It's a game I refuse to fund and play. I have better things to do with my time then fight the unethical scammers who submit fairy tale 1 star reviews under my good name, while at the same time buying Fake Fluff 5 star reviews. Its all about stealing your business, lowering your rating and thus your ranking. Sure you can flag a review - but Trip Advisor, Google and Yelp all use "bots" with no common sense in a vain attempt to identify fake reviews. Fake reviews are usually cleverly written so they do not violate the "terms & conditions"  and all you will get is a canned automated email response. "Does not violate our terms and conditions and will remain." It does not matter to the idiot AI program the review is 3 years old, was written by someone who no longer has an active account, and only had written the 1 fake Trip Advisor review in their entire Trip Advisor or Google life. That fake review will remain as part of your over all score. As a small business owner there is nothing you can really do. Google has over 900,000 employees but you cant reach one by telephone. Unless your a billion dollar corporation, with a multi million dollar advertising budget. They don't have time for you.

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How easy is it to fool Trip Advisor? Very easy.... Here is a fellow who created a fake restaurant in London and hyped it up to the #1 spot. Trip Advisors #1 Restaurant in London. 

 https://www.ladbible.com/community/tripadvisor-fake-london-restaurant-oobah-butler-172339-20230120

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Now if your thinking this was just a fluke, and could never happen twice, you would be wrong. Trip Advisors #1 Restaurant in Montreal, Canada. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-fake-restaurant-tripadvisor-1.6733629

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Maybe you want to stay at this luxurious Hotel ? Hotel Heaven. A Hostel for the homeless soared to top 100 of TripAdvisor's best places to stay after jokers give it a five-star rating. It is more then obvious that Trip Advisors content integrity is in question.

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 The fake review problem is way larger then the tech titans will admit. 

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Trip Advisor also owns Viator 

Do not be deceived by search results that read TOP 10 Attractions for example. What it should read is Top 10 advertisers with Viator since only if you have a contract with Viator will your attraction appear. Deceptive yes, illegal? Apparently not. There is no truth in advertising.

 

The idea behind Viator is to collect a 20% commission from every attraction, concession or vendor. If you choose not to let Viator take 20% of your income, don't expect Trip Advisor to correct the malicious fake reviews. Or appear at the top of their search results list. Sorry, but I refuse to be review black mailed or extorted. 

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I built my business on repeat customers. The same families call me year after year. I am as busy as I want to be. I don't need to advertise or enter into multiple online booking services. If you want the best price on hotels, attractions etc... Call direct! You will never get the lowest price or best deal through these bookings sites that all promise to save you money, yet profited 500 million dollars in commissions. Google makes BILLIONS in paid sponsor ads, selling the top spots. Clearly they have no incentive to fix their broken review system. Give them your money! It's the fox guarding the hen house. 

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Google has a 95% monopoly on search. A factor in where one shows up in the search results is based on Google reviews. This is no great secret. Unethical competitors, SEO experts will create fairytale malicious 1 star reviews to displace you from the organic  top ranking spot. In so that they move up above you.

 

It is a constant chore to try and manage all of this. Numerous ratings reputation management companies will happily take over this chore for you, Of course they want $100's of dollars a month from you. Nope, not happening here. Write all the fake reviews you want, I no longer care.  The general public is getting wise to the fake review shenanigan's.

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In closing don't just take my word for it, here is another great article.

Here’s What’s Wrong with TripAdvisor Reviews
TripAdvisor Fake Reviews

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