Dallas Hotel Blatantly Offers To Pay Guests For Positive Online Reviews

If you have to pay for nice reviews, you don't deserve them.

If you have to pay for nice reviews, you don’t deserve them.

UPDATE: A rep for the hotel confirms to Consumerist that the sign — since taken down — was posted by an employee who got overly creative in their attempt to boost the hotel’s social media profile.

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Here’s a tip to hotel managers around the world — Paying for reviews is bad enough. Advertising that you’re willing to pay for positive feedback is only going to communicate to your guests that you run a bad hotel and that you expect them to not have anything nice to say about your establishment.

Consumerist reader Jim noticed the sign seen here while he was checking into a hotel in Dallas the other day. He says it was posted right at the front reception desk.

It offers anywhere from $3 to $5 in cold, hard cash to guests who write positive reviews of their stay on sites like TripAdvisor, Hotels.com, Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline, and several others. The fine print at the bottom is too small to read here, but Jim tells us it reads, “Must show immediate proof of review, amount varies depending on number of websites review was posted on. Must be a positive, favorable review approved by mgmt.”

“I suddenly wonder whether the glowing reviews for the Grand Hotel in Dallas were entirely sincere,” writes Jim, who snapped the pic with the help of his phone and the Consumerist Tipsters app. “On the other hand, every man has his price and surely it’s higher than $5.”

We attempted to contact the hotel, which used to be a Quality Inn but now appears to be independently owned, about this sign. As of right now, we haven’t received a reply. Jim tells us that the sign is now no longer posted at the reception desk.

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