Content Fraud FAQ for Business Owners


Absolutely! It's a great idea to ask guests to review your property. It shows that you care about their feedback and improving your business.

You can use the resources in the Management Centre to remind guests to write reviews. Log in and click the “Reviews” tab in the menu, then select "Review Express" to email recent visitors to request a review on TripAdvisor. You must be a registered owner to access your property's Management Centre page. To register, go to tripadvisor.co.uk/Owners and follow the instructions.

Just keep in mind that you can't offer guests any incentives for writing a review. We also recommend that guests submit their reviews once they've return home, from their own PC or mobile devices.


We can share with you the nature of the violation that led to a fraud penalty, but due to privacy requirements we cannot discuss the specific details of the case.

We highly recommend that you familiarise yourself with Tripadvisor's definition of fraud and speak with your staff and marketing partners about their activity on Tripadvisor. If you discover information that may explain your situation, please contact us through the Management Centre and provide us with details.


If you received this email it is because our content integrity team has detected some suspicious activity on your account. At this stage it is just a warning, and it is a very good idea to remind ALL of your staff (reception, F&B, maintenance, cleaning, managers, contractors etc.) of our fraud guidelines.

You should also proactively contact the content integrity team to advise them of the steps you have taken in order to prevent any penalty being applied to your hotel. Instructions on how to do this will be included in the "Official Notification from Tripadvisor" email.


Visitors to Tripadvisor have the expectation that the site will provide them with unbiased reviews and content for accommodations, attractions, restaurants and other venues. Travellers who wish to share their personal experiences with the Tripadvisor community provide this content.

Tripadvisor is committed to ensuring the integrity of the content it collects and provides to its global community of travellers and businesses.

Any attempts to mislead, influence or impersonate a traveller is considered fraudulent, and is subject to penalties. This may include but is not limited to:

Attempts by an owner or agent of a property to boost the reputation of a business by:

  • Writing a review for their own business, or for any property the reviewing party owns, manages, or has a financial interest in.

  • Utilising any paid review company, or third party to submit reviews.

  • Impersonating a competitor or a guest.

  • Offering incentives in exchange for reviews, including discounts, upgrades or any special treatment.

  • Asking friends or relatives to write positive reviews.

  • Submitting reviews on behalf of guests.

  • Copying comment cards and submitting them as traveller reviews.

  • Selectively soliciting reviews (by e-mail, surveys or any other means) only from guests who have had a positive experience.

  • Pressuring travellers to remove a negative review on Tripadvisor.

  • Providing incentives to reward employees for encouraging reviews (e.g. a bonus for being mentioned in a review or a contest for the highest number of reviews acheived within a certain timeframe).

  • Asking guests to remove their reviews in return for a discount or incentive.

  • Prohibiting or discouraging guests from posting negative or critical reviews of their experience.

Attempts to damage competitors by submitting a negative review:

  • Owners and agents of owners should NOT write reviews of direct competitors, even if they are relaying a genuine experience.


To report any potentially biased content, please click the "Report problem with review" flag located at the bottom of each review posted. Once reported, we will research the complaint within 48 hours, and apply any necessary penalties. Please include in your report any information that you feel may help us understand the situation. We appreciate the help from our tremendous community of loyal members.


The Tripadvisor Popularity Index incorporates traveller ratings to determine overall traveller satisfaction. Unlike sites that simply rank a hotel by price or hotel class, we use a proprietary algorithm to take into account what travellers like you think – quantity, quality and recency of Tripadvisor reviews.

How do you know if a hotel is right for you? The room price may fit your budget, but are the rooms clean? Is the location safe? How is the service? The Popularity Index helps you answer questions like these easily and leads you to the best accommodation for your trip.

When you do a search, hotels are ranked by quality as calculated by our Popularity Index. This ensures that you will always be looking at a fresh and unbiased view of the best hotels.

Our ratings are:

  • Pure: Completely organic. No paid results influence rankings.

  • Fresh: Constantly incorporate new information.

  • Global: Reflect reviews from around the world.

  • Unbiased: Based on the good and the bad!