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Hotel PR admits to posting over 100 anonymous reviews on TripAdvisor
Accor’s general manager of communications has put TripAdvisor reviews into question again by acknowledging that he posted more than 100 hotel reviews on the site using a made up name.
Peter Hook, an Accor general manager of communications based in Sydney, has been posting generally good reviews of Accor properties and mostly critical reviews of its competitors for the past few years.
He was identified by Kwikchex, a company that sells online reputation management software.
A listing for the Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra, for example, includes his comments: "As a first time visitor to Phnom Penh I didn’t know much about the hotel scene so booked a brand I knew well. It turned out to be a good choice."
He gave five stars to the Sea Temple Surfers Paradise, saying: "I took advantage of a good price and really loved it from start to finish."
Hook acknowledged that he wrote the reviews under the name Tavare, and told the Telegraph that "every review I have written has resulted from personally experiencing the product".
Noting that he regularly reviews destinations, attractions, restaurants, and other non-hotel products, he said that "because I cover such a wide range of travel experiences, it would not be appropriate to review them as a company representative, hence the pseudonym. However, it is a fair to say that my professional position should have been mentioned in any reviews of hotels".
Hook said he will desist from writing any more hotel reviews.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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