Blog homeIn the TripAdvisor blog there is a post today that is as follows:
Yep, nobody gets into Chile unless TA says it’s cool
From an e-mail to our support team:Subject: Do I need invitation from TripAdvisor team to visit chile
Hello Sir, Do I need invitation from Trip Advisor to visit Chile for visa processing, shall TripAdvisor team accommodate my hotel reservation, flight reservation as well as sending invitation to collect visa to visit Chile.
A couple of things are wrong with this……
There is no excuse for posting emails that are sent to a support team in a public blog
No excuse at all. Blimey, if we started to post some of the questions that we have been asked via support – yes they would make amusing reading – but these are customers questions – not something to be made a joke of in public…… I think TripAdvisor has crossed the line on this one.
The two alternatives are:
a) This is made up for PR purposes
b) The customer has given permission.
I don’t think TripAdvisor wants to get in the habit of making things up – because that would go against the ethos of a review website. Maybe therefore the customer gave permission to be made a joke of….. I can’t see that as being very likely. Probably a real email then.
Secondly, do TripAdvisor support actually understand their product retail strategy?
As has been written about widely within travel industry blogs (Blog on Travel, The Boot), the new TripAdvisor design (launched in the last few weeks) looks and feels much like a retail website.
As Tim Hughes (The Boot) said:
TripAdvisor now has the site layout, look and feel that you would expect from a full service online travel agent (OTA)
There is no real difference between a review website that sells travel products and a travel product website that has reviews. With this change in design of course TripAdvisor are going to get more retail type questions to their support helpdesk. They had better be ready for them – and they had better change their approach to publishing them in their blog!
The reason that TripAdvisor were asked this question is that sometimes travel companies do need to provide evidence that the traveller is going to be on a tour with them – for travel visa application purposes. This is actually quite a sensible question from the customer – it is just a pity that TripAdvisor support and their blog editor don’t understand it!
I get that kind of question all the time! It’s why standard replies were invented if you ask me
But putting it up on a well read blog for everyone to mock; hmmm. I don’t actually mind the tripadvisor homepage so much, but the inner pages are getting harder and harder to navigate. I know why they’re doing what they’re doing (SEO drives every decision on the site it looks like!), but for someone who isn’t on the site that often it’s pretty hard to follow. And pop ups like they have still annoys the heck out of me. Am I old fashioned there?