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The mystery ‘ratings’ technique behind global online review site TripAdvisor were front and centre of a dispute between the consumer watchdog and Meriton Serviced Apartments being played out in the Federal Court on Monday.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleges Meriton Property Services Pty Ltd participated in misleading conduct by preventing guests from posting negative reviews of their experiences while staying in apartments in NSW and Queensland.
The court heard on Monday that front desk staff in several Meriton serviced apartment buildings were trained to ascertain whether departing guests had enjoyed their stay, and, if so, to send a TripAdvisor “review express” email allowing them to leave an online review.
TripAdvisor allows users to give hotels a rating out of five stars, as well provide a description of their stay.
For three hours, a US marketing expert from Northwestern University in Chicago was grilled on the stand about the finer details of online reviews, how they influenced customers’ decision making and how TripAdvisor determined the overall rating of a hotel.
The TripAdvisor ‘ratings’ algorithm was described by Norman O’Bryan, SC, as mysterious as “the recipe for Colonel Sanders’ Kentucky Fried Chicken”.
Mr O’Bryan said in his opening address that if Meriton staff believed the guests were unhappy with their experience, they were told to add the letters MSA to guests’ email addresses to “mask” them.
On one occasion, an internal email asked front desk staff whether a customer had “appeared visibly annoyed”.
When email addresses were doctored, they were rendered invalid, Mr O’Bryan said, which meant a guest who may have been unhappy with their experience would never receive an invitation to review the serviced apartments.
It is alleged that the letters “MSA” were added to the email addresses of guests who either complained to the front desk or had experienced service failures.
On one occasion, the hotel manager at Meriton Apartments in Broadbeach suggested that “please review” emails not be sent to guests staying at the same time the lifts had broken down for 45 minutes on a Saturday afternoon.
The hearing continues before Justice Moshinsky on Tuesday. Meriton is yet to commence its defence.