Blog homeI have just read an interview with Steve Kaufer of TripAdvisor in New Media Age.
While you need to be registered to read the full article, luckily the paragraph I am interested in is part of the free section on the NMA website
Steve Kaufer is still a passionate user of the site he founded. On his last trip to London he stayed at the five-star Landmark Hotel in Marylebone and, although it was complimentary, he still took “a peek” at the reviews on the site. “Like millions of folks out there, I won’t stay anywhere without checking out the site”
The question is - should a website trusted by consumers to be an independent voice for product reviews be taking complimentary stays from hotels? Or indeed should any review site take complimentary products?
The arguments for
- Lets be real about this - these sites aren’t independent really - that is just an illusion. What they are is a commercial publishing business that happens to take content generated by users….. giving an illusion of independence. Therefore as these are just businesses, we should let them get on and do business however they wish.
- The independence comes from the volume of consumer reviews and therefore whatever kickbacks the management team are taking will have no direct bearing on the review process.
The arguments against
- If you set up as an independent review website you should be “whiter than white” - meaning you should stay clear from taking complimentary products / kick backs / bribes from hotels and other providers featured in your publication.
- Regardless of whether the stay actually has any impact on your featuring of their product in your review website, for sure, the product provider will believe it has some impact - because otherwise they wouldn’t have given it for free in the first place.
- This isn’t the same as an expert lead review where the expert is getting a free stay (in order to review the product). There is no real reason why a user generated website manager needs to visit a place in order to write a review - as the site is not based on expert written reviews.
My questions to TripAdvisor
- Was this complimentary stay offered - or was it asked for?
- What message was TripAdvisor trying to give when mentioning this to a journalist? PR doesn’t tend to happen by accident.
I think TripAdvisor have shot themselves in the foot on this.
What do you think? Should a UGC review website like TripAdvisor take free products from suppliers / advertisers who are reviewed on your site? If you are a review website, do you have a policy on this?
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Two thoughts.
Firstly, if TripAdvisor is totally UG reviews — why did the hotel comp the stay when the guest had no intention of writing a review?
Secondly, with a UG site it’s not really feasible to police if outside reviewers took a comp stay in return for a write-up, but it’s certainly feasible to make sure your staff adhere to whatever policy you have. What is TripAdvisor’s policy?
As for Travelfish.org, we’ve a very strict “no-freebies-whatsoever” policy for our researchers. Unlike some publishers, we don’t accept freebies in exchange for any kind of coverage — positive or negative.
In the past we had one exception to this — book reviews. While we purchased most of the books ourselves, we accepted a couple of review copies from Lonely Planet. However, after we panned their new Thailand book, they stopped giving us books, so we’re back to accepting no freebies whatsoever.
Hold the front page!
++Travel exec in free hotel stay shock++
The discussion is really around their independence as a guide…. for example Lonely Planet say “Lonely Planet writers do not accept discounts or payments in exchange for positive coverage of any sort”.
So a guide website, unless an expert review site, should probably present themselves as independent - which means not taking complimentary hotel stays.
This is very different to a travel company where staff go on complimentary trips (or fam trips) - because those are about learning the product or destination.
Is TA really a guide website? It aggregates reviews from users, so it’s business is not as a publisher per se (like Lonely Planet), although it’s business model is media (clicks from “classified” ads).
The question to ask TA, or indeed Kaufer, is did he leave a review of the hotel?
I can see both sides of the discussion (hence the blog post)….. if I were in TripAdvisor’s shoes I would want to present myself as the consumers voice…. hence, if I was taking complimentary stays from the trade, I wouldn’t be going around mentioning this to journalists.
Kevin - I am sure TA is a guide website (as much as a meta-search site is a travel agency!)…. i.e. not exactly the same - but swirling around in the same pond.
Yes, like blogs masquerading as media. [i jest!!
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It’s pretty simple: The OPA conference invited me to speak, and gave me a complimentary hotel room for two nights. I stayed two extra nights, and paid for them myself. The conference paid for the first two nights, I paid full price for the rest.
In terms of TripAdvisor’s independence, since we don’t write editorial reviews, there isn’t anything a hotel can gain by offering us a complementary room. Non issue for us.
In terms of the message I was trying to give the the reporter… surprise, surprise, it was that I always check the reviews of a hotel before I stay there!
Best,
Steve
Hi Steve,
Thank you very much for your answer. That clears it up. Still an interesting discussion though.
I couldn’t find a statement about your editorial indepdendence in your FAQ section on your site. It seems inferred rather than stated absolutely. However, for example with Lonely Planet, they have a statement on the inside cover of every book (in larger type for countries where they have more questions about it)
Best wishes. Alex