TripAdvisor - Do you use it?

[Awesom Andy]

My primary research for hotels is still FT and AFF.But then I am a points junkie.
For restaurants I concluded long ago that my tastes are totally different to the average person reviewing on TA.Great example this week in Singapore.We always go to Iggys.Never had a bad experience.Virtually always in the top 10 of respected foodie lists.Rating on TA-number 722.

Problem with such restaurants is that people expect them to be the best and completely knock their socks off, even comparing to other fine dining establishments. And while it's good, rarely would any restaurant completely redefine your dining experiences, hence creating an expectation gap. FYI, Iggys is rated as the top restaurant in SIN for quite a few years.

 

[burmans]

As an alternative to TA, does anyone ever look at booking.com reviews and ratings? I find these usually easier to skim through and actually find a reasonable correlation with my own experiences (checking reviews/scores after I have stayed).

Booking.com or Agoda are good backups, not leat because to review on these sites you only get an invite to review if you have actually stayed there!!

For restaurants I concluded long ago that my tastes are totally different to the average person reviewing on TA.Great example this week in Singapore.We always go to Iggys.Never had a bad experience.Virtually always in the top 10 of respected foodie lists.Rating on TA-number 722.

While I do use TA I agree with where you are coming from on this, its not a "fine dining" site and if thats what you want there are better options in many cities. TA reviewers do include a fair few backpackers so cheap and cheerful "value" institutions tend to rank relatively high compared to fine dining. I think they should ask people to rank themselves on this in their profile so you can filter.

Also have found that the top TA restaurants are often Gelato places/cafes/European restaurants, when you are in foreign lands it seems some people just hang out for the taste of home, whereas I want to try good local food (not always fine dining). Once again, would be good if TA could find a way for people to indicate their preferences so you can filter.

 

[Happy Dude]

Well I guess you are lucky, the bulletin boards are full of people who complain that the LP review does not match the reality. Part of this may be due to the immediacy affect, LP attracts a certain type of tourist and its a while between publishing dates so that place touted as a great cheap local experience without many tourists will now be full of tourists, the owners now blase and no longer particularly friendly, they have doubled the prices and are living off the fact they were mentioned in LP. Its even got its own name, known as the Lonely Planet affect.

You correctly single out immediacy as a factor and LP have a whacking great disclaimer warning of it. Things change. But none of those things are misleading at the time of print/research. That's an important difference between a guidebook and TA. The TA review, and bulletin boards, could have been written by anyone for any reason.

Put it this way, I don't have the time (nor the inclination obviously) to trawl through pages of reviews, that may or may not have any basis in fact or reason, written by some dude that may or may not be credible, in order to find a consistent trait, fault, or other, that may be used to support a decision to make a reservation, or do otherwise.

 

[burmans]

You correctly single out immediacy as a factor and LP have a whacking great disclaimer warning of it. Things change. But none of those things are misleading at the time of print/research.

I agree they may not be misleading at the time of research but given it takes up to a year to publish and then sometimes 6-7 years before they update its frequently misleading by the time people use it. LP may well publish a disclaimer but they don't stop selling the books!

I've been a fan of LP books in the past, and as luck would have it was out with a large group of people tonight, all regular travellers ranging from teenage backpackers to long term travellers (as opposed to tourists in the old parlance), many would have used LP in the past. I did a bit of a poll as to who still uses LP and what for, about 20 people. Approx 60% no longer use, all quote the out of date by the time you use (or variants) as the reason. Of those who use, all say they use primarily for the information on museums/sites/transport, no-one used as their prime way to find accommodation, indeed most of this group say they actively avoid LP accommodation and restaurants. All of this group had experienced situations where the accomodation they ended up in just did not align with the review and this was consistently the reason they were put off LP.

That's an important difference between a guidebook and TA. The TA review, and bulletin boards, could have been written by anyone for any reason.

Yep, agree and all my polled group agreed but they all believed this was something that could be overcome by methods previously laid out here. They would all regarded this as the lesser evil to (well) out of date info.

Put it this way, I don't have the time (nor the inclination obviously) to trawl through pages of reviews, that may or may not have any basis in fact or reason, written by some dude that may or may not be credible, in order to find a consistent trait, fault, or other, that may be used to support a decision to make a reservation, or do otherwise.

Well we are all different and value our time in different ways, personally I think its worth doing this to avoid a disaster in accommodation, restaurants etc. But if the way you do it works for you, go for it.

PS. Many people recommended Time Out as a good source if info too.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Well we are all different and value our time in different ways, personally I think its worth doing this to avoid a disaster in accommodation, restaurants etc. But if the way you do it works for you, go for it.

agree.

I had an overnight at LAX recently and TA was instrumental in choosing a hotel. There were several deals being offered by booking.com and a few others, but the trip advisor reviews swayed me away.

A good example is wi-fi.

hotel descriptions vary wildly. While the easy one is 'free wi-fi in all rooms', at other times the description is much more vague.

'Free wi-fi' might just mean in common areas, or the lobby.

'Wi-fi in all rooms' is even worse. It doesn't say 'free' and the hotel doesn't go out of its way to elaborate. If the hotel is able to bring themselves to mention 'extra charge', they rarely tell you how much. And in the US that can be expensive.

TA tells you instantly and gives you the costs if there are any.

 

[clementine6]

I used to use it a lot and posted a heap of reviews. Then I stayed at the Hilton in Houston and the hotel was so empty at the time, the manager responded to my review naming me. This of course is totally contrary to TA's own policies. Yet they refused to remove it. I then checked and every person who had reviewed the Houston Hilton had been named in the manager's response (check them out) and TA hadn't removed any of them. The only way I could get my name taken down was to take down the review and the response disappeared too.

I will not engage with an organisation that flouts it's own policies so blatantly and I urge others to do the same.

 

[[email protected]]

Consumers should be encouraged to file reviews This is the best way of arriving at a judgement on the quality of the hotel & the services it offers.I find it useful for assessing hotel accommodation. In so far as restaurant information goes it seems to miss out You can certainly find where to have a coffee or a moderately priced meal Looking for anything better and it is sadly lacking

 

[clementine6]

You seem to have missed the point - entirely

 

[RooFlyer]

You seem to have missed the point - entirely

Welcome to the posting part of AFF clementine6 . Wondering which point do you refer to?

 

[Cruiser Elite]

For stuff like this I do.................

14 extraordinary hotel pools

 

[burmans]

Then I stayed at the Hilton in Houston and the hotel was so empty at the time, the manager responded to my review naming me. This of course is totally contrary to TA's own policies. Yet they refused to remove it. I then checked and every person who had reviewed the Houston Hilton had been named in the manager's response (check them out) and TA hadn't removed any of them.

This wasn't obvious when you looked at the reviews BEFORE you stayed there?

 

[Happy Dude]

agree.

I had an overnight at LAX recently and TA was instrumental in choosing a hotel. There were several deals being offered by booking.com and a few others, but the trip advisor reviews swayed me away.

A good example is wi-fi.

hotel descriptions vary wildly. While the easy one is 'free wi-fi in all rooms', at other times the description is much more vague.

'Free wi-fi' might just mean in common areas, or the lobby.

'Wi-fi in all rooms' is even worse. It doesn't say 'free' and the hotel doesn't go out of its way to elaborate. If the hotel is able to bring themselves to mention 'extra charge', they rarely tell you how much. And in the US that can be expensive.

TA tells you instantly and gives you the costs if there are any.

Couldn't you email/call the hotel?

 

[Happy Dude]

Consumers should be encouraged to file reviews This is the best way of arriving at a judgement on the quality of the hotel & the services it offers.I find it useful for assessing hotel accommodation. In so far as restaurant information goes it seems to miss out You can certainly find where to have a coffee or a moderately priced meal Looking for anything better and it is sadly lacking

I agree with the notion Graham, but the problem lies in a review system that is so easily manipulated by anonymous users. Welcome to AFF btw.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Couldn't you email/call the hotel?

you could, but if you are considering a choice of two of three hotels, but it takes less time to read one or two reviews for each on tripadvisor than call or email the hotel no?

 

[Revolio]

I use it. But I ignore the top 10% and the bottom 10%. Within the middle range, from the average balanced traveller with no axe to grind either way, I find you get pretty close to the way things really are.

 

[Clementine]

I didnt bother on this occasion, it was the most suitable option for other reasons, and I was in a hurry. And that doesnt change the point i was making, that TA doesnt abide by its own policies. So I no longer post reviewa

 

[codash1099]

This doesn't reflect my experiences, but everyone has a point of view.

EXCLUSIVE: Why TripAdvisor ‘can’t be trusted’ | The New Daily

 

[burmans]

This doesn't reflect my experiences, but everyone has a point of view.

EXCLUSIVE: Why TripAdvisor ‘can’t be trusted’ | The New Daily

I don't want to deny there is a problem with dodgy reviews because their clearly is in some cases, but equally hotel owners/managers are hardly unbiased reviewers of their own properties! There are plenty examples of hoteliers trying to bully reviewers into removing negative reviews.

I think review sites are here to stay (indeed have heard a rumour LP wants to do something in this line) the issue in my view is of how do you "trust" the reviewer. There are a number of options here, 1) as per booking.com & Agoda only allow people who have actually stayed to review, 2) rates the reviewers themselves (as per AirBnB) and incorporate the reviewers rank in your rating algorithm (I.e. Ignore or very low weighting on poorly rated reviewers) or 3) other "trust" mechanisms e.g. What TA do already with Amex card holders.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

e.g. What TA do already with Amex card holders.

I note on my AMEX statement that they are offering me $40 or so (from memory) to link to TA. Can somebody tell me what the pros and cons are of doing this (apart from the $40 of course).

 

[Cruiser Elite]

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