Tripadvisor is a travel website where people post reviews of hotels, resorts, and other vacation properties. However, when Kristie Love, 35, reviewed a resort near Cancun in Mexico just over seven years ago, she warned others that she had been sexually assaulted by a security guard during her stay. To Love’s shock, TripAdvisor took exception to her words and deleted the Review. The company has finally come forward to apologize.

Stay at Mexican resort marred by sexual assault incident

As noted by the New York Post, Love stayed at the Iberostar Paraiso Maya resort – at Playa Paraiso, close to Playa del Carmen in Mexico – back in 2010.

During her stay she was sexually assaulted by a security guard, leading to her wishing to warn others of her experience at the hotel while reviewing the property on TripAdvisor.

Fast forward seven years and TripAdvisor has now officially apologized to Love for deleting her review. In their apology to the "sexual assault victim," the company noted that at that time they had a policy that judged the review to be against their guidelines, as it did not contain “family-friendly” language.

TripAdvisor went on to say at that time, all language had to be G-rated, however some years later they did change their policy to allow for more descriptive reviews by people who had experienced sexual assault incidents at hotels.

They added they had realized their previous guidelines prevented important information like this from being shared with others.

TripAdvisor continues to censor reviews and comments

However, despite TripAdvisor’s apology and change to their guidelines, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the travel company still removes warnings relating to sexual assault, binge-drinking, and robbery at certain resorts.

In fact the website regularly invokes its right to delete reviews they deem to be “inappropriate” for the wider TripAdvisor community.

The newspaper has reportedly been monitoring TripAdvisor closely since the death of a Wisconsin student during a Mexican vacation in July.

They quote relatives of Abbey Conner, 20, as saying they believe she had died from imbibing tainted alcohol.

That report also mentions Wendy Avery-Swanson from Phoenix, Az., who wrote in a review that she had blacked out at a resort in Mexico after drinking a small amount of alcohol at the swim-up bar. However, when the 52-year-old posted about her negative experience, TripAdvisor removed it. Avery-Swanson told the reporter that her experience wasn’t hearsay and that it had actually happened to her. She added that she considers this to be censorship.
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