That is nice to hear. Unfortunately, the ones I've happened to have seen have usually not been that way but I'm glad that the site encourages professional responses to both positive and negative reviews. In my case, upon pointing out a strong sewer scent in a review, I was told I might want to clean my sewer hose.... Not exactly owning up to the problem, but hopefully an outlier! I will say I have made the choice not to stay at certain parks after reading certain owner responses. However, I'd be more inclined to stay if I saw them responding with appreciation for positive reviews. That would be a sign that they are listening and trying to improve. Thanks for the response!
I know this is an old thread but I think what I write relates. I just read an interesting news story. Owners can bite back. I'm sure most of us write fair and accurate reviews. There are some of us use a review to "get back" at a perceived slight though. It appears that there are tools available to companies and corporations that become unfairly targeted.....at least in the US. Here in Canada....not so much. But help may be on the way. http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/go-public-online-reviews-lawsuit-backlash-1.4369246 I am one of those folks that look for poor reviews. Mostly, I'm interested to know why people complain and then use that information to enhance my ability to deal with customers. Secondly, I have learned these reviews are usually entertaining. Almost always there is a personal grudge. I didn't get my way therefor you are going to pay. I have encountered customers that engineer a complaint in order to get a freebee or a reduction in the cost of the product or service. I think large corporations have allowed this to grow because it's less expensive to "pay out" to the small percentage of whiners rather than allow their expensively advertised image to take a hit. Eventually, a point has to be reached where the scale no longer balances and they will have to fight back. Further, the practice is unfair because the rest of us consumers end up paying the bill. I have allowed myself to rely on reviews for most things that I spend money on a lot more than by listening to ads. It would be nice to know that what we read is accurate. People need to become accountable. It's too bad that laws have to be enacted to make this happen though. Darrell
Well said BC Wanderer, good points made. I know in a couple of instances where we have run into a rude or incompetent owner or manager, those traits somehow seem to trickle down to most of the other folks working there. The old "lead by example" thing going on. Those are the parks and/or campgrounds we tend to not go back to. When a rude or incompetent employee gives us a bad impression up front we will usually go the owner or manager and let him or her know what we are feeling, etc. If they make things good then for sure we will be back. So many things have to take place in any business to make it a success, and yet even when that's all in order then there's the consumers/customers that have their set of problems in knowing how to get along with others and how to handle a situation that may not be to their liking without storming into the office with fists clenched and ready to rip someone a new you know what. Thankfully all this we are discussing here is in that one to two percent area and I doubt that will ever change simply due to the "nature of our breed". And possibly our breeding also....... We've become pretty good at scrutinizing and evaluating where we stay now and we find the reviews on RVPR really valuable overall. We still stumble on rare occasions and find ourselves in a park that is nothing like what the website and reviews show it to be but we have also learned that perhaps our not liking of a given park may just be due to "ours truly"...... The other's Ritz Carlton being our Motel 6 happening. And as the younger generation would say, "That be our bad"........ Safe and happy travels to all, BankShot............(aka Terry)
Hi Jimbob, My wife and I always read reviews online for accommodations. We read the really good reviews and the really poor reviews and know that the truth is always somewhere in-between. We also rad what they are complaining about. Bad weather? Sorry can't do anything about that. Poor maintenance? that you may be able to do something about. Our only concern is a really long string of negative reviews over time.
Hey JimBob: Yes, this is ages old, but I thought I'd chime in about reviews. My husband is an author who publishes exclusively online with Amazon (he also publishes paperbacks, too - but only on a "print on demand" basis.) You can imagine he gets reviews! I agree with someone who said that responding often is worse than just reading them, shaking your head or groaning, then moving on. Next! Bob has been tempted once or twice to respond but he has a fairly cool head and backed down. The vast, vast majority of his reviews are 4 and 5-star reviews, so the occasional 1-star review actually helps him. Why? If there's NOTHING but fabulous reviews, this smacks of paid reviews. This is a big thing on Amazon, so people do not trust 100% amazing reviews. I know this is not a big concern, but "fraudulent" reviews can happen. Now we are aware that there have been some "torpedo" reviews on Bob's books - usually another author who hasn't even read the book will have a friend buy the book, then return it and post a negative review. Amazon is working hard to root out these type of torpedos, and Bob has challenged a few reviews - to their credit, Amazon has removed a few pretty obvious ones, but has also allowed others. There is a famous story about an author who got a few bad reviews and he felt he needed to "educate" the reviewers and the result was a long rant back and forth over the merits of the author's work. Let's just say that the author lost out entirely in this exchange! He came off as petty and nasty, and he managed to lose his readership entirely. Anyway - read a lousy review with a huge grain of salt. I think it would be good for you to be able to challenge what you believe is a completely fraudulent review, and I think review sites should consider the merits and maybe remove those. But one thing is this - it may say a lot more about the reviewer than about you in any event.
