If a review or recommendation is from a person we know personally, we would put a lot more trust in their opinion.
However, most of the time we are reading reviews from complete strangers.
When it comes to travel, the largest database of reviews is Tripadvisor. The chances are you have checked out their website when looking to travel, but it’s a fine art of reading between the lines.
Let’s be honest, many reviews say more about the reviewer than the thing they are reviewing. Here are some classic examples:
IT’S JUST A BIG CLOCK – I don’t understand all the hype with this clock. It is literally just a clock, it’s going to be a digital one in thirty years anyway – BIG BEN, LONDON
MISLEADING – Not a chair insight – had to sit on the grass, and was left with an unsightly wet patch so it looked like I had soiled myself. ARTHUR’S SEAT, SCOTLAND
NATURE IS CRAP – I’ve been to a number of so-called landmarks in my time – but what the hell was this? Just an overblown sandy ditch. GRAND CANYON, USA
However, seemingly genuine reviews from relatively intelligent people can certainly make or break a business.
A good review from an ‘Influencer’ can be marketing gold. Like the love-sick Chinese model who was seen on social media cuddling a purple lavender teddy from Tasmania stating it was helping heal her broken heart. That manufacturer went from selling a few hundred teddies a year to tens of thousands.
On the flip side, it’s tough for a business to handle negative feedback, especially if it’s unfair, as there is no come-back for them.
Or is there!
In Thailand, the Sea View Resort and Spa in Koh Chang filed criminal charges against a guest for posting negative reviews!
The lawsuit led to the disgruntled guest, an American ex-pat, being arrested and held in jail for two days after being charged under Thailand’s strict defamation laws.
The guest had posted reviews on Tripadvisor accusing the property of ‘modern-day slavery’.
Reading that a reviewer was arrested and jailed for two days for a negative review seems crazy, unfathomable and dare I say, unprecedented (don’t you just love that word!).
However, it appears the disgruntled guest did a little more than leaving a negative review on Tripadvisor.
‘He used fake accounts to create malicious reviews with content including slavery, xenophobia, and coronavirus,’ the spokesperson from the resort said.
‘We had tried to contact the guest several times to request him to stop his actions. However, the guest refused to respond to or acknowledge the hotel’s correspondences and continued to post malicious reviews online.
‘as a last resort, the hotel was required to file a report and take legal action to protect our rights, our business, and our employees’ welfare who had been abused by the guest.’
A sustained attack from a keyboard warrior does have the power to practically destroy a business.
But if the resort was doing the wrong thing by the staff, the keyboard warrior could be the hero by putting stop to the practices.
It’s a tricky one. What are your thoughts?