Before we started our travel blog, TripAdvisor was how I let others know about our travel experiences. I didn’t write about everywhere we went but if somewhere was exceedingly great or absolutely terrible, I’d post a review. I particularly tried to write reviews for smaller places that wouldn’t get publicity otherwise, so many of my posts were for local restaurants, tour guides, or bed and breakfasts.
But then we started Your Mileage May Vary in early 2017 and anything I’d normally write on TripAdvisor got posted on our blog instead.
After nearly 5 years, I’d pretty much forgotten about my posts there until recently, when TripAdvisor notified me that they deleted one of my reviews. That’s why I paid extra attention when I received another email from them:
This was a little confusing, since although we had visited Willamette Valley in 2015, we didn’t stay at this location.
The body of the email made me even more suspicious:
At this point, I figured that either TripAdvisor was drunker than Andy Cohen on New Year’s Eve or this was some sort of scam. Whichever, there was no way I was clicking on the link in the email:
At this point, Sharon asked me to send her the email. I’ll let her continue from here:
Hi y’all! So, I am kind of the self-proclaimed Queen Of The Google. I mean, I once Googled enough to discover that the grandfather of one person I knew had been the college professor of the father-in-law of someone else I knew (they also knew each other, albeit only casually. Long story).
Anyway, so I warmed up my Google-fu. This is what I discovered:
First, it appears that the email address, <reviews@mp1.tripadvisor.com>, was legit, as per WhoisXMLAPI (<–this link goes to TripAdvisor domain info). So I wasn’t QUITE so worried about clicking on any links…but I still didn’t, just in case 😉
So then I started trying to get info about the reply TripAdvisor said Joe had gotten.
I discovered that this Rosanna Conti woman is indeed a real person and is even the Direttore generale of a hotel in Italy. The thing is, according to LinkedIn, she’s never worked at the Hotel dei Platani, like TripAdvisor’s email suggested. However she IS currently the General Manager of the Grand Hotel Savoia Cortina d’Ampezzo a Radisson Collection Hotel.
Not surprisingly, that hotel is also on TripAdvisor. So I started looking at their reviews, and what did I find, but this recent review from MarcoN85, with a reply from Rosanna Conti that was THE EXACT RESPONSE TRIPADVISOR SENT TO JOE:
Translation of MarcoN85:
I was able to share a coffee with friends on this beautiful terrace.
The location allows you to enjoy the beautiful view of the Dolomites.
Excellent experience, adequate service to the structure; the manager has spoiled us on every occasion.
Translation of Rosanna Conti:
Dear Marco thank you. the terrace will represent a point of reference in the future and we hope to welcome all our guests with serenity and with the sole desire to savor moments of relaxation.
a warm greeting see you soon.
So TripAdvisor said Joe got a reply from a hotel with one name, then mentioned a hotel with another name, while the email was about a hotel with a third name, about a review he never wrote. And it was from a legit source.
Y’all, that was just WEIRD.
Back to Joe…
Joe here! I went to the TripAdvisor website and checked my account. I found a response to my review of The Setting Inn, which informed me of a name change and property improvements.
So the title of the email was correct and the automated system mixed up and loaded the wrong information about the comment.
Once I figured out that this was just a glitch and not a scam, I found the mix up to be quite funny.
I wonder if MarcoN85 received a message telling him about his stay in Oregon Wine Country?
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