The hotel industry has not taken lightly the explosion of social media and online review sites, at least when the resulting comments reflect unfavorably upon their services. Push back has come in the form of aggressive monitoring of such comments, followed by a campaign to either get the comments removed or to have the user retract them.
More lately these efforts have stepped up in the UK court system, with the possibility of them being repeated in the US - especially as efforts to secure federal Anti-SLAPP legislation stalls.
KwikChex is a British reputation management company that is seeking to organize a lawsuit against TripAdvisor on behalf of its clients, according to the New York Times. To make its case, the company is seeking out hotels that say they have been defamed by criminal allegations in the reviews. In the US, TripAdvisor is covered by the Communications Decency Act, which protects sites from being held liable for third party posts . However, critics of this practice say that TripAdvisor is not a neutral party but instead goes out of its way to highlight horror stories, is reluctant to remove old reviews and is more vigilant about screening property managers' comments than guests, says the Times.
Pot, Meet Kettle
These objections have not stopped some hospitality firms from attempting to form their own review service of poorly-behaved customers, to be shared with others in the industry. In England, a hotel blacklist is being developed about rowdy guests that made too much noise, steal towels or caused damage by GuestScan. The online database will allegedly also keep information about race and sexual orientation, writes ClickLiverpool - a development that is being targeted by privacy advocates.
Even without the threat of legal action, hotels have been noted for their aggressive monitoring of such comments - even anonymous ones, which they have sought to identify. Once the hotel has identifying information in hand it might thank the poster for the good review - perhaps with a gift basket. In the case of a negative review, it might send an email asking for either a reconsideration or a chance to readdress what was wrong with the person's stay, according to the Washington Post. Most ominously, the Post said, a negative review could earn a poster a black mark in the guest database.
Focus on the Good
The industry might find that its energies are better channeled into emphasizing customers' positive experiences: a recent survey by Omni Hotels & Resorts found that positive experiences, such as free room upgrades and free Wi-Fi were more likely to incent a tweet than negative ones, Hotel Marketing also said. Conversely, the survey found an overbooked hotel to be the one negative that would likely put guests in a tweeting mood.
