| Perks for praise: Are hotels abusing user reviews? and Crime risks quadruple around big-city airports, study finds |
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Go figure. Just when you thought you could trust online user reviews comes word out of the UK that maybe you shouldn’t.The (Daily) Mail Online reports that the government’s Office of Fair Trading is considering investigating allegations that hotels are offering incentives to guests in exchange for glowing online reviews.The article cites The Cove Cornwall hotel, in Lamorna, reporting that the property encourages guests to become “brand champions” by posting “honest but positive” reviews on online review sites, including TripAdvisor, Michelin and the Good Food Guide. Once the reviews are posted, guests can receive 10 percent off food and beverages and a “free apartment upgrade.”Encouraged or not, reviews of The Cove on TripAdvisor are, indeed, mostly positive. Of 87 reviews, 57 rated the hotel excellent, the highest of five categories. [Read the full article] A man found swimming naked in the waterway next to the fuel farm for New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Tuesday has been charged with trespassing.The swimmer was spotted at 10:50 a.m. by roving airport patrols, according to Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey."The man never entered the prohibited fuel farm area and was never in a restricted area," Coleman said. The man was interviewed by Port Authority police and taken to nearby Jamaica Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.The Port Authority is working to confirm the man's identity, and the case remains under investigation. [Read the full article] WASHINGTON — It has been almost 10 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and U.S. airports still are not as secure as they need to be. More than 14,000 people have found their way into sensitive areas, and about 6,000 travelers have made it past government screeners without proper scrutiny, according to a congressman who is leading an inquiry into the deficiencies.Since November 2001, more than 25,000 security breaches have occurred at U.S. airports, despite the extra security measures put in place over the past 9 years, said Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz, citing government statistics. That is an average of slightly more than five security breaches a year at each of the 457 commercial airports, and "these are just the ones we know about," said Chaffetz, who is overseeing a congressional hearing Wednesday on security shortcomings. [Read the full article] 
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