Friday, September 2, 2011

TripAdvisor under investigation

"Not a moment too soon.” Said 2AFRIKA’s Founder & President, Kenneth Hieber who has been slandered detrimentally on the supposed ‘advisory’ site by none other than Karen Blixen who died way before TripAdvisor."

“The investigators have my fullest support in this matter,” he said.

The user-generated travel-review site has been surrounded by controversy regarding the verity of its reviews for years. Now the UK’s Advertising Standards Agency is going after the travel giant, the Telegraph reports. The investigation focuses on two aspects: TripAdvisor encouraging companies to use “unverifiable testimonials" on their websites, and the possibly misleading use of the word "trust" on the TripAdvisor site. The hope is that TripAdvisor will be forced to verify which statements are legitimate and which are fraudulently created by competitors! Chris Emmins, the cofounder of KwikChex.com, a company dedicated to helping companies manage their online reputation, said he is also mounting a civil suit against TripAdvisor in the US on behalf of hotel and restaurant owners.