TripAdvisor is under fire after a lengthy expose by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Wednesday that the Needham-based company removed reports of sexual assault, among other negative reviews, on their website by users who traveled to Mexican resorts.

According to the Journal Sentinel, more than a dozen travelers say TripAdvisor moderators deleted their first-hand reviews warning of blackouts, rapes, and other injuries during vacations to Mexico, which had been posted in the website’s travel forums.

In one instance, Kristie Love, a Dallas mother, said she was raped in 2010 by a security guard at a highly rated resort in Playa del Carmen. When hotel staff reportedly were uncooperative with her repeated attempts to report the assault, Love told the Journal Sentinel she felt her last option was to post her story on TripAdvisor.


However, her post was quickly deleted by moderators who said it violated the site’s “family-friendly” guidelines. Follow-up attempts to post were also rejected. Since the deletion of Love’s post, two other women had similar experiences of sexual assault at the same resort, according to the Journal Sentinel.

On October 19, TripAdvisor republished Love’s original post, buried beneath thousands of newer comments. Brian Hoyt, a TripAdvisor spokesman, told the Journal Sentinel that they updated their interpretation of their family-friendly guidelines since 2010. Hoyt also acknowledged “about a dozen” other posts that should not have been deleted, which he said would be republished.

In a statement Wednesday to Boston.com, TripAdvisor apologized to Love.

Other accounts of those who had TripAdvisor posts deleted reportedly include stories of being drugged, raped, overcharged, and/or intimidated by hotel staff.

The Journal Sentinel reported TripAdvisor’s business is built around converting site visitors into “engaged users and bookers.” And positive reviews reportedly allow hotels, which advertise on the site, to charge higher booking prices, according to studies.

“Advertisers will not continue to do business with us if their investment in such advertising does not generate sales leads, customers, bookings, or revenue and profit,” TripAdvisor said in a federal filing in August, according to the Journal Sentinel.


The company, however, says it maintains “a strict separation between our commerce and content businesses.”

“Despite assertions and statements made by a recent USA Today article, there is no tie between commercial relationships with our partners and how our content guidelines are applied to reviews or forum posts published on the site,” TripAdvisor spokesman Kevin Carter told Boston.com.

Read the company’s full response to the Journal Sentinel‘s report below: