Thursday, May 17, 2012

Another Fake Review

The review, titled "Really loved the trip and must return" wasn't so suspicious. "Can't say enough good about this hotel. We stayed there when my wife and i visited jerusalem for her birthday. On our arrival, just by giving our name, the concierge without even looking at the booking wished her a happy birthday. The hotel is new, clean and extremely well run, and only a 5 minute walk to center city . Any time we will be returning to jerusalem, i won't be looking for anywhere else to stay." The only weird thing about this review is the word new (really? the circa 1968 Leonardo Plaza Jerusalem?!) OK, the username was funny too. Shma60827, from Brooklyn, New York (oh the shame!). As you suspected, this reviewer joined TripAdvisor in June 2011 and posted its only review that same month. But what really caught our eye was the pictures included with the review. A word of advice to hotels: Don't post fake reviews with professional photos. Because guess what? When the pictures look like they've been taken straight from the website, and have strategically placed magazines, fruit platters, bottled water, and curious glass vases - chances are this is a fake review. We do have to give the Plaza credit, though. At least the review sounded sincere. Or, maybe we're just jumping to conclusions and Shma (Shmaya? Shmaryahu?) of Brooklyn is a really, really good photographer.