No. Anyone that may have reason to be influenced in their review shouldn’t rank you. Rankings must be 100% genuine and free from any influence.

Operators and people affiliated with operators cannot rank their competition. All fraudulent rankings are taken very seriously and this is the biggest no-no of all.

Yes, this is an important part of generating rankings. Rankers is an up to date website so we ask that you have customers rank you that have recently experienced your product.

Once the operator has confirmed a booking with the customer then a contract has been formed and the operator can be reviewed.

No. Operators can ask customers to rank them when after they leave their premises but are not allowed incentives, discounts, upgrades, or special treatment on current or future stays in exchange for positive reviews.

We ask that you don’t do this as this could influence the ranking. It is best if the rankings are made from home.

Please contact us. Our commitment - and our energy - is to ensure rankings are genuine. We know how damaging a dodgy review can be.

Let us know about the date, title of the review plus any other info that could help our checks. All investigations are treated with strict confidentiality and we encourage operators to help us out in this process.

No can do. Travellers must post their own rankings. Operators cannot enter any rankings on behalf.

There are two places rankings come from – one is online through our website and the other is our offline manual ranking process.

We can guarantee the validity of the information because we collect a great deal of the rankings offline ourselves. Our online ranking process has been developed to make fraudulent rankings difficult. Each Ranker needs email verification to create a profile and can then only rank each given experience once. All rankings are checked as they come in.  Further checks are also made that we think are best not to make public. Trusted, unbiased information is the cornerstone of Rankers, we’ll make sure it stays that way.

Although we are a transparent business, we think it is in everybody’s interest that we don’t explain all our checks in detail. What we will say is:

• Each and every ranking is checked.
• When certain flags are raised we investigate further.
• In the case of a poor ranking, we will initially take the side of an operator, as we know how damaging a false ranking can be. The ranking will not be public until we are certain it is 100% genuine.
• Over 50% of the rankings on rankers have been collected ourselves. These rankings serve as a ‘control’. If online rankings don’t match our control then a flag is raised.
• A flag is also raised if the review doesn’t reflect the ranking or if the ranking score is either very high or very low.

This case study explains our checks as it happens in the real world. We go to great lengths when necessary!

Case Study - Wilderness Motorhomes Investigation.

We knew very little of Wilderness Motorhomes until they burst onto the Rankers scene in June 2008. This is what we did to ensure the rankings placed about them are genuine.

1. We wrote to many of the people that have placed rankings for Wilderness to see if they were genuine. They all wrote back and were very passionate about their review. Most went on to explain in greater detail why they gave such a strong ranking and review.
2. We have a system that shows us the location where each ranking originated. In this case, their rankings come from different locations, all around the world.
3. Our man on the road, Don, has made a special effort to meet people using Wilderness campers. So far he has met two campers and the comments received were in line with the reviews made on Rankers.
4. We made a point of visiting Wilderness when in their neck of the woods. Having worked in tourism for 15 years we have a good understanding of tourism service levels. Everything we saw met or surpassed the levels that are standard in the industry.
5. We know a good number of people in the business and made checks around the people behind Wilderness. Everyone we spoke to said that they were straight shooters.

It is also important to note that the system will eventually expose dodgy rankings. If Wilderness weren’t all they were cut out to be on Rankers then there is nothing stopping their customers from going online and telling the world that is the case.

Summary

Provide a great product, play a clean game and the traveller will love you for it.

We take review fraud very seriously and are committed to keeping Rankers a trusted source of genuine, independent information.

Rankers gives everyone equal opportunity for gains through the Rankers system.  We are 100% independent, transparent and open to feedback ourselves. If you have any questions concerning any part of the Rankers system then please get in touch.

Yes, you do. We have been in the operator shoes ourselves, and know the importance of recourse. Each operator has a right of reply, and can give comment on reviews posted about their business by travellers on Rankers.co.nz.

Everyone has a right to their opinion – independent information is the hub of Rankers – however, contentious comments will need to be fact based if they are to remain public on the site.  Every ranking is checked.  Extremely high or low rankings often raise flags that require further investigation by us.

Every operator in NZ has their own rankers.co.nz username and password so they can login and reply to reviews.

Any response to a customer review is posted publicly. The operator right of reply is a way for you to show the world you have listened to feedback and give your side of the story, or show you have improved your service. They must be free of personal insults or threats. If you feel the customer is in the wrong then keep it clean. If you think the ranking is dodgy then contact us so we can look into it.

Your login details are provided at the bottom of our regular email newsletters to tourism operators. Contact us or request an operator account if you haven’t got a record of your log in details.

See the "How do I log into my operator account?" FAQ for information on logging in.

Once you're logged into your operator account…

1. Look for the ‘Respond to Reviews’ heading in the ‘Manage’ section.
2. Enter your response to the review.
3. Check your response carefully as any changes made here will be live to the world once submitted.

It all starts with rankings.  Courtesy emails to past clients are very effective in generating rankings. Then place a Rankers badge in a prominent place on your website so travellers can see your independent feedback. Trust is then formed and bookings flow in as a result.

Further leverage this trust by becoming an Open Ranker.

The aim of Rankers is to provide a level playing field in the NZ tourism industry.  All operators, regardless of their size can compete equally.  Rankers alone may not provide enough rankings for smaller businesses so asking customers to go online to rank you is a key component for smaller companies.

Traveller reviews are Rankers' currency. Without reviews, visitors to the Rankers website never have an opportunity to find out what you’re about. Get some rankings and get seen!

• Your customers are more likely to write a review if they’ve had a moving and memorable experience. Over 95% of rankings are positive.
• Introduce Rankers and travel reviews at a personal level while your clients are with you. Then later send a personal email asking them to write a review – it's the most effective method of all for generating rankings.
• We’ve found that simply asking people to write reviews, or handing them physical reminder cards when they leave doesn’t work as well as catching them at their computer with a personalised post-trip email. Remind them what a good time they had, explain the Rankers process and send them the appropriate links to make it really easy.

Below is an example you might want to use, it's the most effective way to get reviews. Just copy and paste it and then fill in the blanks.

Example Email

The personality and character you add to the email is up to you. The more personal the message, the more inclined your clients/guests are to take the time and make a ranking. They are responding to the experience you gave them initially – a ranking is often their opportunity to thank you in return. Use their names, your names and continue what began when they visited your place.

Rankers.co.nz is a community site that holds information about the NZ travel and tourism industry. Travellers to NZ rank and review their experiences here, and future travellers use this information as a resource when planning where to go and what to do. Every tourism operator in NZ is listed on the site and can be ranked and reviewed. All have the opportunity to have a profile page with information, photos, links and contact details so travellers can book direct. Rankers.co.nz does not take commission on bookings.

We created Rankers to give equal benefits for both the traveller and the tourism operator.

Quite simply, tourism businesses that look after their customers will get the most out of Rankers.

Word-of-mouth has always been the best form of information for world travel. It comes from an independent source and is genuine. The Internet now gives word-of-mouth serious wheels.

Community sites are different from most other NZ tourism sites in that most of the content comes from the traveller (consumer generated content), not a website writer.

The nature of a community site means the information it holds is trusted. This ultimately leads to more bookings for those that have exposure on the website.

This is the area we know and can initially serve best, plus we want to make sure everything works properly before we get bigger and start ranking other things. If you’re a jack of all trades, you’re a master of none!

Consumer buying habits are changing.  Fast.  It is a transparent world now.  The Rankers Traveller Endorsement is a sign of the times. Travellers believe in an endorsement that is transparent and validated by other travellers, not by an unknown party whose agendas aren’t clear.

Every tourism activity/attraction and transport operator in NZ is entitled to an operator account. This account enables you to respond to a customers review (right of reply) and download rankers web badges for your website.

Open Rankers also use this account to upload their images, brand and company description so they feature across the site.

Every operator in NZ can have their own rankers.co.nz username and password so they can login and reply to reviews, try out the Open Ranker benefits and receive our email newsletters (optional).

If you've received an email newsletter in the past then you'll find your login details at the bottom of the newsletter.

Otherwise you can request an operator account.

Operators can log into their account using the same login page as a regular "traveller" user might.

1. Click on the ‘sign in’ icon at the top right of any page.
2. Enter your username and password (password can be changed to something more memorable once you log in).

If you've forgotten your password then use the Forgot Password page. If your email address doesn't link to a Rankers account then contact us and we will sort it all out for you.

One of the main jobs of the Rankers crew is to look after information that the Rankers community entrusts us with. Any contact details and sensitive information is respected and kept secure. For more information read our privacy policy.

To ensure the feedback covers the whole spectrum of travellers we collect rankings from various sources.  The majority of rankings currently come from Campervan and Rental Car users.  Many of these travellers are over 35 years old.  We also collect many rankings from backpackers, more the 18 – 30 age category.

NZ tourism businesses pay to become Open Rankers.

Cymen and Nick owned and operated Kaiteriteri Kayaks in the Abel Tasman for 13 years until selling in 2004. The Rankers crew met at this time, and have come together as a smaller unit to fill a need for clean, unbiased information in the tourism sector benefitting travellers and operators alike.

Unlike most NZ travel websites, our crew has a foundation of industry experience. The Rankers team come from an adventure tourism background, rather than the IT world. We understand the needs of the tourism operator and our aim is for quality operators to shine on rankers.co.nz.

Rankers is an open door. We are ex operators and aren't internet geeks either, so we understand these techie things can be confusing. If you need any help or have any questions then please contact us. We are a NZ tourism service and we look after other NZ tourism operators with personal and direct support.