Hospitality industry rages at power of TripAdvisor

February 03, 2010 |

The hotel industry is growing increasingly concerned at the power wielded by internet sites such as TripAdvisor, on which often excoriating

ob Cotton, chief executive of the British Hospitality Association, said hotels across Europe were seeking to persuade the EU Commission to overhaul the rules governing website reviews to ensure that they have been posted by genuine guests and not by rivals or people simply out to cause mischief.

The issue surfaced during the most recent meeting of hotel chiefs in Barcelona, when industry leaders called for the rest of Europe to adopt the same standards of authentification that are already in operation in Germany.

Mr Cotton said: "Websites have a responsibility that the person has actually stayed at the hotel or dined at the restaurant. I have been having discussions in Brussels on behalf of the industry so that some sort of common sense should prevail, as it does on sites such as eBay." He added: "You can't ban these on-line comments

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