Meriton Property Services - one of Australia's largest apartment developers and serviced apartment operators – was fined A$3 million (US$2.2m) by the Federal Court for preventing customers from leaving potentially negative reviews on the online travel site.
An Australian serviced apartment operator has been heavily fined after ‘masking’ bad reviews on TripAdvisor.
Meriton Property Services - one of Australia's largest apartment developers and serviced apartment operators – was fined A$3 million (US$2.2m) by the Federal Court for preventing customers from leaving potentially negative reviews on the online travel site.
The hotel group is owned by one of Australia's richest men, Harry Triguboff.
The Federal Court called Meriton’s actions misleading and deceptive between November 2014 and October 2015.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) commissioner Sarah Court said Meriton's management directed staff to engage in 'masking' to stop potentially negative reviews from appearing on TripAdvisor.
"This gave the impression Meriton accommodation was of a higher standard than otherwise may have been the case," she said.
TripAdvisor offers a service called ‘Review Express’. Participating accommodation providers provide TripAdvisor with email addresses of recent customers who have consented to their details being passed on. TripAdvisor then emails the customers, prompting them to submit a review of their recent experience with that business.
TripAdvisor states that accommodation providers that regularly use the ‘Review Express’ service see an increase in TripAdvisor reviews for their properties of 28 to 33%.
The process of "masking" involved Meriton's staff inserting additional letters ("MAS", which stands for Meriton Serviced Apartments) in front of certain guests' email addresses - particularly if they had complained, or were likely to leave a negative review online.
This led to TripAdvisor receiving incorrect guest email addresses so its emails to customers, prompting them to leave reviews of the hotel, would bounce back.
"People often make purchasing decisions for accommodation based on the rankings and reviews they read on third party sites like TripAdvisor," Court said.
"Manipulating these reviews is misleading to potential customers, who deserve the full picture when making a booking decision.
“This case sends a strong message that businesses can expect ACCC enforcement action if they’re caught manipulating feedback on third party review websites,” Court added.