PUB landlords have withdrawn their boozer from the world's largest travel site saying it has become a "sad, desolate place" occupied by trolls and "dusty fake reviews" from "ranking-obsessed business owners".

Philip Rees and Ian Wilson have announced that their Queen Victoria pub in Rottingdean High Street will be "abdicating" from TripAdvisor because being on the review website had become "too emotionally draining".

The online giant has responded to the criticism by saying the large majority of the site's reviews were positive and their reviewers' feedback had helped many small businesses flourish.

The landlords, who took over the pub in 2012, are not afraid of going against the status quo having banned large Christmas parties from the venue to avoid stressing out their regulars last winter.

Now the pair have decided to withdraw from the US-based website which carries guest reviews for more than one million venues worldwide.

Philip and Ian said TripAdvisor's business model encourages trolling with the balance swaying towards reviewers rather than businesses.

The landlords said they had previously responded to negative reviews with witty replies but had grown increasingly uncomfortable in dealing with bullies by "bullying them back harder".

The pair have described the process as "too emotionally draining" with bad reviews having the capacity to really hurt.

They said: "When we first took on the pub, we were ourselves avid users of TripAdvisor, and, for a while, TripAdvisor was an important business driver with a steady stream of people telling us they’d come in because they’d seen our reviews.

"Nowadays, not so much. TripAdvisor has become a sad, desolate place occupied by trolls and littered with dusty fake reviews from ranking-obsessed business owners.

"We’re real people serving real food and drink, and sometimes things just do go wrong, but what usually happens is that we work really hard to try and fix it.

"If something’s not right, we’ll throw all the charm and old-fashioned hospitality we can at it til the poor victim leaves feeling as cosseted and cared for as we can possibly manage. And, invariably, those experiences don’t make it onto TripAdvisor.

"Without making any sweeping statements, almost exclusively all nasty reviews on Tripadvisor are written by nasty people."

A TripAdvisor spokeswoman said the majority of reviews submitted on the site are positive with an average rating for the Queen Vic currently over four out of five and she said customers' views were not shaped by the extreme views of just one or two reviewers.

The spokeswoman said customer reviews have had a positive effect on hospitality standards over the past fifteen years.

She added: "For business owners, there are clear benefits to engaging with customer reviews on TripAdvisor.

"Many businesses actually improve their reputation by taking constructive feedback from what reviewers say and making changes to address the issue.

"We know of many small businesses who have flourished by doing this."