Any reason not to use rel=author?

[xoffie]

Hi

Like everyone I've read a lot about rel=author but is there a reason not to use it?

For instance, if you're running the content, as I am, for a travel company, we have individual writers writing the content and guides to cities/hotels/tours etc, but none of our competitors are using rel=auithor, so we certainly do stand out. But does the "personal" touch of rel=author dilute trust in some cases?

For instance, if you're booking a specific hotel in London and you type in the hotel name looking for the best rate, do you really want to see a face you don't know beside a "corporate result"?

Is anyone in an industry where rel=author is being used in conjunction with products/product reviews. It will work for Gary V and wine, but will it work everywhere? Rel=author is touted everywhere as a sure fire bet... but are there times to back off from using it?

[DeltonChilds]

I don't know if you should back off on it. I found this post on google webmaster tools about it and it says for it to work you have to have a valid google+  acct... ?

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1408986

But I do know that in one of the latest ProWebinars  Rhea Drysdale talked about how some authors are taking advantage of the rel=author tag to help their rankings and she flashed a few success stories up too.

http://www.seomoz.org/webinars/online-reputation-management-branding-for-serp-domination

About 30minutes in she talks about some of the strategies and I think rel=author tags was one.