Then came Tripadvisor... and the entire hotel industry was turned upside down!  Potential travelers from all over the world could actually find a boutique resort like ours and review us.  Positive reviews really helped our business boom and the Blue Seas Courtyard rose to be the #1 top-rated hotel in Lauderdale by the Sea for more than 6 years!  Naturally competition with our neighboring hotels heated up and ratings began to fluctuate a little bit, however, maybe not in the fairest way.  Tripadvisor ratings are all based on total number of reviews and content.  We have only 12 rooms compared to neighbors that have 40+ rooms.   That can be challenging to compete with.  Additionally, Tripadvisor has tremendous problems with "Optimization Companies" which hotels now hire to manipulate their rankings on Tripadvisor.  A clue to 'optimization' would be a hotel with a lot of perfect reviews that date back only a few years.   
We want to guarantee you that all of our 529+ reviews dating back to 2006 are genuine and submitted exclusively by guests that have actually stayed with us.  We also promise that we have never offered a guest any type of incentive to write a positive review.  We truly feel honored to be the only hotel in Lauderdale by the Sea to have earned the Tripadvisor Hall of Fame Award and remained in the top 3 for 15 consecutive years!  We believe the award is a testament to the 'time-honored' and 'quality' business values we started with 52 years ago! 
Sincerely,  Cristie and Marc Furth