Duncan Bannatyne: We must take a stand against TripAdvisor hosting untrue reviews
Hotel owner and Dragons’ Den star Duncan Bannatyne writes in this week’s Caterer about online hotel reviews. This follows the publication on TripAdvisor of false claims and factual inaccuracies in a review concerning his four-star Charlton House Spa hotel in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. Mr Bannatyne has earlier expressed his disgust at the way that TripAdvisor deals with malicious reviews in Caterer in December.
Charlton House Spa Hotel
Mr Bannatyne, who owns four hotels, says he has no issue with reviews that give a guest’s opinion about a hotel, but he claims TripAdvisor was obstructing his right to reply to factual inaccuracies.
In the latest article Mr Bannatyne says:
There are very few places where members of the public can post such damaging allegations and, as a recent victim of a rogue review, I am well placed to lead the campaign for more protection against the perils of TripAdvisor.
Let me say at this point that I have no problem with honest reviews and, even if they are less than positive, always welcome the opinions of customers with constructive feedback. My chain of hotels would soon be out of business if we didn’t listen to and act on these reviews.
However, there seems to be no mechanism to prevent untrue reviews being posted in a moment of spite or twisted amusement.
He adds:
If negative reviews are fair and reasoned, we owners cannot complain. We live and die by the quality of our service and, if it is not up to scratch, some timely home truths could be the jolt needed to make wholesale improvements. It is only when the negative reviews are untrue that we are left completely exposed and powerless to fight back.
Read more online at 
Duncan Bannatyne speaks out over TripAdvisor negative review threats – 12/15/2010 – Caterer Search
Hoteliers support Bannatyne campaign against TripAdvisor – 1/5/2011 – Caterer Search
TripAdvisorWatch: Hotel Reviews in Focus 
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Dear Sirs
I own a business in Portugal which is beeing victim of bad critics of people who have never been our clients and we want to remove our business from tripadvisor.
We know you had the same problem and if you can tell us if you could do anything against tripadvisor on this matter we would appreciate it.
Waiting for your response.
My email is: manuel.albuqer@gmail.com
Best regards,
Manuel Alba
Sorry – you cannot remove your business from TripAdvisor unless you have closed permanently. If you have received reviews by people who have not stayed with you then your first step is to report this to TA via your Owner Management Centre.
I had a customer who told me she would ruin me on review sites purly because I would not allow discount when she paid her bill , she infact telephoned the restaurant after every review she left informing me of the site where this was posted. In the end I had to report her as a nuisence caller to B.T and have her number blocked but this did not stop her signing up in several different names and the comments got worse and got to the point they was simply untrue. Fact is there is nothing i can do about it.
I am the proud new owner of not one but two new domain names which I plan to host forums exposing TripAdvisor for their corporate malfeasance. The Better Business Bureau and the Massachusetts Attorney Generals office are aware of TripAdvisor’s corporate misbehavior. The domain names that I have purchased are TRIPADVISORPROBLEMS.COM and TRIPADVISORCUSTOMERSERVICE.COM I am looking forward to working with others who find TripAdvisors practices abhorrent.