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TripAdvisor is “despicable and cowardly” says Bannatyne
Thursday, 25 Jan, 2011
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In a move that many a hotelier will relish, Dragon’s Den entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne has declared war on website TripAdvisor.
The hotel and leisure business millionaire has said he is considering sueing the massively popular site, which holds 35 million reviews, after negative feedback appeared about his swanky Charlton House Spa hotel in Somerset.
A reviewer compared the hotel to Fawlty Towers but Bannatyne believes the write-up was simply a “dishonest bid to get a refund”.
The businessman told The Telegraph that TripAdvisor had been cajoling him not to make a fuss and had even removed the positive reviews about his other hotels.
He said: “They have tried to bully me, they have sent threatening letters and emails, they have urged me to shut up, but they won’t speak to me directly."
He now plans to start a campaign to persuade TripAdvisor to act when “dishonest” reviews are placed and remove them.
He added: “’TripAdvisor is a despicable and cowardly organisation, which is bullying small hotel owners all over the United Kingdom.
“As a recent victim of a rogue review, I am well placed to lead the campaign for more protection against the perils of TripAdvisor.”
A spokesperson for TripAdvisor said: “We offer hoteliers the opportunity to respond to every review written on TripAdvisor. This allows individual travellers the opportunity to give their views and the hotel the right to reply and the final say.
“On rare occasions hotels choose to respond less productively and in these cases we do everything possible to protect the consumers’ rights of free speech.
“However, in the case of Mr Bannatyne’s hotels we have had several worrying examples of individuals being intimidated by Mr Bannatyne and his hotel representatives. For example, where Mr Bannatyne posted the personal mobile number and email address of one reviewer and accused them of being the ‘Most dishonest person of 2010’ to his some 250,000 Twitter followers.
“TripAdvisor has a zero tolerance approach on bullying as we defend the freedom of speech, hence why we duly sent a letter to the Bannatyne’s Charlton House Spa Hotel manager stating that we do not condone this behaviour.
“We also take fraud very seriously and will investigate these occasions thoroughly and unverified reviews can be removed from the site, as has been the case with reviews on Bannatyne hotels."
by Dinah Hatch
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