Tripadvisor - all the fuss

SimonAH

I use Tripadvisor all the time, and I leave reviews if a place is exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. If needing to stay overnight on business I simply look for the highest rated B&B (I like B&Bs vs chain hotels) in the area and book - never had a bad one.

I've had a room for £40 which had a four poster in the bedroom and a sauna in the bathroom in a converted rectory. I've slept in a moored boat on the Thames, a room with a door into private caves in Derbyshire and had a suite in a castle (amongst many others).

I've also stayed at the Big Sleep in Cardiff (my review is the one suggesting that, as you can see Cardiff prison from the hotel, it might be worth trying to get a room there instead) when someone else made the booking for me - a look at the reviews first and you'd never have stayed there in a million years!

What do you reckon on all the fuss? The accusations of businesses ruined and sneaky insider ratings?

aidso

Edit: OK I read the article and I think TripAdvisor have done nothing wrong.
What's the difference in people passing negative reviews in person, or writing it online? If your hotel/establishment sucks then that's your fault, not the guests who have paid to stay there. Non?

SimonAH

All over the BBC this week, and example here; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16501967

daviesee

I use it. I like it. It is a really good idea - in principle.

Unfortunately, some unprincipled people have found that they can ruin the competition by leaving extremely negative reviews about their competition, while leaving bogus glowing recommendations for their business. Shame.

davmaggs

You also get the nutter element that want 5* treatment at B&B prices or complain about something really trivial like an insect being in the room even when the hotel is based in a tropical country.

The same nutters also give products one star reviews on Amazon because the delivery was late, they simply do not understand what they are reviewing. Saying that I like bad reviews in that if the worse gripe posted is about some nonsense complaint then I know that the hotel is fine.

clarkey cat

if any review says:

"the cooked breakfast was to die for"

then its fake.

timmyflash

I think people are fairly good at judging the reality of the reviews.

I do think that good ones rise to the top and crap ones fall. I would say that sometimes the really good ones don't get to as high as they might even if they're the best place. Case in point, i stayed at some flash little place in Brugge, was the nices place i've stayed (pricey but) - but i'm pretty sure it wasn't top which i put down to relatively few reviews as it only has 3 rooms.

joenobody

davmaggs wrote:

You also get the nutter element that want 5* treatment at B&B prices or complain about something really trivial like an insect being in the room even when the hotel is based in a tropical country.

The same nutters also give products one star reviews on Amazon because the delivery was late, they simply do not understand what they are reviewing. Saying that I like bad reviews in that if the worse gripe posted is about some nonsense complaint then I know that the hotel is fine.

^^ this

There was a program on TV recently where a serial reviewer was filmed during a stay somewhere. He ordered a vodka and tonic, but received a vodka and lemonade. Instead of asking them to change it, he was happy to keep it, but stated that it would be mentioned in his review. C*ck of the highest order imho.

Of course, not all reviewers are like him, but generally people will complain about the bad stuff, while keeping quiet about the good stuff.

Clever Pun

when looking at consumer reviews like that I tend to ignore the extremes as rule because BEST STAY EVA isn't constructive etc. the more considered reviews sit in the upper middle imo

sketchley

I use it to check hotels I've found elsewhere e.g once I found the place I want to stay I then check trip advisor to see if anyone has anything to say. However, it's just another bit of information used when making the decision. That being said I have stood in a queue to check out before and heard someone say "if you don't give me discount I'll give you a bad review on trip advisor" so I can sympathise with the hotel owners a bit. But you tend not to get 5 stars for very long unless you can back it up.

However even if there has been a bad review I've thought why not give it go anyway when that is followed up and countered by the hotel owner explaining why. Also it worth looking at the history or a reviewer to see what they have complained about or praised in the past. It's normally fairly easy to sport the bad ones.

suzyb

daviesee wrote:

I use it. I like it. It is a really good idea - in principle.

Unfortunately, some unprincipled people have found that they can ruin the competition by leaving extremely negative reviews about their competition, while leaving bogus glowing recommendations for their business. Shame.

A friend of a colleague of mine has had that happen to them.

dodgy

aidso wrote:

What's the difference in people passing negative reviews in person, or writing it online? If your hotel/establishment sucks then that's your fault, not the guests who have paid to stay there. Non?

When you complain in person, the hotel/establishmen/restaurant can see that you're there in front of them and recognise you as a Customer. (can't believe I had to type that )

When you complete a review online, there is no procedure to establish the legitimacy of your review.

Some sites only allow you to review an item when you've bought it from them, this for instance could be accomplished by connecing your online booking with a subsequent review. The kind of thing expedia would be in a good position to do.

Like others have said, I use Tripadvisor and have grown adept at weeding out some of the fake reviews, but who knows for sure? I bet it's really damaging to a small B&B if someone slags it off, even worse if the review was inaccurate or they hadn't actually stayed there!

dhope

Stayed at a top ranked one in Marrakesh a few years ago, Dar Silsila. Fantastic place and really reasonably priced. Asked the host about Tripadvisor and he said the amount of business he lost when one year they dropped out of the top 5 was staggering.
Can see why people are abusing it but can't blame the site if people leave dodgy reviews. Like others have said, read a few 4 star and 2 star reviews for the top few places and go from there.

leodis75

TA is a good site, it is true some rival companies leave neg feedback on others pages BUT some businesses add their own fake reviews, its swings and roundabouts. I tend to ignore the 5* & 1* reviews and look into the 2,3 & 4* reviews, but reading through reviews gives you a great picture of a business, themes develop over poor customer service, poor cleanliness, poor food and the likes.

Flipkey is pretty good, we stayed in a self catering apartment in Edinburgh via TA and thought it was excellent. I reviewed and the owner verified I had stayed, there was nothing to say if I had left a bad review the owner could deny I stayed there though.

Philip Whiteman

For the last four years I have submitted many reviews to Tripadvisor and have used other people's reviews with no problem.

I recently submitted an 'average' review for a local pub restaurant which I thought was fair and balanced. It was certainly not graded as poor but neither was it excellent unlike the other reviews given. Nonetheless, since that point in time I have received a number of fairly horrible personal messages condemning my 'average' grading. The messages have been fairly vitriolic and condemning for the non-excellent recommendation. From closer examination of Tripadvisor, I note that many of the other reviewers have are one-time posters and potentially suspicious.

Generally, Tripadvisor is to be relied upon but in some instances not to be trusted.

bompington

We stayed at a holiday cottage in Cornwall a couple of years ago. The (new) proprietor was clearly working on improving some quite tatty properties, and we enjoyed our stay, gave a good overall review on TA, but mentioned that some of the the "work in progress" meant that bits of our cottage were very tatty, and that it would be nice to see what it was like when complete.
Imagine our surprise a couple of weeks later when we received a registered letter from the proprietor's solicitor telling us to take down the comment or face action for defamation. We made the mistake of contacting the proprietor to discuss it, which only seemed to get a more irate response every time: I was very tempted to let it go to court, as he would have had a very hard job winning, but the likely expense and hassle just didn't seem worth it, so we dropped it.

Just bear in mind that bias on TA doesn't only come from unreasonable, vindictive or scheming posters - proprietors can be just as bad.

And I probably shouldn't mention that the property to avoid is Bamham Farm Cottages, Launceston, should I? ;-)

suzyb

My colleague knows the proprietor of a restaurant that kept getting poor reviews left, they suspect by a rival restaurant's staff.

mattsaw

It's actually illegal now for companies to create fake reviews about their own or other business under the ASA code and can lead to a OFT investigation.

In practice though this is rarely investigated.

On the whole business are fairly ignorant of these guidelines and the practice is far more common than people realise, everything from the odd business owner leaving reviews for their own business and their competitors to business paying agencies thousands for far more organised 'astroturfing'

McNulty

i run a hotel and here is my problem with Tripadvisor (and for context my hotel receives great reviews and is ranked number 1 in its town and area so I have no axe to grind )

- Anyone can write whatever they want whether they stayed or otherwise which leaves it open to abuse - tripadvisor dont even validate email addresses. There is no time limit - I read a review of a competitor at the back end of last year that concerened an incident in 2006 -whilst this is an extreme example I would ask if it is reasonable to post a major complaint months after the event? What exactly is the agenda and what is the guest hoping to get out of it?

- There are people who are too shy/embarressed to mention something they are unhappy with but are quite prepared to go to town from behind the safety of their keyboards - for legit reviews this is the bit that really grinds my gears - mistakes do happen on occasion, no operation (hotel or otherwise) is perfect but what seperates the good from the crap is how theses errors are dealt with and when someone writes something bad without giving you the chance to put it right it feels very unfair (tbf this refers to all review sites - I guess people like that always exsisted but they have a means to display their passive-agressiveness now)

- Guests make mistakes! I have had the odd review for a similarlary named hotel nearby - its a dump and gets awful reviews - so I've contacted the reviewer directly and pointed out their mistake and they have put the review where it should be however if they choose not to reply or don't care, that review sits on my page and there is nothing I can do about it - TA will never remove a review under those circumstances, they state that readers will look at a properties reviews on balance ignoring the odd bad one, frankly thats a cop out - if it is not true it shouldnt be there!

- The way TA works is odd, you can have a property with 35 reviews over the last 4 years higher in the list than a hotel with 200 in the last 5 months becasue the 200 review hotel has two poor reviews - the likes of laterooms/booking.com have review sections and are 100% validated and refer to the last 12 months - so are far more reflective of what a hotel is actually like. TA could fix this but choose not to.

- TA know that they have a problem and are (hopefully) going to be forced into changes - "reviews you can Trust" became "reviews from our community" recently

TBF Im not scared of review sites - I run a good hotel and whilst I accept that I will get a bad one eventually, I want my bad reviews to be mine - the problem with TA is that you can get screwed unfairly and there is no recourse!

rick_chasey

Have to say, I find it very useful to plan my holidays.

You need a bit of common sense to sift through what are obviously rouge reviews and reviews that are sensible.

Never had a bad hotel having picked through trip-advisor, and I've been to 7-8 now.

I've written a couple of reviews (rick_chasey if you're interested) - and I tend to give the benefit of the doubt when I do review them.It's common sense, right?

If I paid a bargain basement price and it isn't absolutely perfect, I'm not going to start whinging.

You absolutely got some strange people who have bizarre expectations. Some of them aren't even American...

straas

It's definitely a mixed blessing, I wouldn't book anywhere without looking at some reviews anymore - whilst I feel I can weed out the obvious fakers/mongs there's definitely a subconscious draw towards the one with 5* over 3.5*

vitesse169

When booking hotels etc, we always look at the TA reviews - and then take a pinch of salt to taste the reality of the place. There does appear to be many cases of pay bargain bucket prices and demand 5* service.
I too saw the TA prog some weeks ago, and can see there are a bunch of tw@ts out there that get some sort of a h@rd on from screwing over hotels/pubs/restaurants. It appears the abuse on both sides is rife. When out staying wherever/eating etc, if there is a problem we raise it with staff/manager. If it is then solved, fine we will put that on a review, if not, then that will also go on. I do hope that there are more people like me & Mrs V out there than tw@ts.....

noodles71

My parents own a caravan park back in Australia. We had one guy absolutely trash us based mostly on stopping him from filling his van tanks with 100's litres of water (we pay by the litre) and unplugging his 2 battery chargers from the sockets in the laundry area where he had unplugged the communal washing machines. The review was not what a business owner would want written publicly. My parents were horrified they could do nothing about it, especially when this guy refused to pay for a site with power and water and only wanted an unserviced site in the first place.

From personal experience too, don't ever write a positive review of an Arab owned establishment in East Jerusalem. I got dozens of rednecks who are not even allowed to visit the area telling me how wrong I was with what I saw with my own eyes.

vitesse169

"The review was not what a business owner would want written publicly. My parents were horrified they could do nothing about it, especially when this guy refused to pay for a site with power and water and only wanted an unserviced site in the first place."

Am I right in thinking that the place being 'trashed' can write in a passage after it stating they are/have remidied the problem ?
If so, cannot they put in it that the bloke was a 'shyster' (in a neutral sort of way)?
I feel sure I've seen that on the TA reviews....