Kwikchex will represent 800 hotels against TripAdvisor over "defamatory" reviews / screengrab

A list of thousands of reviewers suspected of false and defamatory posts is due to be published by UK-based online reputation management company Kwikchex, who will act on behalf of 800 hotels and restaurants.

Those on the list will be given two weeks to provide evidence of their stay or to support their comments on review sites such as TripAdvisor. If they can’t they could face legal action.

Lawyer Robert Todd from Blake Dawson said anyone in Australia posting false or exaggerated reviews could also be sued - with legal penalties ranging into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“It is highly influential in terms of buying decisions by consumers and whilst many of the reviews on their site provide a good guide, there are several elements within the TripAdvisor operating procedures that are questionable,” Kwikchex website says.

The company told the UK’s Mail Online they plan to apply for a court application that would force the website publisher to disclose any information held regarding the identity of the reviewer so that the business could ‘repair the damage done to its reputation’.

“It seems strange that people would put up completely false reviews,” Mr Todd said. “But if they had they could face some difficulties. 

“If you put up a false review - one that’s not based on your stay at the hotel and reporting what factually happened to you - there is the potential to be sued.”

Kwikchex said reviewers who can prove that they have contacted TripAdvisor to remove their comments, without success, will be exempt from prosecution.

Kwikchex’s website says: “Emails sent by TripAdvisor to members, advising, ‘Don’t go there - hotel horror stories’ grossly misrepresented the status and standards of some businesses and was at odds with their own members opinions.”

They said there are “over 1100 results on TripAdvisor, many alleging physical and sexual abuse against managers and owners that wish to clear their names in a court of law, but who have up until now, been prevented from doing so.”

A spokesman for TripAdvisor told Mail Online the website would only release the names of its reviewers if ordered to do so by a court of law.

Mr Todd said it is not enough for reviewers to state an experience was no good. They also need to include the facts backing it up - like the check-in was slow or the beds had bedbugs.

“I would suggest that a person sets out all the facts and then says (something like) ‘I think this is not the best value’,” Mr Todd said.

While it is possible to be sued wherever in the world the review is read, in Australia a corporation with more than 10 employees is unable to sue.

Hotels accused of reporting fake reviews

Good Hotel Guide editor Adam Raphael said on Kwikchex’s website that TripAdvisor is 'brazen and shameless' in printing malicious reviews without checking their authenticity.

He said his publication had been besieged by hoteliers complaining about “fraudulent reviews” and “bogus reviewers” on TripAdvisor.

“Millions of consumers are also beginning to realise that they have been gulled by bogus reviewers,’ he said.

Mr Raphael also accused many hotels of massaging their TripAdvisor profile by inspiring reviews which “pretend to be independent, but are being written by friends, relations and public relations companies”.

In the case of a fake review from a hotel puffing its own product the issue in Australia is one of trade practices.

Although terms like “Sydney’s best hotel” are highly subjective a hotel could be challenged under misleading and deceptive conduct.

“Saying every room comes with air-conditioning when they don’t, or only 10 out of 20 had it, would be misleading,” Mr Todd said.

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