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USA Today launches TripAdvisor alternative
USA Today Travel Media Group has announced the beta launch of HotelMe, an authenticated hotel review site.
HotelMe, a joint venture of USA TODAY Travel Media Group and District Hospitality Partners, will offer authenticated hotel reviews checked against hotel records, through a patent pending process that will show verified reviews from guests who paid and stayed at the reviewed hotel.
Fake reviews are a bane of the industry and have been the source of past controversy at sites like TripAdvisor and others.
Hotel brands – including Hyatt, Best Western, La Quinta, Trump, Preferred Hotels, Omni, and Radisson – have already signed on to verify whether review writers actually stayed at their properties, regardless of how or where they booked the room.
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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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