Revinate Surveys allows for TripAdvisor or Google review syndication. After a guest completes a post-stay survey they will be prompted to complete a review for the property. Revinate does not edit or curate guest reviews or responses. Any guest that completes a syndicated review will have that review sent to the review channel. Potential guests will then have an honest picture of the property when reading a hotel's reviews and a healthy distribution of positive and negative reviews is normal and expected.
Oftentimes properties ask if there is a fail-safe to ensure only positive/good reviews or those completed by guests identified as ‘promoters’ will be published on TripAdvisor or Google. Hindering the publishing of unfavorable guest reviews is highly discouraged and a property may be penalized.
TripAdvisor monitors property sites to ensure honesty in their reviews. When TripAdvisor catches a hotel attempting to only send good reviews an investigation may be opened and a property will find their TripAdvisor page displaying a public banner. See image:
Message from TripAdvisor: “TripAdvisor has grounds to investigate that individuals or entities associated with or having an interest in this property may have attempted to interfere with traveler reviews and/or the Popularity Index for this property. Please take this into consideration when researching your travel plans. We make our best efforts to identify suspicious content and are always working to improve the processes we use to assess traveler reviews.”
They claim to use automated tools to help flag questionable content for review in addition to help from the community, in the form of the 'Report Problem with a Review' link.
So what should you do to avoid the red text of death splashed across your listing on TripAdvisor? According to the TripAdvisor FAQ, avoid these practices:
- Writing a review for your own property
- Asking friends or relatives to write positive reviews
- Submitting a review on behalf of a guest
- Copying comment cards and submitting them as reviews
- Pressuring a TripAdvisor member to remove a negative review
- Offering incentives such as discounts, upgrades, or any special treatment in exchange for reviews
- Hiring an optimization company, third party marketing organization, or anyone to submit false reviews
- Impersonating a competitor or a guest in any way
As much as you want to see a glowing review on your page, it's not worth it at the expense of looking like a business that is willing to lie and cheat to make a sale. As a consumer, it's hard to see that box of text and think that your property is worth your hard-earned money. You should also know that if you're busted, you will drop in the TripAdvisor popularity index and disqualify your hotel from inclusion in the Travelers' Choice Awards.