Originally Posted by
Taiwaned
This is not specific about Catherine Lu however when I went on a guided tour a few months ago, the tour guide requested us to give her a good review on trip adviser.
Couldn't figure out why so many reviews of certain tour operators until I went on this tour. It wasn't that her tour was bad, it was that the tour operator had requested all the feedback to be posted did leave me a negative opinion of trip adviser.
Most guides get their business from referrals so it is normal that a guide would ask for you to review them. Nothing wrong with that. The guide did not ask for a 5-star review, just a review. And did not offer you anything in exchange of the review.
About buying reviews, I am sure it happens but the truth lies in the numbers. I have seen properties with mostly reviews from one-time posters and I stay clear of those places. But when you have reviews from active senior contributors then it is far more credible as when you have a lot of reviews. As far as I can tell, TA's ranking algorithm takes that into account.
Of course you can't trust everything you read on the internet and that applies to the FlyerTalk forum as well. But again, this guide has been reviewed extensively and been commented many times all over and is definitely one of the best in Beijing. But you are free to hire an unknown guide that we never heard of with no review, if you think it is better.
I am retired and travel 3-4 months of the year and have relied heavily on reviews to pick hotels and am extremely happy of the results. Every once in a while I take a chance and regret it.