A CITY pub has been accused of ‘bribing’ customers to leave positive reviews on TripAdvisor.
Bluebell Farm, Horn Hill Road, Worcester, is being investigated by the popular online review site following concerns that it had attempted to manipulate its popularity ranking.
A spokesperson for the Greene King-owned pub said it was working with TripAdvisor to address the situation.
A message on the pub’s review page reads: “TripAdvisor has grounds to investigate that individuals or entities associated with or having an interest in this property may have attempted to interfere with traveller reviews and/or the Popularity Index for this property.
“Please take this into consideration when researching your travel plans.
“We make our best efforts to identify suspicious content and are always working to improve the processes we use to assess traveller reviews.”
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The notice was placed on the pub’s page after it received several warnings from TripAdvisor regarding reports from customers that Bluebell Farm was offering incentives such as free desserts in exchange for reviews.
A spokesperson for the review site said: “TripAdvisor has strict guidelines against businesses offering what we call ‘incentivised reviews’.
“These are reviews submitted in exchange for gifts, discounts, or any other sort of freebie – in short, bribes.
“Incentive programmes like this disproportionately benefit businesses who can afford to give free stuff away – and it doesn’t always lead to a fair review from the customer who may feel pressured to be more positive than if they had chosen to leave a review themselves.
“If travellers encounter a situation where a business offers an incentive in exchange for a review, they can email us at incentives@tripadvisor.com.
“Every report is handled confidentially and helps us keep biased reviews off our platform.”
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A spokesperson for Bluebell Farm said: “We are aware of the notice and are working with all necessary parties to address this.”
In 2025, more than 440,000 incentivised reviews were removed from 9,000 businesses around the world by Tripadvisor.
However, a member of staff at Bluebell Farm claimed TripAdvisor’s strict guidelines about incentivised reviews included reviews which named staff members, even if there were no positive incentives for customers or staff.
