AN Evesham hotelier has threatened legal action against a popular travel website after it ‘red flagged’ her hotel for allegedly posting fraudulent reviews.

Deborah Sinclair, owner of The Riverside Hotel, said TripAdvisor’s accusations have “stained” her character and led to cancellations for which she will be seeking compensation.

TripAdvisor is a website that invites people to leave a review of a hotel at which they have stayed. Its officials said they have reason to believe that Mrs Sinclair, or those associated with her, fraudulently posted positive reviews about her hotel and negative reviews about a competitor’s hotel.

Mrs Sinclair, aged 45, has denied the claims and insisted the review about The Riverside Hotel was posted by a guest using the hotel’s internet connection.

She said: “We had a client stay here for four weeks after his property was flooded. He wrote a review while staying here but TripAdvisor monitor reviews by IP addresses and they think this is a fraudulent review.

“TripAdvisor has put a red flag against my hotel on its site but you can’t stop people writing anything on the internet these days and they did not speak to me to check first.

“After we were flagged we started having a lot of cancellations and I will be claiming compensation for this.

"The person who wrote our review is a business consultant who lives in Evesham and he is prepared to back me up in court.”

KwickChex, an online reputation company, is currently preparing her case and Mrs Sinclair said she “expects to hear from lawyers shortly.”

A spokesman from TripAdvisor said the red badge was not applied as a result of an isolated review posted by a guest from the hotel’s lobby.

They said: “As a result of our investigation we have reasonable cause to believe that the owner and/or individuals associated with the owner fraudulently posted positive reviews on the Riverside Hotel and negative reviews on a competitor’s property.

“We issued warnings to the owner in March and August. The identified activity continued despite our warnings and, as the activity is against our policies, we applied the red badge to protect consumers.”