Visitors' ratings on commercial sites

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
alexia s.
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Location: Provence
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Visitors' ratings on commercial sites

Post by alexia s. »

Our neighbours have raised an interesting point. They rent their house in summer, using a commercial site which allows visitors to post comments directly on the site. One of their visitors posted a negative comment which has been published since August ...... and our neighbours haven't had a single enquiry from the site since. (There is also one positive comment but they think that the single negative one explains the lack of enquiries.) I can't see any solution to this, apart from taking it up with the site. Not surprisingly, they don't want to move their dialogue with the poster directly onto a public web site - this would be unprofessional & petty - and I agree with them. They are going to contact the person responsable for the site.
Do any members of the forum use a site which permits this?
I think it is Cyberrentals which reserves the right to cancel an ad if the site receives 3 complaints - this strikes me as reasonable - but our neighbours find that just one comment is as good as having their ad cancelled - without compensation.
Does this happen often? How do the web sites react?
Best,
Alexia.
cromercrabholiday
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Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:24 am
Location: North Norfolk
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Post by cromercrabholiday »

We use e-Bay to fill late gaps and there is a well-established feedback process. For us it is very useful as we can check up on our potential customers. The feedback on us has been 100% positive, so haven't had to find out how to deal with problems. However, I believe that you can negotiate with the other party to withdraw the comment and/or add your own explanation.
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Hanorah
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Joined: Fri Dec 10, 2004 2:50 pm
Location: Turkey

Post by Hanorah »

Villa Renters does this also, your clients add their review either positive or negative. I think this is fantastic from the guests perspective but not necessarily so for the owner. Currently we only have positives so is not a problem for us but I am always aware this may change at anytime and with the best will in the world you can't please everyone all the time. Villa Renters does let you reply to the comment though which is probably a good idea. I do feel for your friend especially if the review was undeserved which I am guessing it was.
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alexia s.
Posts: 870
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 6:38 pm
Location: Provence
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Post by alexia s. »

I don't know if it was undeserved, Hanorah, but it occurs to me that the system is open to abuse & not necessarily good for visitors, since an unfavourable review might indeed be undeserved.
Best,
Alexia.
accommodation-in-spain
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Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 7:09 am

Post by accommodation-in-spain »

I would not be happy to advertise on a site that allowed this as, as you pointed out, it can be open to abuse e.g. a competitor posting negative remarks.

I personally ask for feedback from all our clients when they return and 99.9% are positive but you do always get the odd person who just likes to complain. Don't get me wrong, I can handle constructive criticism so that any problems can be rectified for future guests and nipped in the bud but if they complain about something that really is not necessary then it is unfair e.g. there were not enough board games or that the curtains are the wrong colour :( This is another reason why I would not like this system - I prefer personal contact rather than the whole world reading about something that has either been rectified or was a totally unfair comment :D

Like Alexa said, it would not be so bad if you could reply to the comment to notify future holiday-makers that the problem was rectified.

Maybe your friends could ask to have a reply posted to the comments shown - I think that is only fair.
www.Costa-Luz-Holiday.com - your on-line holiday brochure for the Costa de la Luz
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