Hotels.com - user reviews and ratings are manipulated

GraceCourt

I'm sure that many users of this forum will, as a matter of course, check aggregation sites like Hotels.com to view the ratings by visitors of the hotels that might be offering a bargain or discount room rate - but beware! Hotels.com manipulates ratings by refusing to accept some poor reviews/ratings!

I won't bore you with the detail, but my wife and I booked a 4-star hotel through Hotels.com for our wedding anniversary weekend, and it was a disaster. The hotel's internal plumbing failed on the Saturday, cutting off the water supply to the room (research shows this is the fourth such incident in as many years) meaning that we could neither wash, shower, or flush the toilet. This went on all afternoon and no-one could give any sbstantive information about the issue - the answer was always "the engineers are working on it and it will be back on in the next couple of hours".

Of course, it wasn't. We went out for the evening to eat as we didn't like the idea of eating food cooked and served by staff who couldn't wash their hands, and on on our return at half-past midnight, finding a wedding reception in full sway - still no water! And no vacant room with water, and no information other than "the engineers are working on it and it will be back on in the next couple of hours"! By this time, the room was stinking, and there was nothing that we could do.

The next morning, when we got up, nothing had changed, so we left and drove the 250 miles home. Long story short, the hotel chain didn't see any reason to pay anything other than a refund of our room charge, so we commenced County Court proceedings for a total of £750, and judgement in full, plus Court issue fees, was awarded against the hotel last week.

But astonishingly, our factual, objective, and non-abusive review submitted to Hotels.com was rejected without explanation. They stated:

Unfortunately, we can't accept it because it goes against one or more of our submission guidelines. We can't post your review if it includes:

• Specific prices
• Personal insults or profanity
• Any personal details
• Commercial website addresses or phone numbers

We value every review we receive. If you are able to change your review to suit our guidelines, please do this here...

We responded (they make this very difficult because the rejection is sent from a "no-reply" address) pointing out that our review didn't breach any of these guidelines - after all, it was just a poor review! - but the manager to whom we spoke was only anxious to offer us a voucher in respect of the problem with the stay... she didn't seem to understand that a County Court District Judge was going to give us a much more appropriate result! :rotfl:

In the end, she took full details, and acknowledged that I was going to post this warning about Hotels.com "massaging" its clients' hotel ratings, as well as the fact that I was offering them a full unedited right of reply to that allegation. She also agreed that the "relevant department" would respond to me and explain why the poor review had been rejected.

It won't come as a huge surprise to learn that I heard nothing more, so, as promised, here's the story. Sure, Hotels.com offers a great service to users by finding low room rates. Just don't assume that glowing reviews mean that you will get a hotel with running water and working toilets... and an absence of poor reviews doesn't mean that unhappy guests didn't submit any!

blindman

GraceCourt wrote: »

I won't bore you with the detail,

I'd hate to read the boring one

, so we commenced County Court proceedings for a total of £750, and judgement in full, plus Court issue fees, was awarded against the hotel last week.

What did you claim to get £750?

I'm sure others would be interested

Did you write review on Tripadvisor?

What was the hotel-so we can all be aware of short comings?

GraceCourt

blindman wrote: »

I'd hate to read the boring one

Sigh! I always start off with the best of intentions, but...!

blindman wrote: »

What did you claim to get £750?

Room charges of just over £200, plus £100 for fuel costs of the 500-mile wasted round trip, and the rest as compensation for the wasted (and thoroughly unpleasant) weekend which was of course supposed to be a special celebration for us both. There is also a common law obligation for a hotel to provide accommodation of a reasonable standard.

Had the hotel chain (QHotels Limited) been prepared to counter-offer, we would probably have agreed a lower figure following negotiation, but they refused to pay a penny more than what we had paid for the room.

blindman wrote: »

Did you write review on Tripadvisor

No, but we have submitted a "bare bones" second review on Hotels.com giving the result of the County Court proceedings so let's see if they publish that - I'll update this thread accordingly.

blindman wrote: »

What was the hotel-so we can all be aware of short comings?

The Westerwood Hotel and Golf Resort, Cumbernauld. Some of the existing reviews mention the loss of water but not the complete failure of the hotel management to respond to it, or to give any information to guests at the time about what was happening. The fact that everyone used almost exactly the same phrase suggests that this was what they had been told to say, and as mentioned, they have had recurrent water problems over the last few years.

pogofish

So why are you telling us this is a Bargain then?

k3lvc

And in other news bears crap in the woods :rotfl:

northwest1965

Have to say, we nearly always use hotels.com because of the price match guarantee and rewards. However, I never ever just read their reviews. I ALWAYS read the TripAdvisor reviews. Please review the hotel on TripAdvisor

dj1471

northwest1965 wrote: »

I ALWAYS read the TripAdvisor reviews. Please review the hotel on TripAdvisor

Unfortunately you have to be very critical of TripAdvisor reviews as well, there are various tricks hotel owners can and do use to get negative reviews removed and there's no shortage of obviously-fake ones.

agrinnall

I don't know the hotel but I have to say that Cumbernauld would not be my first (or second, or third, etc.) choice of location for a special celebration.

GraceCourt

GraceCourt wrote: »

Long story short, the hotel chain didn't see any reason to pay anything other than a refund of our room charge, so we commenced County Court proceedings for a total of £750, and judgement in full, plus Court issue fees, was awarded against the hotel last week.

Update: I followed up the damages award with the hotel owner, QHotels Limited, who have declined to make payment of the £810 awarded (i.e. including the £60 Court issue fee). They state that they haven't received the order to pay from Northampton CCBC County Court!

Well, that's fine by me... the company is now like a difficult child, sitting with its fingers in its ears going "la-la-la-la, I can't hear you!", so as the County Court judgement is for more than £600, I have paid the £66 fee for it to be "transferred up" to the High Court for enforcement. Anyone who has watched "Can't Pay? We'll Take It Away!" on television knows what will now happen... :rotfl: