A woman has faced legal action for a bad review on TripAdvisor – and we should be worried Since TripAdvisor was founded in Florida in 2000, some 500 million reviews have been posted on the site. That’s a […]

Since TripAdvisor was founded in Florida in 2000, some 500 million reviews have been posted on the site. That’s a lot of “would not go back”, “avoid at all costs” and “not at all what we expected.”

Now, the hospitality industry is biting back.

In March, Sarah Gardner, a TripAdvisor user, posted a review of High Rocks, a restaurant in Tunbridge Wells.

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As with most TripAdvisor reviews, her opinion verged on the extreme. The staff were “rude and arrogant”, the management “frustrating and perplexing”, the food “mediocre at best”.

Stars out of five? One.

“I grew up in the area and have visited the restaurant many times,” she told the Mirror. “But I won’t be going back.”

After posting her review, Ms Gardner, a part-time nurse, was surprised to receive an 11-page letter, followed by another 14-page letter, from lawyers representing High Rocks, accusing her of libel.

“The material you have posted about our client on Tripadvisor.com is defamatory and therefore unlawful,” it read. “Our client will pursue you for aggravated damages to compensate it for the full extent of its financial losses.”

The letter also included a mock-up of a court injunction, threatening Ms Gardner with the possibility of imprisonment or a fine.

The manager, Giuseppe Cappellazzi, accused Ms Gardner of being “vindictive” and posting false reviews, saying she had not visited the restaurant in the month she posted her review.

Ms Gardner – a TripAdvisor regular, who has posted more than 50 reviews on the site, with an average rating of 3.4 stars – said she was writing about her general experiences at the restaurant as a regular customer.

She has since asked the site to remove her review.

So, it looks as though High Rocks has won for now, although the long-term effects of their customer complaints procedure may be more damaging.

Who will be next?

This is quite the can of worms.

Once one restaurant or hotel proves that a comment online has caused “serious harm to reputation” or “serious financial loss” (the definition of libel), that could be the end of online reviews.

Sites that moderate or edit the comments that appear on them could be at risk of multiple court cases.

Even the angriest consumer might think twice about complaining about their undercooked prawns or Waldorf salad if faced with the prospect of having to prove their inadequacy in a court of law.

And what about other kinds of review?

Might actors start suing reviewers who criticise their singing and projection?

Could eBay sellers issue a writ if you write that the shoes you bought were a different fit from that which you were expecting?

Other venues have also pushed back

This is not the first time the subjects of TripAdvisor have pushed back.

In 2012, the owner of a B&B in the Outer Hebrides won a landmark case against the site after he claimed untrue negative reviews had cost him thousands of pounds in bookings; he later had to drop the case when he could not afford to pursue it in a higher court.

In 2013, a Canadian hotel sued a guest for $95,000 after he complained about bedbugs on the site and refused to take the $40 compensation he was offered.

High Rocks, too, has already targeted another dissatisfied diner.

Felicity Gallagher posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page that her spaghetti bolognese was “slop”.

Cappellazzi informed her that he had gone back through the CCTV footage and found proof that she had “enjoyed” her meal.

Bear that in mind, next time you pluck up the courage to complain: you must look disappointed throughout your visit to have a legitimate grievance.

The problem with TripAdvisor

I am no fan of TripAdvisor, a site that seems specifically designed to suck the joy out of any holiday-booking experience.

No sooner have you put your money down on the #1 hotel in Crete than you reach the bottom of the comments thread and discover that the reception desk is a bit high, the pillows are bouncy and the breakfast buffet has only three kinds of egg: “Disappointing. Would not go back.”

TripAdvisor is the spirit of the internet, distilled: fulsome in its praise, foul in its criticism, pedantic in the extreme and easily triggered to outrage, be it by a misplaced bolster cushion, a surly waiter or a soggy omelette.

The thought of posting one review on TripAdvisor, let alone many, gives me shivers.

It’s the sort of thing Alan Partridge would do, a classic Little Englander move to keep calm and carry on at the time, then summon up rage after the event with all the rhetorical pomp of a room full of part-time Masterchef judges.

Hatchet jobs have value – of a sort

And yet, if people want to tell the world about their rubbery Yorkshire pudding at Sunday lunch, or dirty bathroom in Barcelona, they should be able to do so.

Leisure is an emotional business, and complaints are as much a part of a job in the hospitality industry as late nights and Dettol spray.

The customer is always right – even if nowadays they have more outlets through which to be a pain in the neck about it.

If they are wrong, or their experience is an aberration, then the truth will out online.

There are as many swooning raves on TripAdvisor as there are hatchet jobs.

A good manager realises that there is value, of sorts, in both.