Oct 9, 2017, 10:07 am
Last edit by: JDiver
FT Expert Hotel Reviews Issues
Please report your Expert Hotel Review issues here.
FAQ: Why did FlyerTalk add them"Expert Hotel Review" feature?
The (FlyerTalk) website has rolled out a new hotel guide in which its members rate and review hotels from around the world. FlyerTalk “soft-launched” its Expert Hotel Reviews feature earlier this fall, but is now talking about the effort publicly for the first time.
What’s behind the effort to add hotel reviews? Tarr (Jeremy Tarr, FlyerTalk's editorial director) says such information has long been posted to FlyerTalk over the years, but it typically has come in users’ “trip reports” that have sprung out of the site's frequent-flier focused origins.
“FlyerTalk has a ton of information from a lot of expert travelers who have flown all over the world and stayed at shocking numbers of hotels,” Tarr says. “A lot of that information is often buried in the forums. We wanted to organize it into something that it is much more accessible to a broader audience.”
USA Today, 21 Nov 2016 - link
What’s behind the effort to add hotel reviews? Tarr (Jeremy Tarr, FlyerTalk's editorial director) says such information has long been posted to FlyerTalk over the years, but it typically has come in users’ “trip reports” that have sprung out of the site's frequent-flier focused origins.
“FlyerTalk has a ton of information from a lot of expert travelers who have flown all over the world and stayed at shocking numbers of hotels,” Tarr says. “A lot of that information is often buried in the forums. We wanted to organize it into something that it is much more accessible to a broader audience.”
USA Today, 21 Nov 2016 - link
Issues with FlyerTalk Expert Hotel Reviews? Report them here!
Jun 13, 2022, 3:18 am
#316
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Homeless
Programs: Hyatt Glob; Hilton Dia; Marriott AMB; Accor Dia; IHG Dia Amb; GHA Tit
Posts: 4,835
IBJoel Can you please take a look at the text box for hotel name? Today a new issue I did not have in the past: when I start typing I normally had a suggested list of potential hotels matching what I am looking for, but now I get the error message below
Jun 13, 2022, 11:03 am
#317
Administrator
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Los Angeles
Programs: Internet Brands
Posts: 3,867
IBJoel Can you please take a look at the text box for hotel name? Today a new issue I did not have in the past: when I start typing I normally had a suggested list of potential hotels matching what I am looking for, but now I get the error message below
Jun 19, 2022, 2:08 pm
#319
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Paris, France
Programs: AF/KL Flying Blue Platinum for life/Club2000 Ultimate, Accor ALL Diamond
Posts: 21,918
Hi IBJoel
impossible to write/submit a review. As you can see below, the display is very different than the usual one : there is just a small typing box "review" and no formatting / options buttons
impossible to write/submit a review. As you can see below, the display is very different than the usual one : there is just a small typing box "review" and no formatting / options buttons
Jun 20, 2022, 1:50 pm
#320
Administrator
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Los Angeles
Programs: Internet Brands
Posts: 3,867
Working OK for me right now. Maybe it was a temporary glitch? If it's still occurring on your end, try incognito. Or did you enable any new content-blocking software recently?
Jun 20, 2022, 4:52 pm
#321
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Paris, France
Programs: AF/KL Flying Blue Platinum for life/Club2000 Ultimate, Accor ALL Diamond
Posts: 21,918
Aug 8, 2022, 8:55 pm
#322
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Seattle
Programs: Delta Silver, IHG Plat, Bonvoy Gold, HH Gold, Princess Elite
Posts: 14
I wrote a review of Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Ft. Lauderdale-Plantation back in March, and there seem to be a couple of issues with it:
1) It doesn't show up on the Expert Review map when I search by hotel name or location
2) I didn't get a badge for contributing a review, even though this is an IHG property
3) The hotel shows up on my profile on the "Map" tab, but there is no pin
Did I do something wrong, or is the site not picking up the hotel's details for some reason? From what I can tell, and what the review composer page told me as I was writing it, the review meets all of the requirements to get "credit" for it. Thanks in advance for any insight!
(I'm not able to post any screenshots or a link to the review because of my noob status, lol, but you can get to it from the "Hotel Reviews" tab on my profile--where the featured image is the one of the toilet!
)
1) It doesn't show up on the Expert Review map when I search by hotel name or location
2) I didn't get a badge for contributing a review, even though this is an IHG property
3) The hotel shows up on my profile on the "Map" tab, but there is no pin
Did I do something wrong, or is the site not picking up the hotel's details for some reason? From what I can tell, and what the review composer page told me as I was writing it, the review meets all of the requirements to get "credit" for it. Thanks in advance for any insight!
(I'm not able to post any screenshots or a link to the review because of my noob status, lol, but you can get to it from the "Hotel Reviews" tab on my profile--where the featured image is the one of the toilet!
)
Aug 9, 2022, 4:02 am
#323
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Homeless
Programs: Hyatt Glob; Hilton Dia; Marriott AMB; Accor Dia; IHG Dia Amb; GHA Tit
Posts: 4,835
Aug 9, 2022, 11:03 am
#324
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Seattle
Programs: Delta Silver, IHG Plat, Bonvoy Gold, HH Gold, Princess Elite
Posts: 14
Thanks for the reply, escape4! I'm still getting a sense for how all this all works so I appreciate your input and reassurance.
Aug 18, 2022, 1:42 am
#325
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Rhineland-Palatinate
Programs: *A Gold (A3), HHonor Gold
Posts: 5,688
There is a tendency now to post reviews with a large number of photos (which is good) without resizing them, each pictures being 5-6 MB in size. This leads to reviews being very large in size, more than 100 MB. On slow or limited Internet connection (like in a plane or a train, while travelling) they eat the entire allowance or can not be displayed.
It would be good if there is a limit set up so that each image can not be more than 1 MB.
It would be good if there is a limit set up so that each image can not be more than 1 MB.
Aug 18, 2022, 3:29 pm
#326
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: LON
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 3,912
There is a tendency now to post reviews with a large number of photos (which is good) without resizing them, each pictures being 5-6 MB in size. This leads to reviews being very large in size, more than 100 MB. On slow or limited Internet connection (like in a plane or a train, while travelling) they eat the entire allowance or can not be displayed.
It would be good if there is a limit set up so that each image can not be more than 1 MB.
It would be good if there is a limit set up so that each image can not be more than 1 MB.
I suggest what is needed is for the photo kept at a decent resolution on upload and a few other resolutions and an appropriately sized image to be created and these can be dynamically sent to your device commensurate with your screen size and bandwidth so the size of the images is optimised for your device - this web delivery optimization tech exists already.
Oct 13, 2022, 12:40 pm
#327
Join Date: May 2005
Location: London, England, United Kingdom
Programs: Marriott (Lifetime Titantium), whatever other programs as benefits make sense.
Posts: 1,920
A couple of points I noticed in submitting a review just now.
1) As above, photos are becoming more and more prevalent when talking about hotels. It would be good on upload if photos are re-sized for internet viewing. I know how to do it, and could do it myself, but why not have the tool built into the uploader.
2) I couldn't find a way in the editor to insert weblinks. There were a few points where I wanted to include links to specific pages from the hotel chain's website to give people who wanted to explore more information (Bloc VIP+ program, Bloc Smart Room Control), which gave more information than I would of for those that wanted to know more. Is there are reason we can't create links in the reviews?
1) As above, photos are becoming more and more prevalent when talking about hotels. It would be good on upload if photos are re-sized for internet viewing. I know how to do it, and could do it myself, but why not have the tool built into the uploader.
2) I couldn't find a way in the editor to insert weblinks. There were a few points where I wanted to include links to specific pages from the hotel chain's website to give people who wanted to explore more information (Bloc VIP+ program, Bloc Smart Room Control), which gave more information than I would of for those that wanted to know more. Is there are reason we can't create links in the reviews?
Oct 14, 2022, 1:33 am
#329
Join Date: May 2005
Location: London, England, United Kingdom
Programs: Marriott (Lifetime Titantium), whatever other programs as benefits make sense.
Posts: 1,920
I just tried using the BBCode URL, using both just the URL= around text, and the URL within the tags as demonstrated here - https://www.bbcode.org/creating-links-with-bbcode.php, but neither worked. So don't think you can use BBCode in the review editor.
Last edited by GregWTravels; Oct 14, 2022 at 1:41 am
Oct 14, 2022, 3:30 am
#330
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Homeless
Programs: Hyatt Glob; Hilton Dia; Marriott AMB; Accor Dia; IHG Dia Amb; GHA Tit
Posts: 4,835
IBJoel If I am not mistaken, no hotel has been added to the search database for almost one year. Is there a plan to continue populating the DB or was a decision made to keep it low maintenance and unmanaged, therefore newly reviewed hotels will not be added?