotel that has more reviews/a high average rating.
I'd recommend we start off with a 16 review package - gradually built over the course of 2 months. We could do it quicker if you want, but only if there's a strong reason to. I always recommend a measured approach with clients.
The 16 review package should get you down to at least #2, if not #1. If it doesn't I'll throw in up to 4 reviews more.
The difference you'll see in sales, post a much high Tripadvisor rating - will be staggering, as it has for many of our past clients. For many people, the Tripadvisor reviews of a hotel strongly influence their decision on whether to book or not.
Also, we offer Expedia/Booking.com and Hotels.com review packages - but these are priced differently than our Tripadvisor services.
Please let me know if you'd like more information, or have any further questions. Thanks!
The hotelier was concerned, for a number of reasons but mostly because the process "seems very wrong to me and illegal and also very unfair".
We looked a little bit more into Hotel Oracle and found some interesting information:
1) The company's FAQ page says it has been in business for four years and has served 1,500 hotels and restaurants in getting reviews up in TripAdvisor.
However, a quick look at domain information in WhoIs reveals that the website was registered only in June this year, less than two months ago.
2) The company mentions only its paid-review service in TripAdvisor, not any seeding to Booking.com, Hotels.com, despite being mentioned in the email to the hotelier.
3) The FAQ section claims the service is perfectly legal.
Our editor Kevin May posed as a UK-based hotelier and discussed with a Hotel Oracle's representative in their online-chat-widget. Below is the conversation. [Me is May]
- Me:7:48 AM - Hi there
- Colleen:7:51 AM - Hello. How can I help you?
- Me:7:51 AM - Do you have a telephone number I can call someone on, please? We're really keen on learning about your services but would prefer to talk to someone over the phone, if at all possible? Please let me know - I am based in the UK and would be eager to chat today if possible (it's early here - not sure where you are based?)...
- Colleen:8:00 AM - Given the nature of the services we offer, we don't usually encourage phone calls
- Me:8:01 AM - Not sure I understand?
- Colleen:8:01 AM - Basically, email is our preferred medium of communication
- Me:8:02 AM - ok... Well, I'm just about to open a property in the UK and would like to learn more about your services - is there any chance at all that I could chat with someone today? I'd just like to learn more about how it works and if there is any risk to my property if I use such services (I had the impression TripAdvisor, for example, doesn't particularly like seeded reviews) So, is there a chance I can talk to someone please?
- Colleen:8:08 AM - Ok. can you send across an email to [email protected], I'll try to get someone from the sales team to talk to you
- Me:8:08 AM - Excellent - many thanks
[Note the comment that is underlined above.]
In its services page, a user will be able to buy seeded reviews in various packages. For example: A pack of three reviews can be bought for $67.
When Tnooz contacted TripAdvisor to check whether the paid-review service is in breach of its guidelines, it replied:
"Our position on this is very clear. TripAdvisor is against any attempts to manipulate a business’s ranking on TripAdvisor through the submission of fake reviews.
"Our investigations team proactively catch those trying to solicit fake reviews for money, and we warn any business considering employing a company offering these services to be very cautious - the firm they employ could be one set up by TripAdvisor. Any business found to be using such services to deceive the consumer will be penalized."
The interesting line here is underlined above. When we asked TripAdvisor to help us understand this better, it responded:
"What we mean is that we warn hoteliers that if they attempt to use these type of sites, they could end up visiting a site set up by our investigations team to catch owners who attempt to manipulate our rankings.
"Any incentivisation of positive reviews is strictly against our guidelines, and business owners caught attempting to do so will be penalised.
"We can’t confirm or deny which sites are or aren’t set up by us as, for obvious reasons, it would undermine our current investigative efforts."
Get the point?
Now, TripAdvisor will neither confirm or deny if Hotel Oracle is a site created by it to catch hoteliers or restaurateurs who fall for paid-review services, but the experience when interacting with the reviewing company so far indicates not (as you'll see from the conversation below).
What is interesting is the confirmation by TripAdvisor that it is going to such lengths as to create ghost organisations in order to track down hoteliers eager to enlist the help of such organisations which will seed positive reviews about a service.
A TripAdvisor official will not disclose how many such or
Tnooz has repeatedly asked Hotel Oracle to respond to questions regarding its practices and whether it abides by TripAdvisor's guidelines.
This is the response we received via the chat function on its website (Me is editor Kevin May again]:
- Colleen:2:31 PM - Hello
- Me:2:31 PM - We are writing a story about Hotel Oracle and its tactics with regads to seeding positive TripAdvisor reviews. This is vehemently against TripAdvisor's policies. What response do you have? We have also written directly to your company to ask for a response. We are aiming to publish our story shortly. My name is Kevin May and I am editor of Tnooz.com. My colleague Karthick Prabu has also been in touch.
- Colleen:2:32 PM - We originally started out the service to Hotels to help hotels when competitors post bad reviews on tripadvisor. Because that's a huge problem with the Tripadvisor listings
- Me:2:33 PM - But TripAdvisor says what you are doing is against its guidelines. I have a statement from them clearly outlining this.
- Colleen:2:33 PM - But the service is in the process of being stopped. So there is not much that I can say
- Me:2:34 PM - Really? You emailed a hotelier (who informed us) just days ago pitching this particular service.
- Colleen:2:34 PM - Tripadvisor has big loopholes in its system, which Tripadvisor themself needs to remove first
- Me:2:35 PM - That is your opinion and we will fed that back to TripAdvisor - but essentially you are offering a service which is against the guidelines and could penalise hoteliers.
- Colleen:2:36 PM - You need to educate yourself on the system first. Find out how big of a problem the competitors posting bad reviews really is. Anyway, we're out after this weekend.
NB: Additional reporting by editor Kevin May.