Can I publish guest book comments on my website?

[Annie T]

We have had some lovely comments in the guest book in our gite and I want to create a page on our website to show these, otherwise people will only get to read them on arrival! Do I need permission from the guests before I can publish them or can I just go ahead?

Thanks!

[lorca]

We always get permission before publishing comments from guests. The last thing you´d want to do is upset guests who´ve had a good time at your place and may well come back/recommend you to others/post good reviews on review sites. Happy past guests are the best possible PR. Of course they may not mind but why risk it?

Why not ask them? We´ve never had a refusal.

[Jenni C]

Yes agree. Also, to receive a polite email asking if they mind could also serve as a good memory-jogger as to what a fantastic time they had and maybe make them think about re-booking?

[LaVilleauTady]

Annie,

I think if you are going to publish the comments without the names, then that is not an issue.

We prefer to publish the full name, date of stay, and origin of the guests with their comments, as it is more authentic. We ask them to tick a box on our feedback form to say they are happy for their comments to be used and attributed to them.

[Annie T]

Thanks for the advice folks! I am only hesitating to ask the guests as I've recently set up on Flipkey and sent emails requesting reviews for that site -(with 9 out of about 21 actually doing the reviews for us!). I know the Flipkey system sends a reminder out to those who have not responded about 2 weeks after the first request - and I don't want to annoy anyone by asking again about the reviews on our own website!

Should I chance it?!


Annie

[LaVilleauTady]

Annie, as you say, it may be a bit annoying for past guests to get anoher request.

If people have put their nice comments on flipkey, then just use those, as they have already consented to those comments being published.

I don't think it would be an big issue for most people even if you published their comments without express permission. If any one did contact you to object, then you could remove their entries.

[Cassis]

If they're already published on Flipkey then I would just copy them onto my website. They are already in the public domain. In fact, that's what I do with TripAdvisor (may the devil damn their bones) reviews.

I don't use the TA widget though as I don't want to encourage people to click through to the TA site and I don't want to feed SEO juice to TA. Instead I copy the reviews onto a special page which is then presented in an iframe on the index page. This also means I can just present the French reviews on our French website and the English ones on the English site.

It's not as onerous as it sounds - takes about a minute to add a new review.

[Annie T]

That's what I love about these forums - the best ideas are always so simple, but it's always something that I'd never have thought of!!

[Giddy Goat]

Very clever Cassis!

[Annie T]

Quick update - I surprised myself by working out how to embed my trip Advisor/Flipkey reviews into our website!! Wouldn't have thought of it without your comments though folks, so many thanks!
Annie