Trip Advisor

[AnotherArch]

i have used Trip Advisor often and when the concensus is 'good' then it is very good. You have to ignore the American crticisms, which are mainly based upon size and laziness. There were several major criticisms of a fantastic (to us) flat we found in central Rome because of a flight of stairs (no lift) and size of rooms (standard for Europe).

 

[Trufflehound]

I've seen some incredibly negative reviews of some places that I know full well are actually very nice. In some cases they are so factually wrong as to make it clear the person writing has never even been there.

I assume they are either written by jealous competitors, or by professional complainers hired by said competitors.

 

[Peteinblack]

I've seen some incredibly negative reviews of some places that I know full well are actually very nice. In some cases they are so factually wrong as to make it clear the person writing has never even been there.

I assume they are either written by jealous competitors, or by professional complainers hired by said competitors.

#

I've heard/read of cases where bad reviews have been written by a rival hotel or restaurant owner !!

 

[Wilko]

I stayed in a basic hostel last week in Madrid, it was about 20 euros a night and so was VERY basic but that is fine with me for that price. Before I went though I read the reviews, the most resent one was someone awarding the hostel 1 star, the reason? Because it rained for the 3 days they stayed there. Un-Ber-Lee-Va-Ball.

 

[The Buttery Biscuit Base]

My main criticism of it that people can leave a review of a hotel or establishment without any proof of the 'allegations'. You're not even asked to prove if you have stayed there in fact.

Some of the the reviews border on libel, and the hoteliers can't do anything about the reviews.

 

[Falmer Flutter ©]

Watching the programme on Trip Advisor last night I was amazed to see how totally anal some people are in writing reviews. Staying in a bed and breakfast expecting 5 star facilities. Bed and breakfasts are mostly pretty grim so why bother writing revies about how a light kept you awake and that the fan in the bathroom didn't switch off the second that you turned the light out

I use it to get an idea of what a hotel is like, it's not a bible as people's taste and expectations vary enormously. I'll generally only pay attention to reviews over the last year as the hotel could have been taken over/refurbed so reviews from 2008 are likely to be totally out of date. The reviews shout "anal twat" so often. If I'm staying in a 3rd world hotel I'll expect slower and more laid back service, that's half the charm of the hotels when you are on holiday, not a reason to have a moan.

Anyway the programme made me appreciate that I am not in a business where some self important arsehole can write a review that effectively has the power to affect your livelehood and there is pretty well nothing you can do to rectify it.

Any serial trip advisor reviewers on here

I'd agree to a certain extent that people's expectations are too high, but that B&B you mentioned was £90 a night so I'd expect a slightly better standard of cleanliness and comfort than what was portrayed. Saying that, the bloke was being a right twat about the bathroom fan.

 

[brunswick]

one small hotel owner pissed me off so much i spent 45 minutes writing bad reviews on 3 different sites a few month back.....felt much better after.....saying this, i have a secret love of the "watchdog" programme, and love a good victor meldrew moment.

 

[Icy Gull]

I'd agree to a certain extent that people's expectations are too high, but that B&B you mentioned was £90 a night so I'd expect a slightly better standard of cleanliness and comfort than what was portrayed. Saying that, the bloke was being a right twat about the bathroom fan.

Agreed but it was peak season in a holiday resort and the pair of them were behaving like a couple of hotel inspectors, absolute twats. One of them had a pet hate for any water left in the kettle ffs!! How hard would it be to empty it before filling it again!!

That Northern git was equally irritating.

 

[sten_super]

As a completely irrelevant aside, I love that Skimwords picked up on 'bathroom fan'. How weird.

 

[drew]

Haven't seen the programme yet but I think Tripadvisor is superb. I've been using it for years for some long trips abroad and its consistently allowed me to find accommodation that offers excellent value for money.

I think it's pretty easy to wheedle out the reviewers who have unrealistic expectations as long as the hotel has lots of reviews to choose from. The main giveaway is that they usually complain about not having been treated as if they are on a royal visit or that they've had some trivial argument with the owner.

I've used it a couple of times but what the program showed last night that the reviewers were insecure muppets revelling in their perceived power when in fact their reviews were in the minority.

 

[Trufflehound]

Some of the the reviews border on libel, and the hoteliers can't do anything about the reviews.

If it was the hotelier/restaurateur who put the hotel on Tripadvisor in the first place, they do have a right of reply to any comment they feel is unfair (and on the flip side, to thank people for kind reviews), and can sometimes explain why a particular customer was feeling pissed off. I've only seen a limited number of places actually take advantage of this facility however.

My main criticism of it that people can leave a review of a hotel or establishment without any proof of the 'allegations'. You're not even asked to prove if you have stayed there in fact.

To leave a review on a hotel booking site like booking.com or agoda.com for example, you do have to have booked through that site. For that reason I give more credence to what I read on there.

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

I like Tripadvisor but I'm always wary of those establishments that have very few reviews. Every establishment should be using it to improve their services.

 

[Jim D]

The programme was definitely 'set up' by the makers, with both reviewers and owners showing no willingness to back down from their own perception of their value. I guess they just went through TA looking for a series of sad comments from the same person or places that had made angry responses to criticism. After that it was just a matter of lighting the blue touch paper.

 

[CP 0 3 BHA]

To leave a review on a hotel booking site like booking.com or agoda.com for example, you do have to have booked through that site. For that reason I give more credence to what I read on there.

I agree with that - the reviews that appear on our B&B's website are responses by guests who have booked online and automatically get a feedback request email from eevivo when they've completed their stay with us. As a result of that, we have more reviews on there than on TripAdvisor. Anyone can leave a TripAdvisor review whether they'e stayed or not.

 

[jcdenton08]

I have TripAdvisor to thank for finding me some of the best hotels I have ever stayed at; I have also been badly let down by high ranking places which have been utter gash in reality. The Casablanca Hotel in Times Square is one of the best hotels in NYC and has been number 1-3 for the past three/four years on TripAdvisor, the manager (John) personally addresses any reviews less than 5* and actually deals with any problems. I also was recommended a restaurant called Jamms, a horrible shitty little diner in Las Vegas which was a) hugely overpriced and b) served inedible food based on the 13 reviews (all 5 star).

Another thing to remember is how easy TripAdvisor is to scam, hotels get their staff to write 2/3 positive reviews a night to bump up the ratings. Then there are differing expectations, particularly from British nationals compared to, say, American nationals. Find a hotel in Paris and read the reviews from Americans compared to, say, Europeans. Americans can't understand why they are paying 5x the amount for half the space and no air conditioning whereas Europeans go to America and praise everything for being so cheap and spacious.

And then, obviously, there are the absolute mongers like in the programme (I haven't seen it, just assuming) who cling on to their moment of 'power' in the same way as eBay feedback abusers do.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

While the owners shown were hardly the cream of the service industry ( especially that idiot running the Old Forge or whatever it's called ) but every single one of the "reviewers" was a complete plum. That woman who was offered a meal to try and change her mind was quite clearly a keyboard warrior - given the opportunity to defend her review face to face and she doesn't have the guts to complete the meeting. Awful.

That little weed of a supermarket manager ( he couldn't really be surely ? ) needs a few similar reviews and critics of his shop - bet he changes his tune then !!!!

I use Tripadvisor but always take the extreme reviews with a pinch of salt.

 

[jcdenton08]

Oh and the best thing about TripAdvisor is the candid photos anyway; you can tell if a place is good almost solely from the photos of the complex, rooms and facilities.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

I'm a regular poster on TA, and as others have said, it can be invaluable. We recently did a three week road trip around Southwestern USA and the advice I got from the 'forum' section of the website was superb, we saw places and did things that were 'off the beaten track' that without TA we would never have known about.

I am however sure that some Hotels do sometimes write their own glowing reports, but I do tend to find those at the upper end of the TA list 'better' especially if they have several hundred reviews.

Those hotels with two or three (all fantastic) reviews we tend to take with a pinch of salt. Again, as others have said, the 'traveller' photos tend to reveal a lot.

I have SKY+ the programme, and look forward to watching it.

 

[Icy Gull]

I stayed in a hotel in Florida that had a sign in the lift stating that all posters of Trip Advisor positive reviews would receive a 25% booking on future bookings. Unsurprisingly it was the no 1 hotel in the area but turned out to be more motel than hotel and was well over rated.

 

[JCL - the new kid in town]

An American friend of mine said that you should ignore almost all the reviews from American tourists as they are ridiculously petty but apparently the Germans are pretty reasonable (assuming they are in english)