For example, have a look at reviews for Camelot Castle Hotel in Cornwall.
Reviews are either hyperbolic and written by someone who really, really likes the word ‘magical,’ and people who had a miserable time being hounded by their hosts to purchase bad paintings and admire the “creativity” of owners John Mappin and Ted Stourton, the perpetrator of the aforementioned paintings.

Reports of mold, leaks, holes in walls, fiberglass pod bathrooms, drafts and inadequate blankets are common.

From the sound of it, these two hoteliers are more concerned with self promotion and spreading the word of L. Ron Hubbard (did I mention they’re Scientologists?) than catering to their customers’ needs.

In fact, this would be a heck of a story on its own. Camelot Castle Hotel is weird with a beard. Her name is Irina.

This also applies to the other side of the picture. Someone loads bad reviews of their competitor. Or a crazy customer that did not get a discount and just creates new email accounts and looks like 30 differant people. This all happens on Tripadvisor every day. Because they do not require proof of you even having stayed at the hotel.

Now lets look at how Tripadvisor makes money. They make a % of every unit booked on Hotels.com, Expedia, Hotwire or an affiliate. No you say tripadvisor does not get a commission. Well kind of? They get a pay per click fee from most of their links. So the more they keep you going in circles the better. More clicks.
However Expedia, Hotwire and Hotels.com are owned by the same person that owns Tripadvisor. 25-35% of the hotel rate is what they get. Some hotels have contracts that are better for Expedia, etc. so you are now very cleverly directed to these hotels. How? By manipulating the reveiws that is how. They remove negative reveiws or hold back positive ones. Do they write them? No, they just manuver them. Which is the same thing in my book.
Also, most of the time there is no discount at all. You just think you got one. Just check the room rate or call the hotel before booking and you will see that.

Now in the beginning these third parties were great for independant hotels because it got them in with the big boys on the web. Where can a small independant advertize. They could not take ads in every city in the world. So that was good in the start. However, when Barry Diller saw the manipulation that was possible he began to purchase these companies and here we sit today all arguing with one another while he rakes in the cash.
The last thing that no one gets is this. Third parties have raised the price of rooms over the years. Hoteliers have adjusted prices to include their third party’s commissions. Just a fact of doing business. As usual the angels become the devil and that what third party bookers have become.
Always call the hotel before booking. Because third party bookings get the worst rooms in a hotel because your booking is classified as a bargain hunter. If you book direct you get treated better and you have a direct relationship with the hotel not some third party that holds the hotel, less commision, funds for up to 30 days or more. Many times if there is a problem the hotel will tell Expedia to refund a guest payment. In that event what sometimes happens is the guest is told that the hotel would not refund the money. Then the hotel does not get the funds and Expedia keeps it all.
No you say! They would not do that! Well let me show you how far they will go. Lets say you book a $100.00 + tax and the Hotel is paid $70.00 + tax. Where do you think the tax on $30.00 goes. Nowhere, Expedia keeps it. Now if a company will cheat every city in the world out of sales taxes what do you think they will do to you. “BARRY DILLER” you are a piece of work!

The one that we do want removed isn’t even wrong in what happened. I remember the guest in question and her problem was legitimate. Now, before anyone gets upset, our hotel has no problems with people voicing their opinion. We don’t even want the entire thing removed. The part that we have problems with is the very end. The review contains a racial slur and states that everyone should save their money instead of handing it to a towelheaded foreigner.

We believe that that is over the top and just plain rude. Furthermore, the owner of the hotel was not only born in America but has never even left this country!

However, when I contacted TA to have this one line removed they cited that nothing would be done about it because it expressed the views of the writer. They went on to say that just because our property received a negative review and we didn’t like it didn’t mean that we had the right to have it removed. I emailed them back stating that we didn’t want the review removed, only the one line containing the slur. They ignored all further emails.

What on earth is “A TripAdvisor Contributor”. The mouse hover over explains it is a trusted member of the community. Trusted by who??? What criteria are they using to measure and allocate trust?

I think there is a story there. I really don’t think it is appropriate for an impartial review website to allow some users to be completely anonymous like this and also to then go on to suggest they are in some way more trustworthy than others.

In case you were wondering, I know Amiens and the restaurant and I would be surprised to hear someone say it was the best restaurant in Amiens.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1462719-d534998-Reviews-Los_Castanos-Cartajima_Costa_del_Sol_Andalusia.html

What is this guy whining about? Do you guys check before you give these people a soapbox?