Kenneth Seaton is suing TripAdvisor over its Grand Hotel ranking
Seaton filed the suit in Sevier County Circuit Court, calling for a jury to hear the case in which he is seeking compensatory and punitive damages of $5 million each.
The Grand Hotel came out on top when TripAdvisor posted its list of the dirtiest hotels in America in January, a ranking derived from the reviews provided by the website's registered users.
In the lawsuit, Seaton's attorneys, John Rogers and Sidney Gilreath, seem to argue the ranking is because the site uses "a rating system which is flawed and inconsistent and distorts actual performance and perspective." It also suggests some sort of ill intent in the list's compilation.
"(TripAdvisor) published its allegations combining and confederating together with others by maliciously and wrongfully contriving, designing and intending to cause respected customers to lose confidence in the (Grand Resort) and to cause the public to cease and refrain from doing business with the (Grand) and to cause great injury and irreparable damage to and to destroy the (Grand's) business and reputation by false and misleading means," reads a portion of the lawsuit.
It goes on to recount how the TripAdvisor report was picked up by several news outlets.
"(Grand Resort) alleges that the defendant TripAdvisor has singled out (Grand Resort) and directly advised customers not to trust them," the filing continues.
The attorneys argue the Grand has lost "the confidence of the persons, firms and corporations" that have used its accomodations in the past because of the survey, meaning those guests might not return.
Gilreath did not return a phone message Tuesday seeking comment on the suit.
TripAdvisor spokeswoman Amelie Hurst declined to discuss the matter.
"TripAdvisor does not comment on threatened or pending litigation," she said.
Among those offering opinions on the site — which bills itself as the largest travel portal in the world — 87 percent said they would not recommend the Grand Hotel property to others.
"I do not recommend this hotel to anyone. There are too many options in this area. I will not visit them again ever," wrote one person who billed the property the "worst hotel I've ever stayed at."
There are pages of similar reviews, interspersed with a few positive ones, with the hotel only managing 46 reviews at "average" or better, while 29 people deemed it "poor" and 206 called it "terrible." On the site's one-to-five rating system, the property manages only about a 1.5 and apparenrly is one of TripAdvisor's lowest-ranked properties in the area.
Seaton has run into financial and legal troubles in recent years, with many of his properties auctioned off or sold and female employees claiming sexual harassment. Even the Grand itself has come under new management, though Seaton still owns it, with that group promising when the list came out it was working to improve conditions at the hotel.
• dhodges@themountainpress.com
The problem with TA is the fact that they allow people to post anything they wish whether it is even relevant to their Hotel Stay or not. There are instances of people calling Managers and Desk Clerks names as well as posts that anyone can tell are blatant lies. Trip Advisor does not verify any of the information placed on their site nor do they even verify that someone actually stayed at a specific property. I know one Hotel right now that has reviews from another property sharing a similar name that TA refuses to remove.
The part most people take for granted is that typically when someone takes the time to log onto the internet and seek out a forum to express their opinions about a Hotel or Service they do so seeking some type of revenge. The majority of the people who logged onto TA to "rate" The Grand and other Hotels in the area are usually logging on after some form of dispute that they have had with the hotel. I can speak from experience that most of the time these people are just trying to start trouble.
Last year we had a couple stay in one of our properties. They checked in at 4pm and around 10:30pm they came down to the front desk and started a dispute with our Desk Clerk. They claimed to not have been in the room but instead were at Dollywood and had just checked in. Per our Policy they clerk locked the lobby and went to the room to check it before allowing the family to check out. All the towels and Linens had been used and one bed had been slept in. My desk clerk called me from the desk and explained the situation and I instructed him to not refund them any money as they had used our room. We have Video and Audio surveillance so when I arrived the next morning and checked the tapes the incident occurred as the clerk explained. A few days later a post appeared on TA claiming the guests had checked in and right back out and our property had charged them and that our Hotel was Nasty and we had bed bugs. The family's rants and raves went on for several pages. I personally contacted TA and offered them to review the tapes of the guests. The only complaint they had was there were only 2 beds in the room. The post still exists today even though TA was offered solid evidence that the statements were false.
Situation like above happen all the time on the TripAdvisor website. Until the company can do a better job moderating and controlling erroneous postings and obvious flaming of Hotels in the area I believe they should be held liable for damages they cause.
On a side note KMS would do good to review their "No Refunds" policy which I would suspect is the cause of at least 50% of it's bad reviews.
It is when they as a business names a property as the dirtiest in the country based on unsubstantiated claims that they should be held accountable.
Most people who frequent Trip Advisor have learned that the way to get a free stay is to threaten the business with a post about bed bugs if they don't get a what they want. How does a business defend against that since Trip Advisor refuses to remove those posts even with proof from an exterminator that the accusation is false? If you see a busioness accused of that but denying it, would you atay there??
Customers have learned to use Trip Advisor as blackmail and pure extortion and unfortunately owners have nowhere to turn.
You mean, just like the Mountain Press' comment sections? Can't sue MP for things that we say here.
Yes, many review sites (Trip Advisor, Yelp, etc.) can all be manipulated by a business or a competitor. You have to be careful.
Trip Advisor makes you click a box that you aren't making a fake review and their T&C is very clear that they aren't responsible for fake information, but anybody can click a box, eh?
There is also a mechanism where you can report an existing review for being fake or incorrect. Now, whether TA responds fast enough, etc. is another question.