The potential negative side of social media

Social media is great, as is the internet, but both remain largely unregulated, as clearly demonstrated by the farcical situation regarding so-called “gagging” injunctions in the UK being breached all over the internet.

The internet can be a force for good but there is a dark side, as with almost all things. Here is a good example.

A significant number of hotel resorts have been reporting to Trip Advisor that guests have tried to blackmail them to obtain discounts, upgrades or other concessions by threatening to write adverse reports on the influential tripadvisor site.

The difficulty is compounded by the fact that the tripadvisor site allows anonymous posting and seems to do little in terms of spam or quality checking. Instead what happens is that the hotel or resort owners or managers have to monitor their own feedback and argue their case by replying to adverse comments.

Tripadvisor or similar sites are not the policemen of the internet but to be truly trusted, they have to do some legwork in ensuring things are fair for both sides. This kind of publicity just confuses people more, it can be hard to ascertain what’s right or wrong ion these situations.

On a personal note, my family and I went to a hotel and resort slightly off the beaten track last summer in Agadir in Morocco last summer. When checking out this resort the reviews were so widely apart it was very difficult to make a decision about whether to book or not. Maybe this was a good thing, as the reviews were not bland, but bearing in mind the above, it now strikes me that some of the bad reviews may have had an agenda, particularly as the hotel was fantastic, the resort was great and the staff were exceptional. So much so that they allowed us to change the terms of our booking whilst there. Few hotels would allow that.

If anyone wants to know about this hotel and resort, just get in touch, but clearly, I accept no legal liability or responsibility, views are my own, blah blah etc etc !