TripAdvisor has added some badges that will now highlight safety concerns for travelers to be mindful of. The alerts will mention things that might not have even come up in the local news, such as reports of sexual assault.
The reports will stay up on the site for at least three months so that travelers will have the option to avoid places where they might be a threat to their security. TripAdvisor was recently accused of removing negative reviews from the website if they weren’t considered family-friendly. Two different women recently reported sexual assault at the same resort in Mexico and the comments were removed for being “hearsay.”
Clearly, the new badge feature is a way to make good on the accusations that they’ve been removing that sort of thing. On Wednesday of this week at least three hotels in Mexico were given the badge. It’s been pointed out that the travel booking site has no legal obligation to disclose the crime reports, but ethically it’s a good idea.
