I prefer to see a hotel have a large number of reviews. When considering a hotel, I read the reviews & see what the complaints are about. Some are quite trivial, some are not. In Rome in 2004, I stayed in 2 different hotels that I won on hotwire. (they had a very fat rebate so it didn't cost me alot of $). Both were rated 3* (figure 2* as hotwire usually overrates the hotels IMHO). One was decent (decent reviews on TA) and convenient to Termini. They had a very nice (included) breakfast and many things that most 3* hotels had (safe, flat screen TV, fridge, etc). The other hotel was a dump. The reviews on TA were varied. I stayed in 1* that were better. The other hotel was on our last night and lucky for us, we had an early flight out of Rome.

Since 2004, I learned alot about Trip Advisor (TA) & have a much better sense to discern "fake" review from genuine reviews. Of course, I look at Priceline, Expedia & other reviews too.

There was one hotel in the Italian Alps where I had a difficult time finding reviews on. None in TA, Expedia, Priceline, etc. I booked that hotel on Expedia UK with a 40 pound ($65) instant rebate so it cost me about $65 for room & half board for 2. Lucky for us, the hotel decided to close midweek so Expedia called us (Caller from Texas, not Manila, etc) and offer a substitute. The agent was quite nice & we ended up with a room overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice. ^ It included free breakfast.

Bottom line: Results may vary with TA. Do due diligence and check out various sources.