TripAdvisor reinstates reviews warning about rapes

More than a dozen tourists have accused the holiday review website TripAdvisor of deleting reviews warning other travellers of rapes and sexual assault at luxury resorts in Mexico.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which has been reporting extensively on the safety of Mexican resorts, numerous travellers have fought for their reviews to be reinstated on the site, in order to help others make decisions when planning trips.

In one removed post, a reviewer named Kristie Love said she had been raped by a security guard at the Iberostar Paraiso resort in Mexico in 2010 after her key card to enter the resort had broken.

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Love, a 35-year-old mother of two from Dallas, Texas, attempted to report the incident to staff at the time, but she says they refused to call the police and the hotel chain “failed to investigate”. After all else failed, Love used TripAdvisor to warn other women of her experience.

However, TripAdvisor moderators removed the post, deeming it in violation of the company’s “family friendly” guidelines.

In 2015, another woman, Jamie Valeri, was sexually assaulted at the same resort and also attempted to post about it on TripAdvisor, but her post was also removed.

Today, TripAdvisor said it had removed its “family friendly” language rules three years ago, admitting its “previous guidelines went too far in preventing information like [rape and assault allegations] from being shared”. It said that in the three years since the policy change, “many first-hand accounts of serious incidents” had been published.

TripAdvisor also announced that it had republished Love’s review and is planning to create a “badge notification” to highlight reports of sexual assault.