Verifying the authenticity of online yacht charter reviews isn’t that hard. Even in anonymous forum posts the publicly available electronic signature contains the where and when about the reviewer, and even more helpful is their content, context and writing style. Ten minutes of manual work will provide a good indication of authenticity. If more proof is needed, scientists are working on an algorithm to automatically detect false reviews which should be widely available soon with the ability to scan the entire web. Here’s a good example of a Charter Pro getting caught with their hand in the online review cookie jar.
Crewed Sailing Vessel (CSV) Koralia 3 (Chandler Yacht Charters, Jeanneau 53, Greece) reviewed on TripAdvisor.com. This is a painful read, four pages of forum posts (many have been removed by site administrators) that eventually confirm that Armchairsailor267 (aka. armchairsailorUk and BlackKevlar) is a representative of Chandler Yacht Charters pretending to be a past client writing a positive charter review.
The (well meaning?) Charter Pro has seriously damaged the online reputation of Chandler Yacht Charters. Reviewer “944MGM944″ also submitted a YCA Charter Scouting Report of their experience with Chandler which prompted a written demand by Chandler for YCA to remove the negative review or face legal action (YCA and the legitimate review are protected by law). I reached out to the Chandler head office in the UK and offered YCA’s Online Reputation Management services, there was no further contact. It appears now that Chandler has decided to rename their (online) charter service to Exclusive Yacht Charters Greece and on another site Compass Yacht Charters Greece. There’s no mention now of Chandler or Koralia 3 on either site – what a mess.
Here’s one more false review posted by a Charter Pro in response to a negative review.
[March 18, 2012 - this section removed based on new information. Thanks for the feedback Phil.]
WHAT’S A CHARTER PROFESSIONAL TO DO WHEN A NEGATIVE REVIEW HAS BEEN POSTED?
First of all, seek professional help when managing your online charter reputation. At YCA we’re (most definitely) not Charter Pros, we’re Charter Sailors passionate about helping our fellow sailors find good charter value. This responsibility extends to helping Charter Pros manage their online reputation using our CharterPro++ reputation management services. YCA is a truly unbiased yacht charter review site dedicated to improving the reputation of the yacht charter industry through transparency of charter service quality and charter yacht condition.
Charter Pros – would you hand the wheel of a crewed charter to a 5 year old under sail with guests aboard and walk away saying “hold’er steady, I’ll be right back.” This is analogous to false reviews written by Charter Pros. Your ‘online’ reputation has become critical to attracting new business. But still, if you’re a Charter Pro Do-It-Yourself die-hard here’s a few tips on managing your online reputation and responding to a negative review.
- Closely monitor and manage your online reputation. Research tells us that 80% of all reviews are positive and 20% are either neutral or negative, the absence of neutral or negative reviews negates the credibility of positive reviews. Windsong Charters does a great job of managing their online reputation, they have ~5,000 friends on Facebook. Cap’n Bob is a genuine fellow that gives prospective charter clients comfort and confidence. After researching Windsong Charters I’m convinced my charter $$ will be well spent and I’ll likely have a friend for life in the Caribbean – Bravo Zulu
. - Be pro-active, prevent or limit the intensity of negative reviews before they happen. Simple stuff here but in my experience often missed by Charter Companies. Set proper expectations before the charter, routinely check that your guests are getting what they asked for, be sure you know your client’s post charter perceptions, and point them to an unbiased 3rd party charter review site like Yacht Charter Advisor (YCA) to leave a review.
- Respond to the negative review. If the review is false, simply say so – “This review is false, the charter referred to did not happen”, sign the response and let it go. If the review is real, be calm and take an understanding tone in your response. Be diplomatic, don’t criticize the reviewer or invite further discussion, don’t let the conversation play out online. Be careful with apologies, in many countries this can be considered an admission of culpability. If you must apologize, stay away from charter commitments – “I’m sorry you feel this way…” or “I apologize for any misunderstanding…”.
- Refer the reviewer to your grievance protocol (hopefully in the charter contract). The YCA staff has years of experience in corporate mediation services and through CharterPro++ can help negotiate a balanced outcome, leave your online reputation intact and your client feeling fulfilled – it’s win-win!
Yacht Charter Advisor
It was a great post and very informative. Thank you very much…
Nice yacht you got there guvr. Shame if someone was to…y’know write a bad review?
I smell a racket here sorry. Especially when you rely on that very lame and extremely suspicious review of Corus. I’d say you were the one whose motives are questionable.
Phil – I hope your opinion of YCA’s motives begin to turn around as I didn’t hesitate to approve this questioning post, I appreciate your concern. YCA is motivated to expose ‘confirmed’ incidents of missed charter expectations, including charter fraud which is much more rare.
There is no evidence that Corus was fraudulent, they just didn’t meet their client’s expectations. Generally speaking, charter contracts are very tight and charter clients have very little recourse when things go wrong, even with travel insurance (see my post on sBoats forum re. charter insurance http://bit.ly/zldjXu).
I have no doubt Corus has a history of satisfied customers, where are they? Charter sailors are asking for authentic, verified and believable charter reviews, not testimonials or biased broker opinions. If Corus were to ask just 1 of their (actual) past clients to write a legitimate review on YCA their rating may improve up to 50% (and I would send the reviewer a cool Monkey’s Fist pocket lanyard!).
YCA’s Charter Assurance Index: (past 1 year’s reviews)
0 Reviews, No Assurance, Independent verification required
1-3 Reviews, Low Assurance, Independent verification recommended
4-6 Reviews, Fair Assurance, independent verification helpful
7+ Reviews, Good support, go with it!
Ironically, Corus is off to a good start with online reviews. If they were to follow up with a string of (7-10) authentic (presumably positive) reviews (I know they’re out there) their new high rating on YCA would be ‘believable’ as it would be on YCA’s unbiased and verified review site and come with a negative review. Charter Sailors are understanding and aren’t idiots, we know nobody’s perfect. One negative review is understandable, a rating of 4-5 with 7+ reviews is an assurance of value and great marketing tool.
The irony continues, positive reviews are great for Corus’s service quality rating numbers but negative reviews, even average reviews, reveal the most about how to improve the service delivery. Corus now has a road-map to improvement if they chose to look at it. Notice there is nothing negative about the yacht, all the improvements are no-cost service delivery.
If you have information that supports the Corus review on TravelTalkOnline.com is false, please pass it on. If confirmed, I will remove the review from YCA, write a note on TTOL and write a redaction in this blog post – promise.
Thanks for keeping charter honest Phil!
have you looked at the response by the owners of Corus?
http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=1393138&an=0&page=0#Post1393138
I would just like to point out that I have no knowledge of the yacht or the owners of the yacht, just something sounded extremely fishy about the initial review and the fact that “Happy Sailor” was from the BVI (as a re a lot of folk on Traveltalk) and remembered that the weather over Christmas was poor dod not, to me, mean that he was an agent or representative of Corus.
Thanks for letting me know Phil,
Your concern for protecting the reputation of reputable yacht charter is coming close to my own ;~) At YCA we have ~20% negative reviews, which is in line with the review industry expectations, and I routinely research online for positive information about these reviews and invite those reviewers to Rate Their Experience at YCA and counter the negative ratings.
Reading the response by “William and Ann Hasted, owner/operators of sailing yacht Corus, offering crewed charters in The Virgin Islands” on TTOL and reviewing the original TTOL posts from ColoradoRich and HappySailor has lessened my confidence that the post from HappySailor was a false positive review from a member of Corus. I’ve removed (and marked) the reference to Corus from the original YCA post as I cannot be certain of the identity of HappySailor. HappySailor is clearly a fan of Corus but unfortunately in the open forum format failed to offset Corus’ negative review and his/her opinion context and language invited suspicion from ColoradoRich and me.
Forums like TTOL that offer a place for Charter Sailors to write charter reviews are the early evolutionary steps that are now leading to more reliable methods of collecting and authenticating online reviews that create real value for consumers. Third party, registered, consumer surveys coupled with verification and guarantees are not as sexy as the flame throwing moderated forum format (I like forums for entertainment too) but verifiable consumer reviews are catching on, especially in the service and travel/tourism industries. Yelp (free) and Angie’s List (paid subscription) are 2 recent examples of successful (recently went public) online review companies. The business model for a viable consumer review company is still being researched by intellectuals and investors. At YCA we’re also on the hunt for this elusive process.
Referencing ColoradoRich’s opinion of Corus on TTOL and creating a YCA Rating was an experiment that has come to an end with reasonable findings; it doesn’t support YCA’s authentic brand identity. To be fair, I’ll remove the YCA rating of Corus as well. I don’t disbelieve the ColoradoRich opinion, YCA adheres to the SERVQUAL method of measuring service quality. This means measuring the gap between client expectation and perception and relying on multiple verifiable sources to reduce rating variation. The average charter service is expected to produce ~20% missed expectations. Charter service providers need to be better prepared to manage their online reputation in this environment.
It’s unfortunate that William and Ann Hasted didn’t read (or believe) my recommendations on how to deal with a negative review, I did originally reach out to them by email. Their 2,250 word account of their opinion of the charter experience doesn’t negate ColoradoRich’s perception – it’s ‘he said she said’. What will negate the impact of the negative review is to create incentive for past and future clients to Rate their Experience at a responsible and objective third party review site, like YCA, and manage their service quality rating and online reputation based on verifiable information and consulting with an online reputation expert like we have at YCA. A charter yacht condition rating of ~4 (Good), a service quality rating of ~4 (Good) based on ~7+ reviews (high assurance, low variance) in the past 1 year would fully negate 1 negative review. And it would be way less work than writing an article length rebuttal which tells me only one thing for certain – the crew of the Corus did not detect the growing discomfort of their charter guests (assuming ColoradoRich is not bipolar or Schizophrenic).
To address the clear desires of Charter Sailors for informal discussion about yacht charter we’ve launched a Yacht Charter Advisor forum. The new ‘all charter’ forum is open to charter service providers and charter sailors and has strong ties back to the YCA charter survey site to collect and collate objective and verifiable yacht condition and service quality perceptions – for when we tire of the charter review rhetoric.
Thanks again Phil – do you have any charters you’d like to review?