By Heather Bayer –Dissatisfied after TripAdvisor ignored their letter asking for issues to be fixed, more than 100 vacation rental companies will meet in New Orleans to discuss an action plan.
More than 100 vacation rental companies representing over 15,000 individual vacation rental properties around the world will meet on October 25th at 4:00 in New Orleans to discuss joint actions to be taken against the Boston-based online reservation company TripAdvisor (TRIP).
“This year, our sales through TripAdvisor listings have dropped by more than 50%, and to top things off, their website randomly deleted more than 100 customer reviews of my properties,” said Alfonso Vergara, owner of AYP Rentals. “What’s really frightening is that I’m not alone. More than 100 other major TripAdvisor clients are having similar experiences.”
Vergara and other vacation rental property owners and managers made plans to meet after TripAdvisor’s senior management ignored an August 15th letter sent to the company. The letter outlined major problem areas within the TripAdvisor website that are creating significant problems for TripAdvisor’s clients, resulting in lost revenue, missed business opportunities and customer dissatisfaction, including:
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Major internal technical issues at TripAdvisor are causing inaccurate price listings that are damaging for property managers and vacationing guests alike.
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There does not appear to be a systematic process for accessing technical support. Property managers asked TripAdvisor for a transparent support ticketing system that allowed for the entry, tracking and timely follow-up of requests to address problems.
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Extensive staff turnover at TripAdvisor has resulted in inconsistent support, unfamiliarity with important issues, and overall poor customer service.
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Lack of consistent pricing and customer review policies resulting in unfair and inequitable treatment of vacation managers vs. rent-by-owners.
“The first step toward solving a problem is acknowledging that there is one. Unfortunately, TripAdvisor either doesn’t care, or is so disorganized they don’t realize the magnitude of the issues we’re dealing with. But, if they won’t work with us, we are going to pull off our properties,” said Joyce Thomas, general manager of a property management company in Solana Beach, California. “I’ve never experienced such disregard toward a major segment of a company’s customer base.”
Property Managers interested in attending this can join by clicking on this link
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We have several properies listed on TripAdvisorFlipKey. We have been extremely dissatisfied with their service and the amount of bookings that we get through them. We believe that their pricing to the guest is so high that the bookings are just not coming in.
Thank you, Laura