Bournemouth hotelier's anger at 'brothel' review on TripAdvisor website (From Thisisdorset)
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Bournemouth hotelier's anger at 'brothel' review on TripAdvisor website
11:00am Wednesday 8th February 2012 in Latest By Julie Magee
AN ANGRY hotelier is taking travel website TripAdvisor to court after an online review compared his hotel to a brothel.
Ken Robins, who owns Hotel Celebrity on Gervis Road, claims the review put his three young children at risk and led to several female members of his staff being propositioned by guests.
A reviewer with the username ‘Gemma B’ branded the 54-bedroom hotel ‘horrendous’ and said it was ‘seedy and filthy and like sleeping in a brothel’ adding: “All they needed was a red light!”
Now Ken, 65, is taking civil action against TripAdvisor for damages.
He said: “We live on site and the hotel is like an extension to our home but we had to ban our children from going there.
“To ensure their safety they had to be accompanied everywhere, their Facebook pages were taken down and their mobile phones changed. “Our business was family orientated and we had to cancel several children’s parties.
“Two weddings were cancelled on the basis of ‘no smoke without fire’.
“Several chambermaids were offered money for sex when they went into guests’ rooms.”
The furious father-of-three asked for the review, posted on August 24 last year, to be removed but claims he received no response.
He added: “I then made a formal complaint to the Advertising Standards Agency.
“I tried to post a response three times and each time the management review was not accepted. The review affected our profit margins by more than seven per cent.”
Ken said: “All TripAdvisor had to do was take the post off the site but it is still there today.
“I know of hotels which have been forced out of business by damaging reviews.
“For small hotels and B&Bs, who are particularly vulnerable, it can be devastating.”
Bournemouth reputation management firm KwikChex has already complained about TripAdvisor to the Advertising Standards Authority.
KwikChex’s operations director Gemma Byrne said: “It is understandable that the review could cause great distress. In our view the phraseology went beyond fair comment. In that regard we believe that it is actionable.”
A spokesman for TripAdvisor said they could not comment on possible litigation but added: “We take our responsibility as the world’s largest travel site extremely seriously and provide the platform and tools to aid our users’ decision making process: enormous scale and freshness of content (more than 40 contributions a minute on average), management responses, reviewer profiles, extremely effective fraud detection systems, as well as the ability to report inappropriate content.
“In addition to the value TripAdvisor reviews bring to travellers, we also understand the importance that the reviews and opinions on TripAdvisor have to properties and businesses listed on the site.”
Comments(34)
Repo
says...
12:47pm Wed 8 Feb 12
Harv1979
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12:53pm Wed 8 Feb 12
My wife and I recently stayed in a lovely hotel in Amsterdam which was a couple of miles outside the city centre. However, the trip advisor reviews again and again referred to the hotel as being "too far away from the city centre" - surely they could have checked the location map before booking and then making spurious complaints?
Duckorange
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12:54pm Wed 8 Feb 12
(Also, the offending comment *has* got the manager's right to reply appended)
ballstoit
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1:16pm Wed 8 Feb 12
BarrHumbug
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2:53pm Wed 8 Feb 12
susi.m
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3:02pm Wed 8 Feb 12
I booked a self catering holiday in a lodge in Cornwall last year. After I had booked it someone said "did you check trip adviser?". When I checked it many of the reviews were not good. Saying the place was chabby and dirty. I was very worried but we went anyway as it was all paid for. When we go there the place was spotless and everything was lovely. We had a lovely week.
People rely on and believe too much that is on the web these days.
DanteA
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3:15pm Wed 8 Feb 12
penhale
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3:26pm Wed 8 Feb 12
As anybody can post on trip adviser I cant see what can be done about it, all owners have the chance to reply to these comments and I do notice that Ken Robbins does let rip at anybody who gives a bad review, there's no smoke without fire.
Although the review Ken Robbins is getting in a lather about is somewhat over the top he should take it for what it's worth, probably someone who was unhappy with the service.
He should move on, sort out any problem areas and hope for better reviews in the future.
pete woodley
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3:40pm Wed 8 Feb 12
DanteA wrote:It does appear to me that he is over the top,and probably making excuses for a poor season.his other allegations seem made up for a compensation claim,chambermaids propositioned,and children,not allowed.His attitude will certainly put others off.The only sensible thing done was to take the kids names from Facebook,as that is where a lot of trouble starts,including foul and indecent language.
Is it me, or is this hotel owner clearly insane? He's claiming that a review *on the tenth page* of his hotel's coverage on TripAdvisor, which compares his hotel to a brothel *only because it is dirty, not because of any alleged activity there* is the reason his chambermaids were propositioned? This is also the reason he gives for banning his children from going to his own hotel, and changing his mobile numbers etc.? The man is clearly a loon, and you are irresponsible for providing front page publicity for this absurd claim.
The Renegade Master
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4:08pm Wed 8 Feb 12
Ken Robins needs to be objective about the criticism and concentrate on raising standards. Get the rest of the rooms refurbished. Ensure TV's work. Maybe change the chef and/or the menu if the food receives regular complaints from guests. If he wants his business to thrive that would be the way to go.
The Renegade Master
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4:10pm Wed 8 Feb 12
poolemaninscotland
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4:13pm Wed 8 Feb 12
After reading the reviews on Hotel Celebrity, the main thing that stood out for me was the way the owner responded to negative comments and the way he worded his replies. He comes across as quite ignorent of what his customers are saying in there complaints and if he dealt with them a little bit more responsibly and communicated in the correct manner instead of being flippant in his remarks, then most customers will remove there comments. This is all part of customer service. Why people are paying for Kwikchex to take legal action is beyond me. I would get them removed for the cost of a phone call. Its how you deal with things that gets a problem sorted.
Robynleanne
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5:05pm Wed 8 Feb 12
"Michael Shoesmith, Front Office Manager at Hotel Celebrity" clearly has no idea of good customer service. The replies he left to the reviews were patronising, sarcastic and frankly just rude.
Whether the reviews are true or not, you don't talk to customers like that. I don't image his attitude is much different at the front desk either.
Duckorange
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5:13pm Wed 8 Feb 12
e_8_4zk
poolemaninscotland
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5:55pm Wed 8 Feb 12
Robynleanne wrote:I couldn't agree with you more. Sometimes criticism can do wonders for a business because it tells you where you could improve.
I did feel a little sympathy reading this article until I went onto TripAdvisor to read the reviews.
"Michael Shoesmith, Front Office Manager at Hotel Celebrity" clearly has no idea of good customer service. The replies he left to the reviews were patronising, sarcastic and frankly just rude.
Whether the reviews are true or not, you don't talk to customers like that. I don't image his attitude is much different at the front desk either.
Adrian XX
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6:04pm Wed 8 Feb 12
First of all, the review may be on the tenth page, but most people when reading about a hotel will first click on the "terrible" link to read the bad reviews first. This review is forth in the "terrible" category.
Secondly, I do think noise is a huge problem in older buildings (and even in some modern ones) and "quality of sleep" needs to be the very first indicator of the overall quality of the hotel. There needs to be some acoustic test of all hotels and the lack of such testing is one of the reasons why the old star system failed. You could stay in a five star hotel but be plagued by noise all night. It does seem that "Gemma B" was suffering from noise from the room above. But she needs to remember that having sex in a hotel room is legitimate! :-) All hotels need to regularly check floorboards to make sure none of them creak.
Finally, I am not sure Michael Shoesmith is the right person to reply on behalf of the hotel as he doesn't seem very intelligent. Here's an extract from one of his replies:
we would of been more than happy to of found an alternative hotel for you if you were not happy on arrival and we would not of charged you - your deposit would of been fully refunded too. It is so sad and tiring to read these "over exagerated" reviews...I assure all future guests, we would of put it right and will put it right!!
twynham
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8:24pm Wed 8 Feb 12
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As I generally stay in 2 star hotels/hostels I always find reviews stating the hotel is tired etc, if I am, as I will be at the end of next month, staying in an hotel on Faro beach overlooking the Ria Formosa (20 mile nature reserve) and they are charging me 36 Euro, I don’t care if the furniture is tired!
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As with anything else on the web, use common sense, unlike this guy!
pete woodley
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8:57pm Wed 8 Feb 12
alasdair1967
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6:39am Thu 9 Feb 12
alasdair1967
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6:48am Thu 9 Feb 12
DemonDiva
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9:46am Thu 9 Feb 12
alasdair1967 wrote:Did you not learn punctuation at school? Your post is illegible unless someone has the patience to try and put the punctuation in!
trip advisor has been recently in the media it has featured on the vine show on radio 2 and also there was a documentory about the people who write the reviews some of which are total addicts ,from what i have learnt from watching and listening is that trip advisor will not budge on any negative review as they see it as being fair i have booked a holiday to egypt and in truth booked on a whim read the hotel reviews after booking however my attitude is simple i use a hotel room solely as a place to sleep and shower and i never expect champagne for beer prices ,i have seen some reports by people complaining that the self catering apartment did not have dish clothes
poolemaninscotland
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10:01am Thu 9 Feb 12
alasdair1967 wrote:Trip advisor will remove negatives comments but there is a process involved and it is persistence that removes the negative posts, not sarcastic posts in reply to negative comments
the whole point here is the difficulty in the owners have in getting negative reviews removed ,there is nothing stopping anyone going on to trip advisor and writing comments,sacked employees with a grudge ,competitors etc,my point about the trip advisor addicts is simple they check in to a room then inspect the rooms with a fine toothed comb any fault no matter how trivial they will report it on trip advisor first rather than bring it to the hoteliers attension
alasdair1967
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10:15am Thu 9 Feb 12
poolemaninscotland wrote:but the whole point is the time it takes for the negative comments to be removed, not long enough to prevent damage being done to the businesses reputation,trip advisor need to tighten up i have never stayed at this hotel yet there is absolutly nothing preventing me from going on trip advisor and posting a damaging review
alasdair1967 wrote:Trip advisor will remove negatives comments but there is a process involved and it is persistence that removes the negative posts, not sarcastic posts in reply to negative comments
the whole point here is the difficulty in the owners have in getting negative reviews removed ,there is nothing stopping anyone going on to trip advisor and writing comments,sacked employees with a grudge ,competitors etc,my point about the trip advisor addicts is simple they check in to a room then inspect the rooms with a fine toothed comb any fault no matter how trivial they will report it on trip advisor first rather than bring it to the hoteliers attension
Cherry Bear
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1:14pm Thu 9 Feb 12
ShuttleX
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9:05pm Thu 9 Feb 12
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Myself, I am wondering how much experience this Gemma B has of "sleeping in a brothel" She certainly seems to know what it sounds like at any rate.
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Roll with the punches Mr Robins. You're not going to please everybody, don't bother trying. Instead of ranting at her comments, you would have been better suggesting next time she is Bounremouth, she stay in the Southcote Road area. That would be more of a busmans holiday for her I think.
robman
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9:24pm Thu 9 Feb 12
Azphreal
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8:37am Fri 10 Feb 12
ThomasChant
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8:48am Fri 10 Feb 12
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If the people who made their comments did so under their real names then would they use such vitriol in their language? Would they leave inflammatory comments?
One technique you're seeing more of now on the internet, which I'm not really a fan of, but could assist in this area is to make people log on using their facebook account. Facebook does not allow pseudonyms and so you can take the issue up with that person directly. Look at these comment pages on the Echo website. You get lots of good comments on topics with proponents and opponents to views putting their cases across, then you get others that do the same but are very derrogatory in the language they use, whilst others just 'troll', using inflammatory or abusive comments to get a reaction. The Los Angeles Times went to a system where you had to log in using your facebook account. This had the net effect of eliminating the grossly abusive comments on articles by those posting under anonymity.
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My reason for being against something like this is it's akin to being forced to swipe a Tesco Clubcard/Nectar card to be able to shop at Halfords.
austin_j_powers
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1:18pm Fri 10 Feb 12
pete woodley
says...
6:52pm Fri 10 Feb 12
austin_j_powers wrote:Thats it stir it all up again !.
To be fair Ken, you must realise that your hotel is an absolute dive. Everyone else in the area knows it!
short fatone
says...
8:16pm Fri 10 Feb 12
Bournemouth hotelier's anger at 'brothel' review on TripAdvisor website
I didn't know they served broth in bournemouth hotels
Thats it stir the broth up again
alasdair1967
says...
8:05am Sat 11 Feb 12
ThomasChant wrote:i totally agree with your post it is the time that trip advisor take to remove the derrogartory posts that is the issue the comments where made in august and it is now febuary 6 months on ! i can understand a hoteliers frustrations as i have previously stated anyone can go onto trip advisor and post derrogartory comments and not even stayed at the establishment
I think the issue here is one of pseudonyms/'pen names' and the speed at which TravelAdvisor removes comments that are overly derrogatory.
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If the people who made their comments did so under their real names then would they use such vitriol in their language? Would they leave inflammatory comments?
One technique you're seeing more of now on the internet, which I'm not really a fan of, but could assist in this area is to make people log on using their facebook account. Facebook does not allow pseudonyms and so you can take the issue up with that person directly. Look at these comment pages on the Echo website. You get lots of good comments on topics with proponents and opponents to views putting their cases across, then you get others that do the same but are very derrogatory in the language they use, whilst others just 'troll', using inflammatory or abusive comments to get a reaction. The Los Angeles Times went to a system where you had to log in using your facebook account. This had the net effect of eliminating the grossly abusive comments on articles by those posting under anonymity.
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My reason for being against something like this is it's akin to being forced to swipe a Tesco Clubcard/Nectar card to be able to shop at Halfords.
Markmag
says...
2:22pm Tue 14 Feb 12
If it was a very small hotel with only one or two rooms I would sympathise, although even then the hotel does have a right to reply. The Celebrity has over 100 reviews, easily enough to make an informed decision.
If the hotelier opened his eyes, he would see that Trip advisor would be helping people decide to come to his hotel rather than play safe in a chain hotel.
The Renegade Master says...
12:20pm Wed 8 Feb 12
As with anything though, the experience of one may not be the experience of another, so there are bound to be some discrepancies. You just have to read as many reviews of the hotel you're looking at as possible to see if the same faults/complaints crop up time after time.
However, that may be ok for the larger more popular hotels with multiple reviews, but if you're a small hotel with only a couple of fake negative reviews this can obviously be a major set back.
TripAdvisor clearly need to be more vigorous in the policing of their site and do everything they can to weed out inaccurate reviews and the trolls who enjoy being offensive.