Woman Who Reported Mexico Resort Rape On TripAdvisor: 'I've Yet To Hear A Word'

One of the women who had posted that she was sexually assaulted at a Mexican resort on travel website TripAdvisor said Saturday that the company had not issued an apology to her for deleting her posts, despite the website's claims.

Kristie Love claims to have reported a rape on TripAdvisor's site in 2010 following her vacation at Iberostar Paraiso Maya, an all-inclusive resort in the coastal town of Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Love alleged that a hotel security guard dragged her into the bushes and sexually assaulted her.

TripAdvisor has been the subject of widespread criticism this week for removing reviews that detailed serious assault claims by tourists visiting Mexico after a lengthy investigation that began in July by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The report noted that “more than a dozen travelers from across the country have said TripAdvisor muzzled their first-hand stories of blackouts, rapes, and other ways they were injured while vacationing in Mexico.”

TripAdvisor's CEO Steve Kaufer addressed Love's seven-year-old accusations, which were reported by the Journal Sentinel and CBS News. He admitted that the company deleted Love's original post because it didn't fall in line with TripAdvisor's "family-friendly guideline."

"When we were made aware that this user's post had been removed, we republished it in line with our current policy and have apologized to the victim for her experience," Kaufer wrote in a Nov. 3 LinkedIn post. "We are horrified that this victim and others who have posted or tried to post on our site have experienced assaults on their vacations, and other travelers should be aware of these incidents."

Love responded that she did not receive a personal apology and didn't "hear a word" from a representative of the travel website since coming forward with her story.

"WHAT APOLOGY? I've yet to hear a word from TripAdvisor, and certainly not an apology," Love wrote in the comments section of Kaufer's post. "In fact, when I went to repost the original post on TA in response to the article, my post was again DELETED! I HAD TO POST IT A SECOND TIME!"

Love added: "The only thing I have heard or read from TripAdvisor is EXACTLY that of the rest of the public."

At least two other women have come forward with assault allegations against the same resort.

"We apologize to the sexual assault victim reported on in the article, who had her forum post removed seven years ago on TripAdvisor," TripAdvisor said in a Nov. 1 statement. "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," the statement said.

On Tuesday, TripAdvisor introduced a new feature to its website to aid in flagging sexual assault reports from users. The message, which is called a "badge," has been placed on the pages of three Mexico-based resorts, including the Grand Velas Riviera Maya, the Iberostar Paraiso Lindo and the Iberostar Paraiso Maya.

Affected businesses will be tagged with the badge for a minimum of three months following user reports of sexual assault.

TripAdvisor, a Massachusetts-based company founded by Kaufer in 2000, claims to have 390 million average unique monthly visitors and over 535 million reviews and opinions.