Whether or not you are accustomed to visiting various travel websites before you travel, especially those bad reviews, is likely to determine whether you will continue to choose that hotel or not. But have you ever doubted the veracity of these comments? Now the world-famous travel website TripAdvisor (TripAdvisor) has been exposed to someone "falsified"!
TripAdvisor (TripAdvisor) is a world-famous travel website, which brings together 500 million "real tourism reviews" for global travelers, and provides people with rich and reliable overseas travel information. Hotels and restaurants can also be invited to comment on the service by e-mail to visitors via TripAdvisor's "Review Express" system.
However, Australia's federal court found that Australia's well-known hotel Meriton deliberately through a series of strategies to reduce negative comments on the TripAdvisor website in order to create a better image of the hotel.
Meriton is known as Australia's largest suite hotelier, operating more than 3200 suites in 13 areas, including Brisbane, Sydney and Gold Coast. It also won 22 Traveller's Choice awards in 2014, making it Australia's most award-winning hotel chain.
In recent days, a federal court ruled that Meriton Hotel was fined A $3 million for unauthorized manipulation to screen consumers' comments on the TripAdvisor travel site, in a serious violation of Australian consumer law.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Council (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission,ACCC) has pointed out that "thousands" of Australian consumer laws have been breached by the Meriton Hotel, resulting in a fine of as much as A $20 million. For this Meriton, the amount of fines between A $330000 and A $440000 would be more appropriate.
In addition to the fine, the court has limited the filtering, and restricting behavior that Meriton will perform when providing a client's email address to the TripAdvisor site over the next three years. At the same time, Meriton also needs to set up a number of compliance and training programs.