Since news of the
Harvey Weinstein scandal broke a month ago, more and more victims of sexual assault and harassment have found the courage to speak up about their own traumatic experiences. As such, allegations have been lodged against several other household names including,
Kevin Spacey,
Ben Affleck, Dustin Hoffman, Brett Ratner and James Toback.
However, it's not just the entertainment industry which is being accused of covering up a history of systemic sexual abuse, in fact, companies such as TripAdvisor have recently come under fire for the same exact thing.
In response to a damning exposé published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday, American travel review website, TripAdvisor has been forced to issue an apology for deleting posts related to instances of rape and sexual assault sustained at their "recommended" places of accommodation.
The investigation stated that over a dozen TripAdvisor users have claimed that they've had posts warning about dangerous hotels and hostels removed, many of which including them elaborating on instances of alleged sexual harassment and assault. Several of the posts related to the same resort, in Riviera Maya, Mexico.
The primary incident involves Kristie Love, who stayed at the Iberostar Paraiso Maya beach resort in Mexico seven years ago, where she claims she was raped by a security guard.
In her review, Love explained what happened during her stay: after asking for help with a faulty keycard, she said that a uniformed security guard manhandled her into the bushed and raped her. She alleged that the hotel staff refused to report the incident and notify the police.
Love proceeded to log onto her TripAdvisor account to share her story in the hope that it would discourage fellow female travellers from staying at the resort, however, her account didn't remain on the site for long. A TripAdvisor moderator quickly deleted her post, deeming its contents to have violated the website's "family friendly" content rules.
Love's review was only re-uploaded onto the site this past October.
Love is not the only woman to have claimed that they have been sexually assaulted at the resort.
Just a year after Love's alleged incident, a 19-year-old woman who was on vacation with her family at the Iberostar property purportedly told hotel staff that she was raped by a security guard in a bathroom.
And in 2015, at the same hotel, 34-year-old Jamie Valeri claims that she was also sexually assaulted when she and her husband both passed out in the middle of the day after having just a few drinks.
Like Love, Valeri attempted to write about her traumatic experience on TripAdvisor, but it was again removed after being deemed "hearsay". Speaking about the experience, Valeri says that if Love's post had remained on the review site, "maybe we wouldn’t have gone or maybe that wouldn’t have happened to me."
Love's post was finally restored to TripAdvisor in October, seven years to the day after she alleged that she was raped at the resort. However, as the original investigation points out, Love's review was reposted in chronological order and filed under 2010, essentially burying it from would-be travellers.
And in response to the article published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TripAdvisor issued a statement apologising to Love, who they identified as "the sexual assault victim reported on in the article, who had her forum post removed seven years ago on TripAdvisor."
They explained that when Love first posted the account of her stay in 2010 "all language needed to be G-rated". Now, they assert that they have "changed that policy to allow more descriptive reviews on the site about first-hand accounts of serious incidents like rape or assault."
They continued:
"A simple search of TripAdvisor will show numerous reviews from travellers over the last several years who wrote about their first-hand experiences that include matters of robbery or theft, assault, and rape."
Stories such as this, that suggest that corporations have been complacent in burying instances of alleged rape and sexual assault are certainly worrying, as we use such platforms to seek safe and secure lodging, thereby putting our trust in their reviews and recommendations. As ever, it pays to do your research, and to use multiple platforms to do so.
