TripAdvisor Sexual Assault Controversy: 5 Reviews Detailing Harassment On Booking Site

TripAdvisor — one of the leading travel and hotel review websites in the world, has become the center of controversy after it admitted to deleting a user’s post reporting rape at a resort in Mexico. Kristie Love had stated in the review that she had been raped by the hotel security guard of the Iberostar Paraiso Maya beach resort in Mexico.

She also had been stopped from calling the police. Her story was published on Wednesday as part of an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel into repeated instances of the website deleting such reviews. Love had told the Journal that her post was deleted for not being "family friendly."

While the alleged rape took place in 2010, the post was republished in October on TripAdvisor’s website but dated chronologically so that it appeared on the website’s 2608th page.

The company then admitted its fault regarding the issue and submitted its apology regarding the matter.

"We apologize to the sexual assault victim reported on in the article, who had her forum post removed seven years ago on TripAdvisor. At the time, we had a policy whereby we judged content to be in breach of our guidelines if it did not adhere to family-friendly language. More than seven years ago that meant all language needed to be G-rated. A few years ago, we changed that policy to allow more descriptive reviews on the site about first-hand accounts of serious incidents like rape or assault. We recognized then that our previous guidelines went too far in preventing information like this from being shared," the company said in its apology.

Reviews mentioning rape or sexual assault are available on the website. Here are five of them:

Attempted Rape

A user reported attempted rape in her review of the Hotel California in Positano, Italy, published on June 2, 2013. She said her room was broken into, while her 19-year-old daughter was in the shower. Her daughter saw a man’s face through the shower, started screaming and ran into the hallway, through her room door, which was wide open. When the hotel was informed of the incident, they denied that it could be a staff member and stated that such an incident hasn’t taken place ever at the hotel.

Sexual Assault

On Jan. 28, 2014, a user reported sexual assault at the Milkman Guesthouse in Rajasthan, India in her review of the guesthouse. The user stated that she was forcefully kissed by a member of the hotel staff and was filmed sleeping and dressing. Instead of helping her out, the hotel manager chose to blame her for the sexual assault.

A home of sexual assault?

A user reported sexual assault in February 2016 in her review of her stay, at the Vrindavanam Heritage Home in Alappuzha, India, published on March 4, 2016, She stated that that the cook crept into her room at 1 a.m. and tried to give her a "sexy massage" and that she had to physically remove him from her room.

The manager in this case too blamed the alleged victim according to her review. She called it "a place that harbors sexual pests."

Sexual Assault and harassment central

A user reported in a review published on March 20, 2016, that she was assaulted at Medina of Marrakesh market in Morocco. She said that she was assaulted despite taking the precautions generally prescribed to women like wearing full-length clothing or being with a group of people.

She went to the tourist police, but was asked to bring back her attacker, which she couldn’t.

Sexual assault by staff

A user reported in a review of the Temptation Cancun Resort, Mexico, published on May 17, 2016, that one of her friends was sexually assaulted by one of the staff members of the resort.

The manager of the hotel cited lack of proof for doing nothing to help the alleged victim.

Following the controversy, TripAdvisor is now considering a badge system to warn users of unsafe places to stay.