I have to say I am somewhat surprised you think as many of those are fakes. I write in a similar manner to several of those, I would use 'bizarre' words, and go into a lot of detail about some things, because those are the kind of things I would want to read myself. I write verbose prose, flowery if you like, it doesn't make my review 'fake'.

For example, these are some clipped comments I have posted on TA:

"there is some amazing sea life in the shallow (4-5 feet) water on the beach, tiny and huge fish, stingrays, the best "off the beach" snorkelling I have ever come across at a resort"

"in the mini bar, as well as the beer, water, pop etc you get 4 full size bottles of spirits - it may vary, but we had Havana Club, Ballentine Scotch, Smirnoff Vodka and a Golden Tequila (the name of which I do not recall)."

" The dess code, pretty relaxed for women. I tend to wear skirts and tops or dresses, with heeled sandles, or dressy flip flops. I would say most people were similar".

"Plenty of top shelf booze, not a whisky girl myself, but there was scotch available, stoli and smirnoff vodka, tanquerry gin, and others. Plenty of cocktails if that is your thing! Quaffable Cava, and I quite enjoyed the guava mimosas they made with it"

(for the record, none of the resorts I was reviewing above were given 5/5 - I am quite fussy, and I am told I see the negatives more than positives, but I know plenty of people I know who would give 5 for the same experiences I had, maybe I just 'low ball'!)

I think TA is a good resource - almost more so the forums than the straight reviews, but with the reviews, what I tend to do is discount the top 10%, discount the bottom 10% and then take a look at what is left. People will always have different opinions on service for example - I am fine with 'island time', others consider it 'terrible' to have to wait for anything. Different nationalities have different expectations too - my father, for example, once lost the plot while visiting me in Canada because the waitress kept removing plates before everyone had finished (the norm most places here). In England it is considered terribly rude to do that - so 'rude service' can mean two oppositie things from English speaking reviewers.

I think expectations also play into it. If you go to a 5* AI expecting the same sort of service as you would receive at a 5* hotel in a major city, you may be disappointed. Likewise, life experience plays into it as well - if you have little experience of hotels, are perhaps used to staying at a Holiday Inn when you go away, and then stay at a Fairmont, you may find the experience really really great, are impressed by having a robe and slippers in your room, love having turn down service etc. and could quite likely leave a gushing reivew about how brilliant it was. If you are more used to high end hotels, you might have different expectations, and the fact the turn down service came at 6pm before you had left for dinner would be an annoyance, or the fact the robes were too big for 'normal sized people' would be a negative in your book. Same room, same experience, but different enjoyment factor.

When reading reviews I try to ascertain as much as I can about the person - are they well travelled, or is this the first trip of this type? Have they been to similar resorts within the same area? Age of the reviewer. Whether they have children. Whether the trip was a special occasion (such as a honeymoon). Whether the things they care about in their review are things I care about (could care less about the quality of the gym, whether you get free lobster, or what television channels there are, but I do like to know about the quality of the restaurant food, what the beach is like, and how comfortable the rooms are).

I look for trends that run through the threads as well - if a lot of people comment on how small the beach area is, or the lack of sunbeds in the shade, or the food quality in the restaurants not being good, it will cause me to pause. One stunning or one damning review will not.