Topic: Am I the only person annoyed that our paid advertising partners have crossed the line by becoming a ratings and reviews forum, at our expense?

Regionals, District Managers and Property Managers, please? I have serious questions about your advertising partnerships. Am I the only person annoyed that our paid advertising partners have crossed the line by becoming a ratings and reviews forum, at our expense? I have been in the industry for more years than I care to count. I have worked A, B, C, repositioning and new construction rent ups, but the mere fact that I PAY an ad source to advertise what I tell them to say, just so they can turn around and permit those who are usually problems to rant or post defamatory statements, at my expense, is very unsettling. Honestly, if a false posting is proven and the ad source is providing the platform, why shouldn’t they be named in litigation. They are not vetting the poster to even verify they are or were a legitimate resident, heck they don’t even provide a rebuttal area. I’m sure they hide behind disclaimers, but in my opinion, their actions constitute libel; and damages for having impacted the community should be challenged in a court of law. Your Thoughts? Please share your voice of opposition - let’s blow up the advertising platform phones like they have done to us.

Never thought of that but you are

Valid point.

You have a valid point. It’s getting worse.
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You have a valid point. It’s getting worse.

I never thought about it that way either! We pay a lot of $$$ for these sites!!!

it is frustrating!

Yes. And even worse, why are advertising budgets so huge and resident event budgets getting smaller and smaller??? It sucks that the industry values new move ins more than they value existing residents!!! Its backwards man!!!!

THIS!

On point

I had a lengthy conversation with Apts.Com Rep, who agreed and then stated my concerns would be elevated. I plan on authoring an open letter to the NAA, so the industry at large may be placed on notice. I only had one negative review, but one is too many. I can only imagine those in challenging areas or older communities, what must they endure? The larger cities have spoiled brats, then there are the college areas where the mentality is do for me and do it now, if you don’t I will bash you. If someone is brazen enough to post a false or slanderous review - then its high time we as the industry have a right to refute. Why can’t we say this resident was a PITA, was always late, had loud parties and so on... if they can do it, why can’t we without worry of repercussions? Ohhhh because it’s one sided, almost forgot that tidbit. No more anonymous postings ... period ... a review must be verified with management prior to going live or the advertising source is also named in the lawsuit. Taaah Dahhh problem solved, now let’s put this issue forward. Stay Tuned.

I am pretty sure with apts.com it’s a feature that can be turned off

Chad Christian that’s my whole point. They created it and they need to remove it. I don’t have the funding for a F/T social media counter attacker.... it’s ridiculous. Heck, it’s Saturday and I’m still working on this stuff. My team works so incredibly hard each day - all day; and they don’t deserve the temper tantrum rants. I get it that most are upset with the manager, because we have to enforce the rules, but not the team.

I had a resident tell me yesterday If I didn’t give her her way she would make it a point to go on every review site and write horrible things every day until we finally caved

I agree.

Part of the problem of our economy being service based is that it now becomes controlled by whichever consumer group is loudest.

I share your annoyance. This has been a huge concern of mine for some time.

You may have options to limit or remove the ratings from your site. We did for several properties

Jeff Petagna Yes, she stated that she would demand that it be removed, but who has the time anymore to confront, write a dissertation to the ad source and then wait for it to be removed? Heck, they have a thumbs up that ask if this posting was helpful? That in itself is defamatory to the community and the ad source doesn’t even know if the post is truthful. So if a prospect reads the false statement, clicks the thumbs up... we lose the prospect; and 90% of the time, it’s a lie. So darn frustrating.

When people say “if you don’t do this I’m going to post a bad review” my response has always been “you do what you have to do, I don’t cower to online bullying. And when you decide to do that please be prepared for my full and honest response to your ridiculous complaint”

We are now on Opiniion (yes, that's how it's spelled). 1-5 star reviews. 1-3 get sent to me (manager to contact) 4 &5 star are published to where we want it to go. But so understand your frustration! My company and team just took over this property a few months ago and are getting great reviews. Thankfully, bad ones (complaining about old mgmt co) get sent to me and not published!

Following on what we can do as a united front to stop this practice.

Ditch those and just stick with managing the reviews you get via your property’s Google My Business listing. It’s free and it’s gonna be there no matter what - best ROI! Then just put ad dollars into SEO/Google Ads/FB ads if needed. More power to harnessing the power of your own property website!

I won’t mention an sites by name, but there was an outlet in recent history that allowed their paid advertisers to filter their reviews received and only promote/show the reviews they choose to show. It was a big advantage over all of the other sites. But unfortunately, that site was bought and changed. There is whispers that this function might be implemented into the ad network that bought said site, but I highly doubt it. Reason being, they offer reputation management products that allow them to help manage those bad reviews that they allow to be posted on your paid ads. More revenue for share holders. Sad but true.
Basically, you are paying for bad word of mouth and then paying to fix the bad word of mouth you are already paying for. Harsh realization indeed.
-Former Ad Rep

Thanks or no thanks to googles creation of ratings/reviews, RentPath implemented a product that focuses on promoting positive reviews, along with many other features. There’s no way to dodge reviews these days so RP assists in promoting positive reviews from certified residents. So it sounds like it’s of upmost importance to use RP’s program. Yes there are negatives ones on ILS’s but it’s all in the way they are managed.
Contact RentPath or your rep for more info.

This is no different than any other consumer based product. For example, Dove soap. You can review the same dove soap on multiple platforms (target, Walmart, Amazon, cvs, etc just to name a few). While convenience for us as PM’s is to have all reviews under one central umbrella, that isn’t the way the world works. All reviews should have a variety of perspectives which is gained by interfacing multiple channels/platforms. This provides the consumer (potential resident) with a plethora of opinions and view points to make their decision before making the expensive commitment of choosing a housing provider. Not to mention, if all of your resident reviews were 100% perfect, everyone would question the legitimacy of the reviews themself. Even if ILS’ didn’t allow reviews and you wanted to only allow them on your website where you can pick and choose which ones to post (

I came from 13 years in property management. Through the beginning stages of Apartment Ratings to the transition in which property management professionals could no longer turn a blind eye. It’s truly overwhelming & our product is helping these professionals manage the uncontrollable.

I TOTALLY agree. I've been upset about this since it started but the advertisers have a nice prepared speech about how it can be a good thing. Absolutely ridiculous that this isn't optional when we pay them thousands of dollars.

Wholeheartedly agree and have voiced concern regarding same - I will not pay to be listed on an ILS if it portrays my community as anything but 5 stars!