What is Reputational Damage and its Countermeasures in '4travel' (Fortravel)?

When deciding on a travel destination, many people may refer to reviews, right?
At ‘Japanese Fortravel’, you can compile your travel experiences into travelogues, or post reviews of recommended spots. As you can post about anything related to travel, whether it’s about accommodations or transportation, it’s a site with many users. However, this also means that there’s a risk of reputational damage. In this article, we will explain the content and measures against reputational damage on ‘Japanese Fortravel’.

What is Fototravel?

Fototravel is a website operated by the Kakaku.com Group, which is also famous for Tabelog and Kakaku.com. It specializes in travel information and provides various information and services related to travel. To post reviews and travelogues, you need to register for the dedicated membership service, “Traveler Membership”. The ability to search by destination and purpose makes it easy to find the travelogues and reviews you’re looking for.
Furthermore, it also has a community feature, allowing travel enthusiasts to interact with each other. The number of Traveler Membership registrants exceeds one million, making it a site used by many users. Therefore, if defamatory posts are made on Fototravel, the impact can be significant. Many people place importance on reputation when deciding on accommodation facilities. If the number of users decreases due to reviews on Fototravel, it could lead to a situation where reputational damage occurs, so it’s important to know how to deal with such situations.

What kind of reputational damage does Fortravel face?

In the case of hotels

In hotel reviews, there are many users who post complaints about access, such as “It was further from the station than I thought” and “It is located in a confusing place”. Travelers often have a lot of luggage, so they value easy access. Also, there are reviews that say “The room is small”. Because they only see photos in advance, they feel a gap when they actually enter the room.

In the case of airports

On Fortravel, it is possible to post about transportation, so there is a possibility of reputational damage to airports. In the case of airports, in addition to reviews criticizing the difficulty of access, similar to hotels, posts are made about the lack of crowds and the completeness of internal facilities. Many people buy souvenirs at the airport, so the completeness of the facilities is also an important point.

Tourist spots

Posts about tourist spots are also possible on Fortravel. For example, in Yokohama, “Yokohama Chinatown” and “Yamashita Park” can be mentioned. Since these are reviews of tourist spots, there are many experiences that complain about the lack of fun, such as “It was disappointing” and “It’s not worth going out of your way”. If a tourist spot that boasts a beautiful view is said to be “The view was not a big deal”, many people will stop going. When posts are made that convey the lack of charm of a tourist spot, nearby hotels and restaurants also indirectly suffer damage, and the number of users decreases.

Restaurants

At Fortravel, it is possible to post reviews about restaurants. The most damaging type of reputational harm for a restaurant is a review stating that the food is bad. Additionally, there may be dissatisfaction with the cost performance, such as “too expensive for the taste”. Furthermore, there may be criticism about the quality of service, such as the staff’s response. Fortravel states in Article 7 of its Terms of Use (Prohibition of Inappropriate Posts) that it prohibits the following types of posts:

• Those that damage the reputation of a specific business operator and cause credit anxiety
• Those that cause disadvantage or discomfort to third parties such as hotels and restaurants
• Those that defame third parties such as hotels and restaurants

If a post that falls under these categories is made, it is stated that there may be a response to change or delete the post information. In addition to the above, posts with obscene content, false statements, and personal complaints are also subject to deletion. However, the decision to delete is left to Fortravel itself. Therefore, there may be posts that slip through the eyes of the management’s surveillance and make you feel “Isn’t this a case of reputational damage?”. In the review guidelines, it is stated that you should not make reviews that fall under the following:

• Those unrelated to travel, such as “I use this dental clinic”
• Those that are not specific, such as a single sentence post saying “This hotel is pretty good”
• Defamation of others or complaints about facilities, such as “The customer service attitude of a hotel man named XX is the worst” or “I went because it was highly praised in the travelogue, but it was the worst facility”
• Opinions that are arbitrary and definitive, such as “The taste of anyone who evaluates this restaurant, which serves such bad food, as delicious is crazy” or “Staying at such an inn is a waste of time”
• Those not based on one’s own experience, such as “According to a friend, this inn is a rip-off”
• Multiple posts about one facility
• Advertising, announcements, recruitment, solicitation activities
• Grotesque, obscene content
• Those that promote criminal behavior, violate laws and regulations
• Those that infringe on copyright, portrait rights, privacy
• Posts by travel industry insiders
• Others

If a review violates the above content, there is a possibility that it can be deleted.

How to Request Removal for Violation of Terms of Use

As mentioned above, Fortravel explains that it will respond to reviews and travelogues that constitute defamation. However, there may be cases where you want to remove content that has been overlooked or deemed acceptable by the management, but is causing problems for the operation of facilities and so on. So, how can you request removal if a review or travelogue containing defamatory content is posted? Fortravel states on its site that it does not respond to any inquiries by phone. Therefore, you will need to use the inquiry form to request removal, but there is no dedicated form for removal requests. Use the general inquiry form for the service, select “Violation of Terms of Use (Report)”, and request removal. At that time, make sure to specify which review you want to remove.

Also, please specify which part of the terms of use is being violated. It is stated that there may be cases where a prompt response is not possible even when a report is received from a user, so it may take time to respond. If you want to delete a review or travelogue that you posted yourself, you can do so at your own discretion from your My Page.

When Requesting Removal on the Grounds of Illegality

If your direct request for removal from a site is not responded to, you will need to assert illegality to the court. In cases where the illegality of defamation is claimed, it is common to use defamation of personality. However, unfortunately, the current situation is that it is difficult to acknowledge claims of defamation of personality against online reviews. This is because many of the defamatory reviews and travelogues submitted to Fortravel are based on personal opinions. Statements such as “the food was not delicious” or “the access was poor” are merely expressing personal impressions. If the content of the opinion is false or the expression exceeds the limit, there is a possibility that the claim may be acknowledged.

However, it is currently difficult to have a removal request acknowledged based solely on the statement “it was not delicious”. Also, when claiming the illegality of a review, it is necessary to explain the rights that were violated and why it can be said that the rights were violated. Such discussions are difficult for laymen, so if you still want to assert illegality, we recommend consulting a lawyer.

Removal by Provisional Disposition

When asserting illegality in a lawsuit, the process of deliberation can take time. During this period, the relevant review remains exposed on the internet. As time passes and the number of viewers increases, the damage from rumors can grow significantly. Therefore, some may wish to have the content removed in a shorter period. For such individuals, we recommend utilizing a request for removal by provisional disposition. A provisional disposition is a measure that achieves a state similar to when a claim is recognized before substantial deliberation. Although it requires a request to the court, if your claim is recognized, you can achieve the desired state in a shorter period than a lawsuit. The court will order Foresight to “remove the relevant post”. However, you must make the same legal assertions as when initiating a lawsuit. Please note that it is not easier to have your claim recognized in a provisional disposition compared to a lawsuit.

https://monolith.law/reputation/provisional-disposition[ja]

Identifying Posters through Provisional Dispositions

In provisional dispositions, it is also possible to identify the person who made the post. Even if the deletion is successful, it is meaningless if the same poster makes another defamatory post. In this regard, if you can identify the poster, you can directly urge them not to post any more reviews.

However, when it comes to identifying the poster, there are more steps to take compared to a provisional disposition. First, you request the court to order ‘Foresight’ to disclose the IP address of the computer or other device that made the post. If this claim is accepted, you will know from which terminal the post was made. However, just with the IP address, you cannot know the real name or address of the poster. Only the provider that the poster uses has this information. Therefore, you must also request the provider to disclose information such as the poster’s address and real name. Since providers also need to protect personal information, they may not comply with this request. In that case, you need to request a provisional disposition from the court again. As there is a possibility of carrying out provisional dispositions twice, the procedure can be said to be complicated.

https://monolith.law/reputation/identifying-contributors-after-deletion[ja]

Summary

Fortravel is a site where you can post reviews and travelogues related to travel. Since you can post about anything related to travel, you can obtain various information about accommodations, tourist spots, transportation, restaurants, and more. However, this also means that various facilities may potentially become victims of reputational damage. Fortravel’s terms of use clearly state that “reviews that constitute defamation will be deleted”. Therefore, there is a high possibility that overly harsh reviews will be deleted without your intervention. However, there is also a risk that some reviews may slip through the site’s monitoring and be published. In such cases, you must either request the site to delete the review yourself or assert its illegality to the court. If you assert illegality, legal arguments will be required, which may be difficult for laypersons. Therefore, we recommend hiring a lawyer who is experienced in dealing with online defamation.