In order to protect the reputations of our vendors and ensure high quality review content from real hoteliers on the site, we have strict verification processes. That said, we offer several easy options for users to verify so the process is frictionless and easy including:
1. What to do if you aren't sure why a review isn't published
First-and-foremost please make sure that you understand the review verification process below and know that it can take up to 5-business days to be published (the user has 72-hours to click the verification link and 48-hours for HTR to publish)
Please do not reach out to Hotel Tech Report to inquire about a review that has been left but isn't published yet unless it was left more than 5-business days ago
Please remember that per HTR's user privacy policy we cannot share review information that is outside of the review manager
Basic Members | Use the review lookup feature in the reviews tab of the dashboard to manually search for a specific user that you think left a review (Note: users who opt for anonymity will not appear in search) |
Premium Members | Go to the reviews tab in the 'left a review' tab in the Automated Review Manager to view a detailed searchable history of all customers and their historical activity |
2. How reviews get verified
STEP | DESCRIPTION |
Submit review | User leaves a review |
User selects one of 4 different verification options | including: professional email, Linkedin profile, recent invoice or a logged in screenshot |
User has to click a verification | User is sent an email with a verification link and has 72-hours to click the link to verify their email/identity (shown here) |
IF they DO click the verification link within 72-hours... | |
IF they DO NOT click the verification link within 72-hours... | the review is rejected and the user is sent rejection email with one more chance to reply with one of the approved verification options mentioned in #2 above
NOTE: If a review still hasn't been verified it will show as 'rejected' in your review manager, Premium members can trigger a 5th option for verification for rejected reviews by uploading customer proof via the automated review manager (Premium feature) |
3. What are the opportunities users have to verify their review?
Right when the user presses submit on their review, they are sent an email with a verification link | |
If the reviewer doesn't click the verification link in #1 after 24-hours, they are sent a reminder check-in email asking them to click the verification link to publish their review | |
If the reviewer still hasn't clicked either of the verification links from #1 or #2 after 72-hours, the review is REJECTED and they are sent a 3rd email notifying them that HTR wasn't able to verify their review which also includes a 3rd verification link with additional verification options including (a) uploading a logged in screenshot (b) uploading a recent invoice | |
Premium Members also have access to an additional option to manually trigger verification by uploading proof of customer via the Premium Review Manager in the vendor dashboard How to get unverified reviews verified |
4. Why is Hotel Tech Report so strict with reviewer verification?
Our mission is to make it easier for hoteliers to find, compare and adopt the best technologies to optimize their operations and speed up the pace of innovation in the global hotel industry. To execute on that mission the anonymity, trust, and reputations of our community of hoteliers and vendors must be a top priority.
In order to deliver high quality information and buying insights to the community, we must ensure that each review is from a verified hotelier.
Want to know why our verification processes are so strict? Here's a video of what can happen if they aren't...A third of TripAdvisor reviews are fake’ as cheats buy five star
5. Approved methods of verification
All users who become leads or submit reviews are verified as hoteliers via one of the following methods:
METHOD | DESCRIPTION |
Work Email | Hoteliers may verify their identity by using their work email (note: When using this verification method their email domain must exactly match the hotel's URL/domain and be a valid hotel or hotel company email domain) |
LinkedIn profile | The LinkedIn used must show the user's current position at a hotel or their review will be rejected. Additional reasons a user may fail verification and their review will be rejected...if the LinkedIn doesn't have connections, work history, a profile photo or contains other signs that the profile may be fake. |
Logged in screenshot | To use this verification the screenshot must show the hoteliers' name while logged into the dashboard of the product. |
Recent Invoice from the vendor | Hotelier may submit an image of a recent invoice where the hotel on the invoice matches their hotel. |
CRM Screenshot | Vendor submitted screenshot of the customer in their CRM (user's email must match the reviewer's email) |
IMPORTANT: Per our user privacy policy, we cannot provide any information to vendors about review statuses beyond what is visible in your review manager. If you run review campaigns off-platform in your own CRM or email marketing tool and not via Automated Review Manager) it is important to setup your own