I find TA useful but no doubt it is plagued by fake reviews that alter the rankings. And whether or not it's conscious or not I am sure the rankings impact people's perceptions. Personally when I see a hotel high in the ranking and then see dozens of reviews from people with only one contribution, I tend to skip it. I wonder if TA have started to include number of contributions in the ranking algorithm? Someone giving top marks who has already contributed a hundred reviews is more meaningful than a first time poster.

Once I have homed in on a the properties in a region I then tend to cross references with forums like TA's own and here.