Would you be happy if your guests ‘did a runner’ without paying their bill?
Ok, so that’s a stupid question to ask. Of course you wouldn’t be happy if your guests decided to ‘dine and dash’ without paying their bill.
What about a guest that steals condiments, crockery or cutlery (we’ve all seen it). This is not something we find acceptable. We don’t budget for this when we are costing our menus as an on-cost and would stop it if we could.
Would you be happy if competitors stole your marketing database or owned content from your website?
When dealing with technology providers, it can be tricky to know for certain where they have gathered their data from, and if it has been done legally. Add onto this, the information overload that comes with looking at a new product or service, and it’s easy to see why many operators forget to ask this crucial question, and end up with a supplier that is stealing/scraping data from the internet, without permission. Which can have dire consequences.
Whether it be review platforms, social media channels or websites in general, there is often a clause in the terms and conditions or policies of these platforms where it forbids the scraping of data. Here are a few examples from some of the biggest platforms used in hospitality:-
There is a simple way to find this information out when looking at suppliers of social feeds, simply ask them whether they have written permission that they can provide you or certification that they are an official partner of these platforms with the desired integrations.
There is a high probability that a lot of the suppliers offering services like pulling data from review platforms or social media channels don’t often have the certification or written permission to do so.
How do we know this?
As a trusted, official partner of platforms such as Google, TripAdvisor, Facebook, Twitter & Instagram we requested information from these parties as to whether we could scrape data and they have confirmed that only the direct integrations we currently have available for our customers are available for partners, without going against their T&C’s or policies.
We also discussed this with other platforms owners including Booking.com. In every case, it was made clear that scraping data is against their T&C’s and something that they monitor and take very seriously.
Luckily for operators out there some suppliers can be trusted and do have direct integrations, including us here at Feed It Back, a trusted source of information for the hospitality sector.
The lesson here is, shop for the best systems and make sure you choose the right supplier for your business, but if they are pulling data from other sources that they do not own the rights to DO ask for how they get this data and request the evidence that they do have express written consent/permission. If they can’t supply them then you should not even consider them for many different reasons:-
- It is susceptible to losing data at any point – Do you really want to pay for a service that could be intermittent?
- If any of these platforms change their formulas then you could be left without data for weeks or months on end. (When Facebook changed their review system back in September it left scraping tools and feedback suppliers without facebook content for months – with some deciding to turn off facebook review altogether)
- You do not want to run the risk of legal proceedings for something that you could have sourced from a reputable partner.
- It is morally wrong
Feed It Back are official partners and offer integrated services to Google, TripAdvisor, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to supply operators with the data that drives delighted guests, alongside our surveys and case management platform.
If you want to find out more about our integrations, our full list of partners or services then please email allears@feeditback.com.