How do I delete a TripAdvisor review?

TripAdvisor is a popular review site where people can review a wide variety of businesses. With just under 395 million users per month, the review site is one of the largest review sites in the world. TripAdvisor has nearly 100 million members and there are now around 500 million reviews online, worldwide. It is therefore good to imagine that you can be bothered about it when you receive a bad review on this website. Unfortunately, it is not easy to remove a TripAdvisor review. You cannot do this yourself, so it is important that you have the website behind you.

When can a review be deleted at TripAdvisor?

Deleting a TripAdvisor review is not easy. You must submit a request for this to the website itself. This indicates that in only three situations there is a chance that an assessment can be deleted. This concerns the following situations:

• When an assessment is suspicious.
• When an assessment violates TripAdvisor's assessment guidelines.
• When the assessment is placed with the wrong company or opportunity.

TripAdvisor clearly indicates on the website that the website will under no circumstances interfere with the evaluating party and the rated party. The website also clearly states that no exceptions are made for deleting reviews.

How can you have a review removed from Tripadvisor?

Do you believe that with a negative assessment there is a situation that falls under one of the three situations mentioned? Then you can follow the following steps:

• Go to you TripAdvisor account;
• Then go to it Management Center;
• Click on the tab here Reviews;
• Then tap the option to report a problem;
• fill it form in that you will find on the next page;
• Send the completed form.

When you have completed these steps, you can only wait and see. TripAdvisor will work with your report and will assess whether there is reason to remove the negative review from their website. It goes without saying that this can take a few days, especially given the large number of users of the website. You will always receive a notification when a decision has been made. If TripAdvisor decides not to remove the assessment, you cannot object to this. The decision is certain.

What if you do not agree with the decision?

TripAdvisor will in no way enter into a discussion about whether or not to remove a review on the review site. Did you receive a bad review and TripAdvisor does not want to delete it? Then you won't get any further with the website. You cannot submit an objection and no discussion will be entered into from TripAdvisor.

The only thing you can do in this case if you really want the review removed from TripAdvisor is to start a lawsuit. In some cases, summary proceedings may be sufficient, but bear in mind that TripAdvisor is a large and international party. A judge can order TripAdvisor to remove a review, but in practice this will not happen very quickly. So you have to ask yourself if you want to spend money on a lawsuit.

Two options that you have now

Your report did not lead to a deletion of the assessment and you do not want to start a case? You have two more options.

1. Improvement plan: The experience of the guests was not optimal. You can improve that. Collect background information and make a strategy with your team. Prepare an action plan for improvements and appoint someone to take responsibility for this. Can't solve the problem? Then see how you can dampen expectations. For example with information that better describes the situation. After implementing the improvement plan, the responsible party can continue to follow the reviews on TripAdvisor. This way you can see whether it actually leads to better assessments.
2. Respond to TripAdvisor: Write a management response. Do this professionally and without emotion, and let another person read the reaction again just to be sure. With this you show other potential guests how you are doing. There are always two sides to a story. Even if the assessment is ridiculous, you can really screw it up for yourself with a bad response. Provide information about your improvement plan, show that you take assessments and therefore your guests seriously. Also answer those questions that future guests can get by reading that review.