News
Reporting on fraud, review manipulation, misleading information and the work of protecting consumers and honest businesses.
219 articles in in-the-media
Credits: The Mail on Sunday (This is Money) By: Sarah Bridge ‘It is every cook’s worst nightmare. Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal has just been accused of giving diners food poisoning.’ ‘However, rather than being a genuine case, it seems that Heston may be the latest victim of a growing trend in which peo
Credits: Caterer and Hotelkeeper By: Neil Gerrard ‘Bexley is the local authority area with the highest failure rate among catering businesses for food hygiene in England, while Craven district council, North Yorkshire, has the lowest failure rate. That’s one of the findings from new research by reputation managem
Credits: Mail on Sunday (This is Money.co.uk) By Sarah Bridge And Dan Pront "Some of the biggest names in the restaurant business are being bombarded with unfounded accusations of giving customers food poisoning on unregulated review sites. Chris Emmins, founder of KwikChex, which investigates potentially damaging inte
Credits: The Telegraph, by Charles Starmer-Smith A hygiene expert has warned that people who make unsubstantiated allegations about food poisoning in reviews on user-generated websites such as TripAdvisor could face legal action. “It’s almost impossible to say with any certainty that food poisoning came from any one me
KwikChex has now found a website that we believe answers our criteria for a 5 star rating. Whilst ResponsibleTravel.com may be no giant in terms of numbers of reviews they provide – 5,350, according to their website, they do provide a resource that is diligent and ethical, publishing reviews from authenticated cu
Credits: BuzzFeed By: Allison McCann ‘Go on TripAdvisor’s UK site and you can no longer find the "reviews you can trust" slogan anywhere on the page (it still exists in the US, in tiny grey print near the bottom of the page.) Legally forced to remove the phrase, soon they might just have to say […]
Credits: The Guardian By: Roy Greenslade ‘Canny consumers do not take adverts at face value. According to a research study, once they come across an ad they go online to check out reviews of the advertised product or service – but do they get the correct and fair information?’ ‘KwikChex says: "If cons
Airline rating site Skytrax is under investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority over the authenticity of some of its reviews. Credits: TTG Digital "The ASA has launched a formal investigation which will ask Skytrax to prove that some of its reviews, from which it gives airlines a star rating, are genuine. The
Updated 3rd July 2012 KwikChex has now published ratings on the first named travel review sites. Background Reviews sites, are fundamentally asking consumers to trust / believe in the information they provide on businesses. They are highly influential in consumer opinion and decision making. Small businesses in particu
BBC Fake Britain investigates the damage caused by fake Trip Advisor reviews to KwikChex Members Howarth House and Medieval Lodge. The Broadcast on the iPlayer has now expired – the next available viewing according to BBC is at 02:55am Thursday 7th June BBC1
Travel websites implement new policies on reviews after investigation Credits: abc15.com By: Adam Slinger "Travel websites are scrambling to crackdown on fake reviews before the summer vacation season after a new study alluded that some hotel owners and staff were writing false reviews under the pseudonyms of tourists
Credits: Yahoo Philippines "Travel review sites have come to exert phenomenal authority over where we stay and where we eat, with the likes of TripAdvisor and Booking.com now holding millions of reviews from travelers. Those reviews, of course, are only useful as long as they can be trusted, and in recent years it’s be
