Rave reviews for the hotel that isn’t open yet

There are just four reviews of the brand-new Constance Ephelia resort, in an unspoilt bay on Mahé island, in the Seychelles, but all are effusive in their praise.

Posted on Vinivi, a French-owned customer review website that calls itself “the independent website for travellers”, the glowing reports range from “very good” (Eve from America) and “the perfect honeymoon” (Doug from Australia) to “perfect staff and extraordinary service” (Bradley from the UK). There’s only one small problem: the hotel is a building site. It doesn’t open for business until May 2010.

The Seychelles-based Constance Hotels, whose lavish website doesn’t mention that the hotel is nowhere near finished, would neither confirm nor deny that it was behind the fake reviews. Its UK agent said only that the hotel group was “not keen to comment on the quotes as they feel they can only be damaging to everything they are doing”.

Vinivi’s boss, Gilles Granger, who claims to have an extensive moderation team, apologised for the oversight, saying, “We read everything that is published on the website, but if anyone wants to fool the system, they can probably do it.”

Hotel review websites have become hugely powerful marketing tools, with some hotels saying they now attribute as many as 90% of bookings to such sites.

The market-leader, TripAdvisor, is also under fire after allegations of widespread abuse emerged, with a former Cornish hotelier admitting he had written every review of his property himself.

Travel blogger Jeff Tucker, who first highlighted the fake reviews, is a fierce critic. “TripAdvisor appears to me to be significantly manipulated by hoteliers, their employees and friends, and their marketing and public relations companies,” he said.

TripAdvisor, which says it catches “the vast majority of fraudulent reviews”, claims every submission is scrutinised by a “team of quality assurance specialists”, and that hotels caught subverting the system are flagged up with red warning messages.