Incentives for reviews are against TripAdvisor’s policy, regardless of when they are offered: http://www.tripadvisor.com/help/what_is_considered_fraud. Hotels are welcome to acknowledge reviews — both positive and negative — through a management response. However, offering a tangible reward after a good review has been published may very well impact how a traveler reviews future hotel stays. If travelers think there is a likelihood of a perk for a favorable review, their feedback is no longer unbiased.

And if the traveler liked the property enough to write them a positive review in the first place, they’ll likely return next time they’re in town, upgrade or not. As you discussed in your recent blog post (http://bit.ly/bBCEn4), good old-fashioned hospitality is really the key.

Thanks –
April Robb
TripAdvisor

That said, rather than channel resources toward “stacking the deck”, which may lead to guest expectations the hotel cannot meet (and thereby generate negative reviews), hotels would be better off channeling efforts toward creating an experience so exceptional that guests feel compelled to write a favorable review. See example here: http://bit.ly/4Usouj

Question for TripAdvisor: Can a hotel thank a guest for writing a favorable review with an amenity or upgrade on their next stay? (by flagging guest profile of those who give real name with review). Not an incentive before the review is written, but a random, unsolicited reward after-the-fact?

The hotel should just have screened its customers as described and asked the happy ones to post reviews. That’s permitted and is how most hotels work the system. It’s also why many savvy people no longer trust reviews on TripAdvisor.

Is there an ethical problem with offering incentives to guests who write reviews? Only if the incentive is based on the tone of the review.

TA’s motives may be pure, but in the long run … everybody wants the cookie.

As Madigan has pointed out above, offering incentives for reviews is strictly against TripAdvisor policy:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/help/i_was_offered_an_incentive_for_a_review_is_that_ok
http://www.tripadvisor.com/help/can_i_ask_my_guests_to_write_reviews

We do encourage properties to remind travelers to write reviews—fresh reviews benefit other travelers as well as hotels— but without offering incentives. One of the reasons we created our Owners’ Center for registered owners in 2009 was to make policies such as this as transparent as possible. The Owners’ Center also provides several tools to appropriately encourage reviews, including a downloadable reminder flyer, an email reminder, and a review collection widget for property websites.

Whenever a traveler reports that they’ve been offered an incentive, we follow up with the property in question, and we will do so in this case. Thanks, Bob, for bringing this to our attention.

April Robb
TripAdvisor

“The woman at reception inquired about my stay, and I replied that it was pleasant (especially after she let me delay my checkout so I could get some work done in the room). Then she handed me the document above and explained that if I left a review on TripAdvisor, the hotel would provide me with a complimentary upgrade the next time I stayed there.”

And Madigan, you bring up a very powerful point – that Trip Advisor has a right to police reviews in any way it desires. Just as Google refines its algorithm to keep people from gaming its search rankings, Trip Advisor must ensure that companies are not artificially promoting positive reviews.

I hope that someone from Intercontinental reads this post and reacts accordingly. OR, I hope that Trip Advisor reads this and gently informs the company of the fraud policy, and offers to provide insights on what the hotel can do to better please its customers, and in turn earn positive/impartial reviews. Google coaches companies on how to create useful content that will lead it to reward it with search ranking – it would be nice if Trip Advisor took the same approach. The result in both cases is more meaningful marketing that helps the media company, brand, and customers.

Bob

It contains some practical advice including point #6 which states – “Understand TripAdvisor” – which IC certainly does not.

If InterContinental took the time to really understand TA they would know “offering incentives such as discounts, upgrades, or any special treatment in exchange for reviews is considered Fraud by TripAdvisor.

And they punish behavior like this by seriously downgrading the hotel’s ranking – just the opposite of IC’s original intend. And they can get flagged with a notice that TA suspects some reviews to be bogus.

Check it out at
http://www.tripadvisor.com/help/what_is_considered_fraud

It pays to know what you’re doing. Obviously IC does not.