Originally Posted by
Mickidon
the sheer volume of reviews on TA can be helpful at seeing the types of problems that might be encountered. If a particular review intrigues me, I might look up the poster's reviews of other properties to see if there are any relevant points of reference. And I pretty much never read the reviews of people posting for the first time.
You and me both about never reading the reviews of one-post-wonders as I call them. But the problem is, most people going to TA don't even think about that. They read it online, they believe it. End of story.
I use TA mostly for the forums. But the hotel and attraction rankings are pretty much irrelevant to me. I know they are way too skewed. I prefer to do my own research as to what there is to do in a city, etc. I don't go to TA for deciding which hotel to stay at. I rarely give hotel reviews anymore to TA. I just don't believe in their system.
As others have said, the rankings are so inaccurate compared to what they should be for many activities, restaurants, hotels, etc.
Remember TA is a for-profit business. Their goal is to make money. The more reviews (accurate or not), the more they can advertise how many reviews they have, the more hits they get from travelers and the more they can charge advertisers.