Advertisement

Our approach to fraud penalties

Increased transparency around fraud penalties

Tripadvisor is the leading source of global travel guidance – we enable travellers to share their genuine experiences with their fellow travellers. We take any attempt to manipulate guidance shared with travellers very seriously and will apply penalties to every accommodation, restaurant and experience involved in these misleading tactics. Tripadvisor utilises ranking penalties, notification badges, member bans and other types of penalties to address violations of our submission guidelines. These measures help us to ensure a fair platform for all businesses listed on our site. Following an evaluation of our system and in consideration of feedback from our community, we have taken steps to clarify and simplify how our penalties work.

What exactly is changing?

Our new approach enables us to provide owners insight into the exact date a penalty will start and end. We expect this increased transparency to be a welcome update for business owners. The specific changes being put into place are:

  • A review submitted to Tripadvisor which violates our guidelines will result in a corresponding penalty lasting 365 days, beginning on the date of removal.

  • The penalty will decrease incrementally each day until it terminates on day 366 and the listing’s ranking is no longer affected by that penalty.

  • If multiple fraudulent reviews are submitted across different days, each of those reviews will have their own 365-day count. Such violations will have a cumulative and overlapping effect on the listing's ranking.

Ultimately, what does this mean for businesses listed on Tripadvisor?

This change ensures transparency and establishes a clear, comprehensible path to recovering from fraud violations. As always, if a business wishes to expedite the process of reducing or potentially eliminating penalties, our support agents are available to discuss these matters. Simply follow the steps found in the letter that was issued to your business notifying you that penalties were being implemented.