liveaboard.com Can I trust them?

[LiveaboardCom]

Hello Kathryn,

I thank you for telling me you are going to look into it. I also want to point out that you offered that I re-write my review of my trip on board the Orion. Unluckily, I cannot write it since it says I have already submitted it. Since you offered that I write it again but following all of Liveaboard.com policies, I expected that you would let me do this.

Basically, it looks like another lie, since you offered that I re-write the review a couple of weeks ago, but you are not letting me do so. This is exactly why I recommend that people should be be weary of Liveaboard.com and question their honesty.

I do thank you for replying to questions and trying your best with us Kathryn and I await your responses.

Hi Alberto,

Thanks for letting me know. You're right, I did suggest you re-write your review and that's no doubt very frustrating to find out you couldn't do so. I will speak to the review team now and find out what has happened and get that fixed.

I don't have access to the review platform/process myself and so need to request assistance on this one. Please bear with me.

I'm also going to send you a private message now so you have my email address in case you would prefer to re-submit your review that way or chat privately.

Many thanks,

Kathryn

 

[LiveaboardCom]

Hi all,

I appreciate some of you are concerned we don't publish reviews below 7 stars or negative reviews. I've done some research and here is a selection of some lower scoring reviews:

 

[LiveaboardCom]

This one is for a liveaboard called the Spirit of Nuigini. The guest was right, the negative review was published and, as you can see, the boat is currently not operating:

We agree we need to change the the way we publish reviews and this is being discussed in depth by the appropriate managers and team that can implement changes. All of your concerns have been passed on for this process.

In the meantime, you can see we do publish negative reviews. We also take action when we receive reviews that state a vessel or operator problem has arisen that needs to be resolved.

If you have specific vessels or unpublished reviews you're concerned about, please let me know as I can look into those individually. (I've already noted the Orion and you can see above that I'm addressing that one).

Many thanks,

Kathryn

 

[Jay]

Kathryn,

You obviously do NOT publish any negative reviews.

Not sure how you guys manage to defy a normal distribution curve - but you succeed admirably. I would not trust a single review on your site. They're all "exceptional" or "superb". Seriously? Furthermore your "review guidelines" are draconian. Overall, the rotting smell of fake reviews is quite overwhelming.

I would not consider using nor recommending your services.

Perhaps SB needs a new section "LOB Reviews" and each vessel has a Poll (separate thread) with the following rules:
•votes are publicly visible
•only members with #posts > ?50 can vote so as to stop vote bots and the like
•any vote below ?6/10 needs to have a brief explanation/detail else the vote is deleted.

 

[Alberto Ruiz-Larrea]

I think that is an awesome idea Jay. I actually look on here regarding reviews for all my diving etc. I actually had decided on the boat that I was originally meant to go on thanks to a trip report on SB.

 

[admikar]

Perhaps SB needs a new section "LOB Reviews" and each vessel has a Poll (separate thread) with the following rules:
•votes are publicly visible
•only members with #posts > ?50 can vote so as to stop vote bots and the like
•any vote below ?6/10 needs to have a brief explanation/detail else the vote is deleted.

@The Chairman ? What do you think?

 

[nippurmagnum]

We agree we need to change the the way we publish reviews and this is being discussed in depth by the appropriate managers and team that can implement changes.

.

I would suggest that you post reviews without editing. Or, alternatively, ask reviewers if they would agree to specific editing of their reviews. But don't just edit their reviews without their consent.

I recently did my first liveaboard.com trip to the Red Sea, and on the whole, I was satisfied with liveaboard.com as a portal, and with the assistance of the reps I spoke with. I also had a great time on the trip itself.

When I returned, I wrote a very positive review about the boat I was on. Just about the only negative comment I made about the boat was that while the food was generally good, breakfasts were disappointing and not nearly as good as lunches and dinners. When the review was posted, I noticed that liveaboard.com had deleted that comment about the breakfasts. Why delete that?

I will say that in originally selecting the specific boat that I booked, I did read a couple of negative comments, so it's not as if the censorship is 100%. But based on the general homogeneity of comments, I didn't really trust that the comments were unedited, and my experience upon my return (when my own comment was edited) confirmed that impression.

The boats in the Red Sea all pretty much look the same, and there are dozens of them. Being able to read unedited comments from previous divers would be the most useful resource in distinguishing one boat from the other. I realize that if several highly negative reviews are posted about a particular boat, the owners of that boat might decide to stop doing business with liveaboard.com -- but the flip side is that I think divers would feel much more confident booking a trip on a boat advertised by the portal.

 

[The Chairman]

@The Chairman ? What do you think?

It's an interesting idea. We have a few things in the works as it is, but we are having a problem with a need to update our software first. Check with me after the first of the year.

 

[LiveaboardCom]

.

I would suggest that you post reviews without editing. Or, alternatively, ask reviewers if they would agree to specific editing of their reviews. But don't just edit their reviews without their consent.

I recently did my first liveaboard.com trip to the Red Sea, and on the whole, I was satisfied with liveaboard.com as a portal, and with the assistance of the reps I spoke with. I also had a great time on the trip itself.

When I returned, I wrote a very positive review about the boat I was on. Just about the only negative comment I made about the boat was that while the food was generally good, breakfasts were disappointing and not nearly as good as lunches and dinners. When the review was posted, I noticed that liveaboard.com had deleted that comment about the breakfasts. Why delete that?

I will say that in originally selecting the specific boat that I booked, I did read a couple of negative comments, so it's not as if the censorship is 100%. But based on the general homogeneity of comments, I didn't really trust that the comments were unedited, and my experience upon my return (when my own comment was edited) confirmed that impression.

The boats in the Red Sea all pretty much look the same, and there are dozens of them. Being able to read unedited comments from previous divers would be the most useful resource in distinguishing one boat from the other. I realize that if several highly negative reviews are posted about a particular boat, the owners of that boat might decide to stop doing business with liveaboard.com -- but the flip side is that I think divers would feel much more confident booking a trip on a boat advertised by the portal.

Thank you for those comments, that's really helpful to hear and you have some valid points there about editing and trust. I will pass them on now and I'll also ask about your query regarding the editing of your review.

Many thanks,

Kathryn

 

[LiveaboardCom]

.

I would suggest that you post reviews without editing. Or, alternatively, ask reviewers if they would agree to specific editing of their reviews. But don't just edit their reviews without their consent.

I recently did my first liveaboard.com trip to the Red Sea, and on the whole, I was satisfied with liveaboard.com as a portal, and with the assistance of the reps I spoke with. I also had a great time on the trip itself.

When I returned, I wrote a very positive review about the boat I was on. Just about the only negative comment I made about the boat was that while the food was generally good, breakfasts were disappointing and not nearly as good as lunches and dinners. When the review was posted, I noticed that liveaboard.com had deleted that comment about the breakfasts. Why delete that?

I will say that in originally selecting the specific boat that I booked, I did read a couple of negative comments, so it's not as if the censorship is 100%. But based on the general homogeneity of comments, I didn't really trust that the comments were unedited, and my experience upon my return (when my own comment was edited) confirmed that impression.

The boats in the Red Sea all pretty much look the same, and there are dozens of them. Being able to read unedited comments from previous divers would be the most useful resource in distinguishing one boat from the other. I realize that if several highly negative reviews are posted about a particular boat, the owners of that boat might decide to stop doing business with liveaboard.com -- but the flip side is that I think divers would feel much more confident booking a trip on a boat advertised by the portal.

Hi again,

Just to let you know I've sent a private message so I can get some booking details from you and look into what happened with your review.

Many thanks,

Kathryn