Bye Bye, TripAdvisor

 In February of 2006 I became a member of TripAdvisor, a travel platform in which travelers can write reviews of hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions.  There are also forums in which members offer advice to questions about destinations all over the world.  I found the reviews and forums useful in planning trips, and after returning, I would then write reviews myself.  Over the years I have written more than fifty reviews on places in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Norway, England, Spain, Puerto Rico and, of course, Mexico.  I have written more than 2000 posts on forums.  In recent years, most of my activity on TripAdvisor has been answering questions and commenting on the Mexico City forum.  I am listed as a top contributor.

In the last couple of years, I've noticed a change. Obviously the company has to make a profit, but the platform seemed to become more and more money-grubbing.  There were always advertisements on the forum pages, but now they are popping into the body of the listed threads.  You can now book flights and hotel reservations through the site.  TripAdvisor acquired Viator, a tour booking agency.  If you look at things to do in Mexico City, for example, first they list a dozen tours.  Then they get down to the top-rated attractions in the city.  After that, there a couple dozen more tours that you can reserve... certainly through Viator.

But what really made me upset was a post in one of the threads in the Mexico City forum earlier this month.  A poster made a reference to President Sheinbaum of Mexico, in which he altered her name into an ethnic slur.  (Sheinbaum is Jewish, so you might be able to figure out what he called her.)  There are plenty of people who oppose her politics, as the demonstrations last weekend demonstrated.  Nevertheless, such vile slurs have no place on the forum.  Several of the regular posters, including me, were horrified, and reported the post as inappropriate.  Days passed, and but the hate speech had not been deleted.

Later, another frequent poster, started a thread in which he informed readers that TripAdvisor was going to discontinue direct messaging between members.  Well, within a day his post had been deleted by TripAdvisor as being "off topic".  I then wrote a comment complaining that a post concerning changes in the platform's policies was immediately deleted, but the post with offensive speech was still there.  My post was immediately removed also as being "off-topic".   After many days TripAdvisor finally deleted the ethnic slur, but the whole incident left a sour taste in my mouth.  

I've decided that I am no longer going to participate on TripAdvisor.  It may not matter, however.  Rumor is going around... in posts that were also deleted as being "off-topic"... that TripAdvisor may soon eliminate all the forums too.  They would rather concentrate on the money-making aspects of the platform.

TripAdvisor, you used to be very useful, but it's time for me to say "Adios".