Too many positive reviews on ApartmentRatings.com?

We encourage our on-site leasing teams to solicit reviews from residents for ApartmentRatings.com when it is feasible for them to do so. Unfortunately, ApartmentRatings.com recently rejected one resident's positive review - not only once, but twice. When the resident contacted the website to inquire why her reviews were not being posted, she was told that ApartmentRatings.com noticed that her property had been receiving a large amount of “good” reviews, and that they feel the community is asking or “coaxing” residents to submit only positive reviews. This suggests that ApartmentRatings.com staff reviews and selectively posts reviews. I am drafting an email to ApartmentRatings.com regarding their response and requesting clarification on their policy regarding posting reviews. Has anyone else experienced anything similar with any of the apartment review sites?

Holy cow... I'd love to hear what their response is to this!!

Wow!! That stinks!

I used to only have positive reviews but have recently received some less favorable ones. I also suggest on my final account statements that people visit the site.

Most recently I had a current resident leave a great review only to be torn apart from an angry poster.

I can't wait to hear more thoughts on this!

My thoughts are simple, apartmentratings.com boasts the ability to openly critique your community for better or worse, but they are monitoring the apartments with too many positive ratings? What about the communities with too many negative ratings? It seems to me apartmentratings.com isn't a site for honest communication from both sides, they are out to make us look bad! I really can't believe they are censoring the good and posting the bad! What about the legality of discriminating? Or denying someone free speech. I am pretty sure there's a violation of law here, if not the code of ethics. Please let me know what they send back to you!

That is absolutely outrageous! I cannot believe they did that. They don't seem to care when there are too many negative reviews. How can they even prove that theory?

Does your community have a contract with them to pay for a manager's response? We have one with them, but they are definitely slow to respond to resquests. Please share their response - if they even make one.

It took me two years to get my name off of some reviews that angry previouse residents who were under evictions posted about me. It was not till I threaten with a law suit did they bleep out my name.

Can't remember were I read/heard that apartmentratings.com was actually founded by a a disgruntled resident...that being said it is of no surprise to me that they would censor positive reviews...since your resident :S s and your community have no contract with them how can they censor a review...that being said we all know the old truth a customer with a bad experience will tell twice as many friends as a customer with a good experience--requesting a review on their website is no more than asking them to complete a survey.....PLEASE keep us updated....would love to hear what they have to say!

To some degree, the negative impact of ApartmentRatings.com and similar sites can be negated by providing residents an internal vehicle for venting their frustrations. Property owners and management teams should look at their online portals and platforms to see if an internal email client, forum, blog, suggestion box or other module is included for residents to communicate with management and other residents online to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly. It is better to know what the issues are and deal with them before they rise to the level of a bad review on the likes of ApartmentRatings.com. The key is to work in the medium they are using...online communication.

Let me start by saying that in today's internet savvy renters market, it has been my experience that todays renter will go from your ad that you have placed whether it be on Craigs List, a publication they picked up or just googling apartments in your area to apartment ratings or another discussion forum about your specific community and they WILL base a possible visit or phone call based on what they read.

Fortunately for me, my ratings are very high and that has been a HUGE draw for me. of course as several of you stated, there is always that one or two person(s) that feel the need to put something nasty and sometimes unwarranted on there.

I check my ratings on a daily basis and do not personally believe in posting a false review of my own to boost my ratings. I will however respond to every negative and or positive review that has been posted.

Obviously if there is something on there that is a direct attack on an individual staff member or resident, I will always email them and have it removed or revised (apt ratings no longer just removes them, usually they will take out names and numbers).

I think most renters are smart enough to know that if you have 90% great ratings and a couple bad that the majority thinks its a great place to live.

Our company has made it policy to respond to each and every posting letting the viewer as well as the "poster" know that we do want to resolve any issues they may have, past and present.

I like to look at it as a learning tool, if it is the same complaint over and over, obviously there is a problem that needs to be dealt with quickly.

It has had a very positive impact on my traffic and leases when the reviewers see an intelligible response to a not so positive review, it at least shows that we hear you and want to make it better.

While I may not share Mark's enthusiasum for this site over ILS's I certainly believe that aptratings.com has done us a great service. Along with these other rating sites it has allowed us to do our jobs. Quite honestly while I hate bad ratings and take them very personally I do enjoy the opportunity to solve a problem in an open forum. I have had residents who posted something negative go back and retract their post with a positive because we took care of them.
Does not make any sense at all that aptratings would sensor anything because they are built on exposure. The more people who visit their site the better right? Anyway to those of you out there who are listening take the opportunity to relish the opportunity rather than take it personally.

I personally have never heard of this happening but I have had two residents attempt to leave positive feedback on apartmentratings.com and both were removed without permission from the posting party. It was available for review less than 24 hours and when attempting to post again it did not allow it again. We never did any further follow up with it because we just assumed there was a kink in the website. We also thought since both girls sent it from the same computer that perhaps they log your address and only one post is allowed per computer.

We'll have to look more into this now that you mentioned this. Very strange.

Well...I agree, this is totally UNFAIR of them to censor POSITIVE
reviews. It does seem to me though that there are just too many
NEGATIVE reivews on ApartmentRatings.com - it's difficult to determine who's really being honest. I agree with the comment that
do whatever you can to RESOLVE TENANT PROBLEMS before they become upset with the Property (when they are current OR former tenants).
Most of the complaints I have read about have been slow maintenance response time, unhappy with the Manager or the Staff
or charges after the tenants have moved out. These issues can all
be resolved BEFORE they make it to that ApartmentRatings.com site and work against the Property. You never want a tenant to leave,
but if they must, you don't want them to move out, because of
a "reason" that could have been prevented in the first place.

GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE...in the office, quick maintenance response time and a clear understanding between the Manager and the tenant about what the move-out charges will be and specifically what they are for...sort of like doing damage control BEFORE is better than after.

I actually believe it's a good idea to encourage tenants to
write a review on ApartmentRatings.com.....if Management has
done their job...hopefully, those reviews will be very positive.
Because I feel those HIGHER rated properties do get more
attention from people searching for apartments.