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The Emira Palms Resort & Spa, claimed to be at 51 Argyle St in Auckland’s Herne Bay, received five-star reviews on TripAdvisor.
Only it wasn’t there. Emira Palms did not exist, as some confused travelers found when they annoyed nearby residents by ringing their doorbell to ask where the hotel was.
That address is a private house, currently under renovation. The ad is fake.
The Emira Palms website used a menu from the Pahia Beach Resort and Spa Hotel, and room descriptions that mirror those of the Punakaiki Resort.
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The “about us” section was copied from The Wai Ora Lakeside Spa Resort, although that description mentioned Hannahs Bay and Holdens Bay, both on Lake Rotorua, and not “opposite” 51 Argyle Street, which is on a cliff.
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Fake Emira Palms Hotel: Beautiful view, but not an Auckland view, and the topography in the image does not match 51 Argyle Street, Herne Bay, which is across the bay from the residential suburb of Chatswood, not hills dry and deserted.
But the ad wasn’t pulled from TripAdvisor until Things began to investigate. It included the ability for travelers to pay to book by credit card.
An earlier effort by a local to eliminate him had been rejected.
TripAdvisor told him that the fact that the hotel had a website meant it was real.
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The propaganda about the fake Emira Palms hotel is actually taken from a Rotorua hotel website.
The plaintiff responded by email saying that he lived nearby and could confirm that there was no hotel there, with instructions on how to conduct a ratings search on the Auckland City Council website for 51 Argyle St, showing that the property is a residential address. of a single house.
google maps
51 Argyle Street, Herne Bay, Auckland. It is not a hotel.
More emails from TripAdvisor staff continued to claim that the hotel existed.
An email could not be sent to the Emira Palms email address because the email address did not exist. Emira Palms’ phone number was not connected when Things call it.
Frustrated that TripAdvisor did not move to protect New Zealand travelers from a fake hotel, the man tried to have the website taken down in New Zealand.
He tried to get the New Zealand Domain Name Commissioner and CertNZ to shut down the website, but was met with what he described as a wall of inertia.
Declan Ingram, Deputy Director of Cert NZ said: “We do not have legislative powers to block or remove content from the Internet.
“However, we are able to work with a variety of partners, including the New Zealand Police and the Domain Name Commission, to investigate false website claims and, in some circumstances, remove the web address (domain) from the Internet.”
Things
The email could not be sent to the email address of Emira Plans Resort & Hotel and their phone number was not connected.
A spokeswoman for the Domain Name Commissioner confirmed Thursday that “as a result of our investigation, the domain name has been suspended and is no longer accessible through that website address.”
At the time, the ad on TripAdvisor was still active, but by Friday, it had been removed.
Ingram said detecting a fake website could be difficult, but it was important for people to be on the lookout for signs that could indicate whether an online store was fake.
These signs could include bad spelling and grammar, he said.
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Emira Palms Resort & Spa uses photos on its website that look beautiful, but Auckland doesn’t have many dark, menacing hills without houses, or isolated docks lit by lamps.
TripAdvisor spokesperson for Asia Pacific, Krystal Heng, said Things on October 28, that despite the emails the company had sent to the man: “I can confirm that an investigation is currently underway on the listing.
“Several steps are being taken, including contacting the token owner to verify their business license, etc. Unfortunately, I cannot disclose the investigation process at this stage, but I will be happy to update you on the status once it is done completed. “
Police were contacted for comment.
The plaintiff, who asked not to be identified, wants people to know how little protection TripAdvisor offers them against bogus hotel scams.
“It’s an obvious fraud, but they keep saying we need more evidence,” he said.
“TripAdvisor has been in the news for false reviews, and hotels can remove bad reviews,” said the Herne Bay man.
“This is a brand new bar, where TripAdvisor is facilitating not just fake reviews, but outright scams.”
