TripAdvisor is the world’s largest travel site. Last year 150 million reviews were posted to the website but the website sometimes comes in for criticism.
Last week the Italian Competition Authority published a document on its website suggesting TripAdvisor may have published the opinions of people who had not actually been to the places they rated.
Some hotels and restaurants say they are being targeted by “blackmailers” who demand free meals and stays in exchange for not writing bad reviews on the TripAdvisor website.
TripAdvisor spokesperson James Kay defends the websites reliability, 'we make it very easy for hotel owners to report blackmail to us.'
'We have a team over 200 people working in our fraud team. These are people with real expertise in fraud detection; people with a background in the CIA or the FBI'.