Wrote a bad trip advisor review and the location responded with my full name and called me a liar. WIBU?

[Thefatedarrow]

I had a truly bad stay at a country house hotel in England over Christmas. I was charged £1500 a night for the stay, raised issues as they happened and nothing was resolved. I resorted to writing a trip advisor review when I got home where I gave 2 stars and gave the reasons why. I was not rude or offensive and I did not describe or name anyone in the post. Just talked about the venue and how vast amounts of it is still under construction, the extras they charged for that we were not aware of, the fact that dinner was booked up every night so we had to leave the venue to eat our meals.

my username on trip advisor is from an old gmail account, so it’s a nickname eg bubbles AT gmail.com and I post reviews eg as BubblesWales - ie unidentifiable.

in their response to my review on the site they wrote “dear my full name” - so they had obviously gone on to their records, looked at who stayed in the room and cross checked with the review timing.

they then proceeded to say I had lied about the events of the stay.

AIBU or is it wrong to NAME me in their response?

When I look at reviews of hotels / restaurants / car sales etc the main thing I tend to look at is the bad reviews but not necessarily for what the review says, more for how well the managers have responded to a bad review. If they have responded in the way you suggest I really wouldn't worry too much...they've made themselves look unprofessional and unable to react to criticism. Edit - agree they should never use your full name.

I think you can report it to TA?
I did once, wrote a review on a hotel in Cyprus, and they replied and said I'd acted racist to their staff. I never spoke to the staff. TA removed their comment even though I was not identifiable.

How they respond really does speak volumes in mitigating or worsening the effects on their business of bad reviews.

When they hold their hands up and respectfully apologise - and/or giving their own counterarguments if valid, but sticking politely to facts - that actually boosts them in most people's minds.

Bearing in mind that you get a lot of petty or vexatious customers, hoping to force them into giving a refund that possibly isn't fairly deserved; just as much as you get terrible businesses.

When they react rudely, try to shame/doxx you or give a clear copy-and-paste response - or no response at all - that just leaves them even worse off in most people's eyes than they already were with the bad review.

I agree that that is a huge amount to charge. They should be treating customers with kid gloves, however 'challenging' they may be, for that price.

It's ok. It costs £1500 per night so just stick to £450 per night hotels and you'll be fine.

someone has given you the ICO link above to complain. They are in so much trouble!! Think tens of thousands of £s in trouble. I would 100% complain to the ICO

That's a terrible thing op, is absolutely be making a formal beach of gdpr complaint... No company is allowed to use information which could be personally identifiable (so name or address etc) for any purpose other than that which it was provided to them for... And publishing it on a public website definitely doesn't qualify as that.

Let them deal with the complaint process and hopefully they'll be fined.

Take screen shots first though

Report to Trip Advisor and ask them to remove the name, the response or the whole thing. They might refuse, though I do think they'd do it when it's a guest rather than a member of staff.

This is an issue with those types of review sites, I've been named on reviews, as a member of staff, and it makes me really uncomfortable, even when it's positive. TA have always refused to even blank out the name. If you were my ex trying to find me, knew my general location and line of work, it wouldn't be hard to discover where I work.

Individuals names, anyone's should not be being published without express permission.

Screen shot it.

Report them. They are in big trouble.

🤷🏻‍♀️well her response was part of the overall customer service, so it made my initial poor customer experience go from bad to worse 😂

It depends whether you are called Jane Smith or Calliope Cuttlebuck. If you are called Jane Smith, I’d say just sod it. Are there lots of people with your name?

That attitude is so shitty, unless you have one set of clothing, live with no electronics, and eat basic brand foods. YOU make changes and donate the rest to charity! For goodness sake!

That’s terrible! I once posted a negative Trip Advisor review about a holiday cottage and they responded with the rudest, most aggressive post - but at least they didn’t post my name! But they didn’t exactly paint themselves in a positive light and the person who wrote it actually sounded a bit thick.

I actually think that Trip Advisor shouldn’t allow them to respond - that is the reviewer’s honest experience, whether they like it or not. Sure, maybe investigate people who continually post negative reviews and remove them if necessary.

I would be contacting Trip Advisor to at least get your name removed, even if they don’t do anything else.

It's absolutely not OK at all. I've been using TripAdvisor for ages, and while I appreciate a property owner/manager engaging with individual reviews,a response to a negative review should start with "sorry that happened; please contact us with more info here" and then maybe proceed to "we've tried to help but cannot verify your comments/experience and we think it's unlikely/an anomaly because ..." It makes me uncomfortable when I see a response that slates the reviewer without a history of attempting contact, and I avoid those places.

Launching straight in with "Dear Gwendoline Lacey" (or the equivalent) without any attempt to engage? Absolutely no way that is OK. It's an attempt at intimidation, not just of you but of anyone who might think of leaving a negative review. Please report it to the platform, if you can.

Very true. I always look on Trust Pilot before buying something expensive.

I had OP's experience on TrustPilot - the company I gave a mediocre review to also used my full name when writing a defamatory reply. I complained to TP who immediately removed their reply. I also complained to the company and received an apology from them, suggesting that the person who had replied to my review had gone "off piste" and would be retrained. 😂

YAWN!

YADNBU screenshot ASAP, take photos using another camera if you have any difficulty with screenshots. Capture the evidence of their GDPR breach now.
Do they publicise their data policy?

@Thefatedarrow YANBU. If you haven't done so already, contact TripAdvisor and have them remove your real name from the hotel's reply. If I were you, I would also write a complaint to the the hotel's General Manager and suggest some GDPR retraining is needed for whoever writes their review replies.

I’ve seen this done on review responses and also family details the reviewer did not disclose. It’s appalling and worth reporting to Tripadvisor.

To be honest, at £1,500 per night, most of us will be avoiding it anyway! 😂

Also report it to trip advisor. They don't want that to happen each time as no one would review. They might delete the hotels response.

Was this hotel in the Cotswolds, think I may have been there!

Totally agree. Whenever I read less unprofessional replies from hotels/restaurants/retailers, I always think I'd never give them my business.

Long term and regular tripadvisor reviewer here. This is illegal - they’ve massively breached GDPR and suggests they know they’re fucking rubbish. Report them to tripadvisor and the ICO. The response will be removed and they may be sanctioned.

Screenshot. Then report to TripAdvisor making them aware of their obligation to report the hotel https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/law-enforcement/guide-to-le-processing/personal-data-breaches/

Then report the hotel too.