Get your customer testimonials verified

[Normandy Cow]

The UK site's free guarantee has disappeared as of an hour ago unless I'm hallucinating.

It's still on the home page of OD...

[TTP mk2]

I still think there's a lot of scope to run a training day for scammers at the Lagos Hilton - 500 quid cash, no questions asked - and get 'em up to scratch.

You're too late http://www.universityofnigeria.com/

[Windy]

TTP Mk2 - rrrrrespect - ace link!

[dmjarvis]

Several valid issues were raised on this forum a little while ago regarding my testimonial management and verification tool. For the sake of completeness I wanted to say that two of the points of concern have now been addressed....

Firstly, a concern was raised that an unscrupulous website owner could put something that looked like a vouchforthis widget on his site when in fact they were not actually a member. I have addressed this by changing the link at the foot of the testimonial widget so that it takes the visitor to the vouchforthis website page which confirms the identity of the member, thereby allowing the visitor to verify that they are at least a member of vouchforthis. If somebody attempts to place a bogus link there then I will receive an email letting me know whenever somebody clicks the link - including naming the originating web page.

Secondly, a concern was raised that one person might create and then verify their own testimonial by using different domain names. I have implemented a solution whereby every time a vouchforthis member logs in to their account the IP address that they use is recorded against their account. Whenever anybody verifies a testimonial I check the verifiers IP address against the list of IP addresses that the testimonial creator has used, sending an email to me wherever they match so that I can investigate.

I know this won't allay everybodys fears, but I think it goes some way towards tightening the whole process up. It doesn't prevent misuse in 100% of cases (what does?), but it does make it harder for people to abuse, which should hopefully persuade them to look elsewhere. For those who think that testimonials are important on their sites vouchforthis offers an effective solution for their management, deployment and verification.

[pepsipuss]

I find the vetting he proposes to be inadequate. Tripadvisor and others are also open to abuse, and at the moment the ones that I consider safe are:
- yourholidaymatters.com, which does not visit properties but has an involved dialogue with owners before acceptance;
- listings like Alistair Sawdays which physically visit properties;
- and listings like spain-holiday.com which require a utility bill from the owner are enough to make a scammer choose a softer target.

I have only just picked up this thread and feel I need to have my two cents's worth!

I have now visited the vouchforthis site and apart from all the reservations expressed by Paolo and others I found it a pretty cumbersome process. Many of us feel uncomfortable asking our guests for reviews in the first place (one of the reasons I love Homelidays is that they do it for you and registered Homelidays travellers know about it and expect it), and I can't imagine posting a review from a visitor's book and then having an unknown third party ask for verification. You would have to contact them in advance and get their OK and I would not want to have to bother them again once they had written a nice comment: the most I ever do is ask if I may use such a comment on my website. I did not mind at all doing this with three customers for my YHM approval process (indeed those I chose were flattered to be asked when I explained the concept) but I am not sure I would want to bother all my guests.

I endorse Paolo's point above: there are many ways that the proposed system can be abused, and his point in another post that a less-than-perfect system is worse than no system at all. Your Holiday Matters offers a much more certain way forward for the customer than vouchforthis.

The actual 'does the property exist?' and/or 'does it belong to the person advertising it?' would be covered de facto by the vouchforthis remit but are only one part of it, and are indeed taken care of by Spain Holiday and Rentalia among others who require utility bills. Niumba has started a similar system but they have made it so difficult to comply for people who do not have their post sent to their residential address that I have given up trying to verify myself with them.

The Homelidays system is indeed well enough constructed that it would be pretty difficult to abuse. We had a fabulous review posted there by the first ever French family to stay at our house, but Homelidays would not publish it because the stay was not registered with them in advance AS A HOMELIDAYS TRAVELLER as they came from Spain Holiday and although they were on the availability calendar that was not enough. We will have to wait till they come back which might be a while as they have moved to one of the off-shore territories! French customers who use Homelidays place great faith in their testimonials.