The Innkeeping Blog

Two times this week I have been contacted by innkeepers who were threatened or potentially threatened with fraudulent reviews to extort money or to inflict damage.

One innkeeper wrote to me the following:

I am having job performance issues with my college student – he perceives that the problem is me and not his job performance.  He relayed to another staff member (how do they think I won’t find out?) that his friends said he should go on TripAdvisor and pretend to write a review as a guest and make a comment that they liked everything about the inn, except how the owner treated her employees.

Another innkeeper told me that one of his guests stayed for a few nights and said she suffered several bed bug bites during her stay.  To make a long story short, they had the inn inspected for evidence of bed bugs (and they do wrap their mattresses), and there was no evidence.  The guest mentioned the possibility of writing a review on TripAdvisor about it, before she requested a full refund for her stay.  The innkeeper naturally doesn’t want to give in (and does not plan to).

We’ve known for a long time that people have been using TripAdvisor as a weapon in certain circumstances.  The most common one I’ve heard about is when guests want to cancel towards the last minute, but they don’t want to pay the agreed-upon cancellation fee.  If the innkeeper holds true to the policy, the guests get upset and threaten a negative review on TripAdvisor if they don’t get their deposit back.  This is despicable and unscrupulous in my humble opinion, but it happens.  Because the system does not verify the veracity of this guest (Did he actually make a reservation?  Did he stay there?  Who knows?), and because reviewers can remain anonymous, reviewers have the upper hand in these unfortunate situations – a true weakness in today’s online review systems.  When I’ve told stories like this to my contacts at TripAdvisor in the past, they seem genuine in their desire to fight fraud.  After all, their system becomes less valuable as more fraud gets into the database of reviews.  They have automated tools that can detect some of it, but the rest is left to human interpretation of the event as explained by the reviewer and rebutted by the innkeeper.

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Keeping an eye on the ever-evolving TripAdvisor site, I noticed a few nice changes that are available to innkeepers who purchase the Business Listings service.  Until these changes were made, subscribing to Business Listings allowed you to include your phone number and links to your web site and email on your listing page.

If you are a subscriber to Business Listings, you can now feature any promotion or deal that you want on your TripAdvisor listing page.  This could be half-price upgrade, Labor Day special, business traveler special – anything you want, and you can change it as often as you like.  When potential guests are browsing a listing of B&Bs on TripAdvisor, those who offer a “special deal” of some kind (and it doesn’t have to be a discount) will stand out.  This is what you want – to stand out in the crowd of B&Bs being considered.

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This past week I was glad to lend a hand to a PAII member asking for help.  Vinessa Milando, owner of Ivy Terrace B&B in New York, NY, informed me about a bill (click here for bill’s full text) that had just made it through the New York State Senate that would essentially make illegal all short-term lodging facilities that were not bona fide hotels, i.e. B&Bs and vacation rentals.  The law, if signed by Governor David Paterson, would make it illegal for a property owner of an apartment, condo, B&B, etc., to take money from guests who stay less than 30 days.  But the issue brings up a touchy subject – the lack of laws, regulations and/or ordinances that properly define B&Bs.

In New York City, it seems that those who have been running B&Bs out of residential buildings have been able to do so because the language that described their type of dwelling was vague enough to allow for it.   Since 2003, according to Milando, innkeepers came forward and began paying the city’s occupancy taxes – just like hotels.  Supporters of the bill argue that loud, obnoxious, dirty tourists don’t mix well with “permanent” residents in the city, where permanent housing is apparently scarce.  And, they’re saying that some property owners are scamming tourists into unsafe places.  With the quick rise of the vacation rental market and sites like Craigslist, where it’s easy to advertise a couch or room for rent, there is no doubt going to be scammers and irresponsible purveyors out there.  But I would imagine that the lion share of travelers and those who operate B&Bs and vacation rentals are legitimate people wanting to do the right thing.  A law like this should not pass on account of the rotten apples, because the law would essentially kill ALL the apples – the proverbial baby AND bath water.

Property owners (innkeepers among them) quickly rallied this past week and certainly got their message out.  Check out www.protect-vacation-rentals.com to see what they were able to do, including rallying 500 folks at City Hall.  I wrote a letter to Governor Paterson urging him to veto the bill (he’s mentioned an intent to veto, but you never know) and to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who supports the bill, maybe due to heavy ear-bending by the hotel lobby.  TripAdvisor CEO, Steve Kaufer, also submitted a letter to the Governor.  Several main stream press have been covering the story, such as USA Today, New York Times, Budget Travel and more.

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Have you hired someone since Feb 3, 2010 who was unemployed at the time?  If so, you might be eligible for a payroll tax credit.  Here are the guidelines under the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act of 2010.  Thanks to Deb Mosimann of the Swiss Woods Bed and Breakfast for bringing it to my attention.

Below is what’s on Wikipedia about it, and here’s a link to the official IRS page about it.

The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act of 2010 (Pub.L. 111-147, 124 Stat. 71, enacted June 2010, 03) is a law in the 111th United States Congress to provide payroll tax breaks and incentives for businesses to hire unemployed workers. Often characterized as a “jobs bill,”^[1][2][3] the Democrats in Congress insist that it is only one piece of a broader job creation legislative agenda, along with the Travel Promotion Act and other bills. Read more »