Meriton 'misled and deceived' by blocking customers' bad reviews

Status
Not open for further replies.

Strategic Aviation

Established Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2017
Posts
1,385
Meriton 'misled and deceived' by blocking customers' bad reviews: court - Sydney Morning Herald

When the major accommodation provider suspected many of its guests would write bad reviews on TripAdvisor, Meriton's staff stopped their customers' email addresses from being shared with the popular travel review website.

In the first case of its kind, the Federal Court has found Meriton "engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct" between November 2014 and October 2015 by supplying incorrect contact details for guests to the review site, or by withholding them.

"This was a deliberate and systematic process of masking or blocking email addresses from TripAdvisor in order to stop TripAdvisor being able to contact those guests and ask them for reviews," ACCC Commissioner Sarah Court told Fairfax Media on Friday.

"The judge also said that if you look at the scale and frequency of this practice ... the effect it had was substantial."

The judgment also referred to internal emails which, in one case, showed staff had asked a guest to remove a one-star rating from TripAdvisor in return for a full refund.

Ms Court said the ACCC had dealt with smaller companies posting fake or misleading online reviews, but the Meriton case was the first of its kind dealing with a major operator.
 
I saw a similar article a while back that was specific to Sydney. I must say that I have stayed at quite a few Meriton establishments & have had some great stays. I book direct & I think I have received post stay emails that encourage me to review-my reviews have been published with any criticisms but then again I haven't stayed at times when there were widespread hassles
 
I do think this sets a good precedent. I've had a number of experiences where a place with good reviews has turned out to be terrible. On closer investigation I suspected that many of the Tripadvisor reviews were written by hotel staff members/management.
 
The Frequent Flyer Concierge team takes the hard work out of finding reward seat availability. Using their expert knowledge and specialised tools, they'll help you book a great trip that maximises the value for your points.

AFF Supporters can remove this and all advertisements

No surprise as they do say 'rot starts at the top'.

The ICAC in a 1990s investigation into 'goings on' at Randwick CC devoted some pages to Meriton and the work they did at better than 'mates' rates. Seems the Govt of the day declined to take it any further.

VERY VERY good reading. The ICAC report can be obtained by contacting them directly as they take them off the web site after 10 years. Or even more easily - just PM me with your email address and I'll email it to you.

Co-incidentally Meriton is consistently one of the largest donors to both sides of politics.
 
Meriton have been a crooky company for many years, so I am so not surprised about this!
 
I am a frequent Meriton guest and have never had an issue. Certainly nothing that would warrant a negative review. So far this year I have stayed in their properties on 9 occasions.

To that end, I've never published a positive review online either...
 
While I agree Meriton has had some interesting behaviours in the past,

I'd equally think getting what would likely be a huge number of very negative reviews over a period that isn't exactly representative (water/lifts out of action) and might also skew the ratings.

That said generally not forwarding on emails of say a guest who has complained about an issue during a normal stay would definitely be tainting the pot
 
Very good to see the Federal Court punishing companies for mucking around with online reviews!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top