For those who need someone to hold his/her hand about any vacation decision, these forums are ripe to take advantage of naive vacationers who will spend thousands because someone on Tripadvisor told them to.

I have seen your above Oct 28, 2010 anti-Toshi posting on numerous sites, word-for-word the same (with the same date), but with different names for the ‘author’. This includes postings that are actually attributed to ‘toshi robert chan’. Now who is being shady?

FYI – NYC is not cracking down on Robert Chan – it is cracking down on all hotels of this nature. Your attempt to make it seem personal is most inaccurate, and again shady.

Another FYI – I am not an employee or even a friend of Toshi. I simply was researching info on him and his hotels. However, I could not resist sending this comment in regarding your posting.

see the article in the link below.

http://www.nysun.com/editorials/protecting-welfare/78550/

i stayed in his slum he calls hotels earlier this month and he and his teenage employees made us wait hours to check in while suggesting that we move to another location because the room we booked was not available. we waited another hour for the car service he arranged and the car took us to the wrong location.

do not believe toshi also known as robert chan and his company. no wonder new york city is cracking down on him and his scamming business with a new law shutting down illegal hotels/hostels.

he MUST be SHUT DOWN!

-in dispute with paypal now.

Fake Reviews on Trip Advisor – In My Opinion

The reviews on Trip Advisor rate the Hotel Malarrimo in Guerrero Negro as being 4.5 out of 5 stars. This is utter [--]. When we got to the hotel (today – Jan 20, 2010), we booked a room based on that info. What a mistake. The first room stank of cigarette smoke and when we asked for a second room the situation wasn’t any better. In fact, they used disinfectant sin the air to disguise the smell, but it didn’t work. Also, the attached restaurant, despite the reviews, was mediocre and expensive. I wouldn’t eat there again, either

In addition, the hotel is old, the paint on the doors is peeling and the rooms are small. The price was a hefty $500 pesos with $100 pesos more for a deposit on the remote. My rating? 1 out of 5. I would never stay here again. Also, if you need Internet or WIFI, the connection is really slow and repeatedly booted me off.

I take major issue with those reviews on Trip Advisor. In my opinion, many of them, if not all are fake. I’ve seen this on other sites and I know Trip Advisor has had this problem in the past. From now on, I’ll use this site for info about locations, but I’ll never trust what I read until I check the place out for myself.

Their response:

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for writing a review on TripAdvisor.

We take accusations of review fraud very seriously, and we dedicate significant time and resources ensuring that the content on TripAdvisor reflects the real experiences of real travelers. We’re constantly refining our automatic fraud filters and editorial training based on feedback like yours, so we very much appreciate hearing from you.

We will review the property in question and make any appropriate changes to the site.

As stated in our guidelines, we will not post comments about other reviews, reviewers or management responses. While we’re unable to post this review, we hope you will consider resubmitting a review that meets these guidelines. Your original text is included below for your convenience.

Best regards,

TripAdvisor Support Team

And my final reply to them:

Thank you for confirming how I feel about your site. Essentially you’re engaging in censorship. You let those post fake reviews get away with it, yet those of us who have a legitimate claim you conveniently ignore.

Food for thought

Actually it’s no secret that Cha is Robert “Toshi” Chang’s girlfriend. She helps run all of his shady business.

Yes I said Shady!
1. Apartment Hotels are illegal in NYC! Period!
Apartments cannot be rented out for less than 30 days! This guy is running a cash business (Paypal doesn’t report to IRS). He’s for sure not paying hotel taxes.

2. Toshi is a party promoter here in NYC who has this sidline business of throwing sex parties where underage girls staff the bar in body paint. In this case the truth is stanger than fiction!

http://www.ripoffreport.com/party-planners/color-parties-inc/color-parties-inc-color-toshi-bd7cc.htm

3. Robert Toshi Chan has been arrested for welfare fraud.
Robert Chan, a former bond-trader who gave up a lucrative job to pursue acting? Though he owned his apartment building in Brooklyn and collected more than $11,000 a month in rent, he also helped himself to $11,617 worth of welfare and food stamps in 2002.
http://www.nysun.com/editorials/protecting-welfare/78550/

So do you feel safe now?

But if the customer withdrew the money to her bank account, can PayPal still cancel the payment? I don’t get this.

Somebody knowledgeable about PayPal, pls explain.

Since there’s no automatic email-notification of replies here on elliot, pls send me a message here: http://sn.im/txudj

Those new reviews look highly suspect. And they created with accounts all during the past day or two. Hmmmm. Maybe they found friends to cover their tracks this time.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g60827-d1594711-r51039496-Hotel_Toshi-Brooklyn_New_York.html#REVIEWS

I’m a suspicious guy but you could easily take furnished apartments you are a management company for, sell them at a premium rate by the night instead of as monthly rental, tell the owner its not rented yet- roll them over month by month with new units, and pocket the money- take the cash and no one ever knows any different. I mean, the units are all over the place.

and hey. Sara Jensen, you lived in NYC and you come back for a visit and you stay in Brooklyn? What are you thinking!!!??? ;-)

I must commend my peers in this forum for their skillful sleuthing. You have helped to expose this company for what it is.

Hotel Toshi may not realize how many travelers read this blog. But they will.

@Joe – while I understand your point about “you get what you pay for,” the fact is that the MINIMUM any hotel should offer its customers is a clean room that is not falling apart. Did you see those photos? That room wasn’t fit for human habitation…and it shouldn’t have been rented out to them at ANY cost.

And in line with your “you get what you pay for” comment…yes, a customer SHOULD get what they pay for. If a hotel touts itself as 3-star, it should offer a 3-star accommodation, regardless of the price paid. There are many reasons for a hotel to sell rooms at lower-than-market rate…but to advertise that you are selling something that you are not is simply false advertising. Clearly this room wasn’t up to ANY livable standards…so in the end, what they paid for it really doesn’t matter.