In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Durham, NC (RDU/GSO/CLT)
Programs: AA EXP/MM, DL GM, UA Platinum, HH DIA, Hyatt Explorist, IHG Platinum, Marriott Titanium, Hertz PC
Posts: 33,856
I've found that it's quite helpful for hotels. With the exception of a few places, Flyertalk can have little to no information on a surprising amount of hotels, even among the big chains. I tend to focus on the 2-4 star reviews and 5 star reviews by Top Contributors only.
When I'm looking at dining it's one of several websites (UrbanSpoon, Yelp, Google) I'm using to determine how a place might be. I also write for them, I have 109 reviews I believe.