Hotels around the world at the centre of sexual assault allegations are continuing to be promoted on TripAdvisor, despite some complainants contacting the travel company to warn them of alleged attacks by staff members.

TripAdvisor is the largest travel site in the world, with 456 million people visiting the site every month to search for accommodation and other hospitality sites ranked according user reviews.

But two women who alleged they were raped by staff employed by businesses currently promoted on TripAdvisor said the company is failing its “duty to public safety” in the way it handles such complaints. They said they fear others are at risk without information about prior alleged incidents being made visible on the business page.

In emails seen by the Guardian, a woman called “K” approached TripAdvisor to say she had been raped by a tour guide whose business was being promoted on the website. After contacting the hotel where he worked and reporting him to the police, K wanted to warn other tourists.

TripAdvisor responded by suggesting K could leave a first person review detailing her sexual assault on the website.

“I was in disbelief. Am I seriously being asked to recall the humiliating details of my own sexual assault? Was this global company pushing me to relive my trauma on their forum for everyone to see and comment, or worse of all for the perpetrator who is still out there, to respond to me, troll me?,” said K. “It left me feeling shattered, hopeless and alone.”

TripAdvisor told K they did not remove a business from their site if a staff member was accused of sexual assault or rape, even temporarily to conduct an internal review. The company then shared five links with K of reviews detailing sexual assault and rape, allegedly committed by staff at different hotels, as examples of how she might write her own review.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tripadvisor is the largest travel site in the world. Photograph: Alamy

In one review TripAdvisor shared with K in the email, dated November 2018, an 18-year-old woman said she had her drink spiked and was raped at a resort in Jamaica. She claimed the hotel hired lawyers to mount a case against her, even after undergoing a rape test at a local hospital.

The resort currently has a 4.5-star rating out of 5. There is no flag on the hotel’s TripAdvisor page to suggest any such attack has ever occurred. The only way to know would be to scroll through and read more than 5,000 reviews.

TripAdvisor ranks hotels based on the star rating given by users, but individual reviews are presented chronologically on listing page for the hotel. A review which detailed allegations of sexual assault could easily be overtaken by more recent reviews and be harder to find.

The Guardian found a further 40 examples of reviews describing sexual assault, rape and groping committed by staff members of highly-rated hotels and other travel businesses. In only 14 of those cases, the hotel or travel business – such as tour guides – had replied to the review, with just one review indicating whether disciplinary action had been taken against the staff member in question.

TripAdvisor left K’s review as pending because she did not write it as a first person account and it remains unpublished. K told the company she did not want to publish “first hand experiences”, in fear of being contacted and identified by people whose attention she did not want to attract, including the alleged perpetrator. TripAdvisor suggested she created a burner account under an anonymous name to leave the review.

TripAdvisor has previously attempted to grapple with complaints of sexual assault. In November 2017, it said it would add a warning tags to hotels where “health, discrimination and safety” issues have been reported – but would not explicitly say what the business has been flagged for. The decision came after the company deleted a review detailing a rape case in a hotel in Mexico because the language used breached its guidelines.

The amount of time a badge remains on a business listing is determined on a case-by-case basis, but the company uses a period of three months as a guideline for reevaluation. TripAdvisor said there are currently four flags up on business listing pages.

None of the flagged hotels or travel businesses the Guardian found had any warning on the business page of prior allegations made about staff.

Complainants believe a red flag on a business for three months to evaluate the ongoing safety of the listing is not enough, especially when little to no action is taken against the alleged attackers still employed at hotels and businesses.

Christine, 44, from Toronto, Canada, alleged she was raped in a hotel in the Caribbean while on holiday with her family. She said the process of leaving the complaint of sexual assault as a review was futile, as reviews were routinely “buried” by other reviews, making it difficult for users to find.

She added that the reviews detailing sexual assault attacks should not be lumped alongside other 1-star reviews complaining about “bed sheets”.

“They definitely should have a different kind of review system, for these types of incidences so they’re not buried in with everyone’s reviews about you know, the quality of the towels or the sheets. Especially if it’s a safety issue, particularly for women.”

Christine decided to go public with her story because, she says, “TripAdvisor has a major platform and really they have a duty for public safety, because it is a big problem. I’m not overstating it when I say it’s widespread.

“Many women contacted me and said this has happened to them too, by a different staff member at another hotel. And we need to be aware of it.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Christine: “Tripadvisor has a duty of care” Photograph: Cole Burston/Getty Images for the Guardian

TripAdvisor said while the company was unsure if the reviews complaining of rape would have an impact on a business, it believed reviews were “very helpful” to travellers to inform them about where to stay or visit.

TripAdvisor added it had a team of hundreds of people working on content moderation focused on “maintaining the integrity” of the site, and that thousands of reviews on the website described health and safety issues, including sexual assault and other crimes.

The company said it took into account a number of issues before giving a business a flag, including whether a staff member of a business listed was implicated in the review complaint. The company adds a flag to listings where there are media reports of the issue, or when a first-hand review is not “readily accessible.”

It said its notifications are not confirmation of the events, but were there to “encourage consumers to do additional research outside of TripAdvisor” of the safety of the businesses. However, the company claimed most businesses that had received a flag had taken steps to address the issue that caused the media coverage.

TripAdvisor told the Guardian: “It is terrible that some travellers endure serious issues such as assault or rape, and we hope our platform can be used by them to help warn and protect others. It is important that reviewers follow our publishing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of our reviews, and when these reviews are not readily available and news reports exist that detail recent and pervasive health and safety matters, TripAdvisor’s notification process helps alert travellers about potential issues at a location.”

