Iona Napier
A FRUSTRATED expat is battling TripAdvisor after the unexplained loss of her best reviews bumped her business out of its status as a top Marbella eatery.
Belgian mother-of-three Eveline Taelemans’ well-established restaurant, Terraza Aguadulce, used to be Puerto Banus’ second best restaurant according to the world’s largest travel site.
But after she questioned a negative post from a brand new user pitting her against her competitor, the website deleted 17 of her best reviews, relegating the business to number 18.
TripAdvisor claimed the reviews were ‘suspicious’, while leaving the bad review – and just 24 remaining positive ones – intact.
The restaurateur was especially bemused given that Terrazzo Aguadulce had celebrated its best season ever.
“People need to know that TripAdvisor is completely, 100% manipulated,” said an irate Taelemans, 39.
“I dare them to contact each of those 17 reviewers whose posts they deleted and check for real whether they ever visited by business and were happy there.
“When I asked TripAdvisor for further investigation they just cut me off and it is very upsetting.”
Taelemans moved to Puerto Banus from Antwerp with her husband 15 years ago and has been running Terraza Aguadulce for 13 of them.
The reviews mysteriously disappeared a week ago and have shunted her international restaurant down the list in one of the most strategic moments of the tourist season.
TripAdvisor has so far failed to respond to Olive Press questions.
Great article ! I think people nowadays are smart enough to realise that anyone can just go online and write whatever they want, whether good or bad. If people have a genuine complaint, we always try to solve it at that right given moment, but competitors writing ‘ the worst we have ever been to, the most horrible experience ever etc etc and then are stupid enough to put up a glowing review on themselves, hiding under a poorly chosen alias, is outright dumb. We luckily haven’t suffered over this, on the contrary, we have had one of our best summer seasons ever, so thanks to the Olive Press and thanks to all of our loyal happy customers. We work very hard to keep you satisfied and will be continuing to do so.
Also known as TripeAdvisor.