The Ad Regulator Raps TripAdvisor

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld industry complaints against TripAdvisor, and ruled that it cannot claim to offer trustworthy reviews from genuine travellers.

Chris Emmins of KwikChex, which made one of the complaints, said “real people and their livelihoods are unquestionably being hurt very badly”.

Fake reviews have forced restaurants and hoteliers out of business and caused “great distress” to bed and breakfast owners who “ take it very personally”, he said. Mr Emmins said that he was aware of numerous agencies offering glowing reviews for a price.

“Some of them have hundreds of TripAdvisor accounts and they use proxy accounts [to disguise their identity]. TripAdvisor has absolutely no way of detecting them.”

The ASA upheld complaints that TripAdvisor’s claims to offer “trusted advice from real travellers” was misleading and could not be substantiated.

TripAdvisor argued that it had “advanced and highly effective fraud detection systems” and that the effect of “small numbers of fraudulent reviews was effectively negligible”.

As members know, this is something we have long been concerned about, and will again report on in the next issue of Bed & Breakfast News, due out on Monday (6 Feb).

British B&Bs are "the best on earth"

Great news to hear this week that according to tourists worldwide using TripAdvisor, British B&Bs are "the best on Earth".
British B&Bs took the first three places in the world's best B&B table compiled by TripAdvisor from tourists' reviews. The UK domination was shown by the fact that six English and two Scottish establishments were in the top 10 B&B world table. TripAdvisor spokeswoman Emma Shaw said: "These awards celebrate the best B&Bs in the UK and beyond according to those that really matter - travellers themselves. "The UK performed extraordinarily well in the B&B category, laying claim to eight of the top 10."
Our members will be delighted to hear it but (at the risk of being immodest), we are perhaps not surprised! As I told Radio 5 Live this week, British B&B owners are the "unsung heroes" of the British tourism industry.

User reviews can't replace star ratings

On Tuesday night (6th December), the Tourism Society held a Debate at Westminster Central Hall chaired by Lord Thurso MP, with panellists from VisitEngland and TripAdvisor, on the motion "This house believes that the abundance of user-generated rating sites, which are more useful to both he public and the travel sector, have the potential to make grading systems obsolete". The only point made from the hall which raised applause was mine when I said that the user-review sites are not yet doing enough to ensure their content is genuine. The motion was defeated by a considerable majority.

There will be a big feature on user-review sites - and TripAdvisor in particular - in the Dec/Jan issue of Bed & Breakfast news, which should be out tomorrow afternoon (Friday 8th) on the Association's member pages, and a link will be sent to all members then.

As always, give us your views at comment@bandbassociation.org

Bye Bye to the B&B? No way!

There was a very negative article in yesterday's Independent on Sunday under the headline "Bye-Bye to the B&B". It began: "Fusty bed and breakfasts with their loud carpets and louder landlords have remained stubbornly unchanged for decades. And now they could be facing face their final chintzy curtain".

It went on to quote Alex Polizzi, Channel 5's 'Hotel Inspector', as saying "I am not at all surprised budget hotels are killing off the grotty B&B – and I am quite pleased. B&Bs got a bad name because of the standards. I get depressed at how often I have to say cleanliness is important. People are being more discerning."

The article, to be fair, did talk about the threats to us all from the "aggressive" expansion of the budget hotels, and about B&Bs moving upmarket, and quoted James Berresford, VisitEngland's chief executive, saying "Over the last decade, accommodation in England has improved in leaps and bounds." The main thrust, though, was depressingly negative.

I was upset to be misquoted in a way that meant readers might assume I was agreeing with the general tone of gloom and doom of the piece. I have asked the Editor for a "right of reply", and let's see what he says...

What I actually told the journalist, at much more length than he quotes of course, is that B&Bs ARE competing with budget hotels - we ARE fighting back, with individual decor, a friendly welcome, and a freshly cooked home made breakfast - which the budget hotels' boring, soul-less rooms, hotplates of congealing "scrambled egg" and cheap catering sausages cannot rival.

Yes it is tough out there, but the best B&Bs are the best places to stay. To (mis)quote the article, "B&B does stand for Brighter & Better service".

2012: the Minister calls...

More on the "20.12% offers" story (see below): the Tourism Minister, John Penrose, called me on 3rd November to flesh out the idea, ahead of another reference to it by Jeremy Hunt (the Secretary of State) when opening World Travel Market the following week.

I think he understands and accepts our point that we cannot (of course) cut our prices across the board - nor would we - but his officials will be giving the Association details of how B&B owners can benefit next year from a £3 million national advertising campaign pushing some form of headline offer based on "20.12%" - which could be confined to shoulder or low season, or to midweek stays, or stays of 4 nights plus, or to a third night, or whatever.

We are working with the Department to thrash out more detail, and will of course put this out to our members as soon as we have it. I hope the idea will now develop into something useful, harnessing some advertising millions for B&Bs in return for (say) "20.12% off your fourth night in low season" or some such formulation - each B&B can (we gather so far) use the headline figure in the publicity campaign however it likes within reason. There is a lot of work to do, and the devil will (as always) be in the detail - but this is where we can help the Minister's officials to make it as workable and effective as we can.

Of course, no B&B would have to get involved in the eventual promotion - but we will do our best to influence the idea in a sensible direction, then give our members the option of joining in or not.

And at the very least, we have now got the Ministers including B&Bs in the publicity campaign plan, rather than just hotels as often used to happen in the past. Our voice is starting to be heard...

"Attack of the Trip Advisors"

Last night's Channel 4 programme "Attack of the Trip Advisors" was depressing viewing - albeit nothing new to any B&B owner. It did not touch on the fake or fraudulent reviews or the blackmail threats, only on the run of the mill unfair reviews.
The "reviewers" on the show came across as by and large, self-important inadequates, obsessives, pedants or abusive illiterates - or various mixtures thereof. No doubt there are many fair-minded, reasonable, succinct "reviewers" on TripAdvisor who don't obsess about the enormity of finding water in their kettle - but we didn't see those.
What was depressing was the unkindness and vindictiveness, the sense among "reviewers" that their only power is the power to wound or strike back. The anonymity allows them to say anything, fair or unfair, true or false, reasonable or petty - and TripAdvisor publish it worldwide, for ever.

The Times article on starting a B&B today

A good double-page spread by Mark Bridge in today's Times (p70-71) on starting a B&B:

"Running a bed-and-breakfast is one of the most straightforward small business models, and can provide a rewarding and flexible lifestyle for naturally hospitable people.
The best B&Bs have weathered the downturn well, partly because cash-strapped Britons are
taking more 'staycation' holidays in the UK and looking for alternatives to hotels.

"The Bed & Breakfast Association provides information and support to B&B owners,
and it is also a good resource for would-be owners at the research stage."