One reason that good ideas such as your's aren't implemented is because TA censors discussion of its problem areas such as fictitious reviews. Thankfully, we can freely discuss this on FlyerTalk.

I use TA a lot in my research, but usually not for hotels. For the little B&Bs I prefer when I travel to the UK and Ireland. Especially as I am now taking 7 other women with me on my next trip! After I've decided on a place, I get some recommendations from others I know have been there, and then read all the reviews of each choice on TA. I discount the older ones, as B&Bs change owners, update, etc. I discount the obvious complainers and the obvious gushers - I prefer the meaty ones, with details like, is it walking distance to a pub? Was there WiFi? (these places don't always have informative websites!).

I find the review details themselves (and the photos) to be very helpful!

The problem with TA (and other review sites for that matter) is that some people have an unrealistic expectation of a place and review according to how their expectation wasn't met. Ridiculous statements like "It was too far away from all the main tourist attractions" make things hard to accept ratings. No hotel is going to be right next to everything, that is absurd.

They complain about the hotel because it is a 15 minute train ride to the Eiffel Tower or something ridiculous like that. What do they want, everything in a one block radius of their hotel? How do you see a city that way? Some people are just too self involved to provide a coherent and relevant review of anything.

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TripAdvisor works fine for me, especially after I strip out the hyperbole.

You seem confident that you will never fall victim to clever manipulation of reviews. It concerns me that many travelers are more easily swayed and the highly experienced among us should raise our voices. Bogus reviews undermine the whole process and TripAdvisor, by censoring discussion, is continuing the myth of Honest Reviews. If, by chance, you are ever impacted by fraudulent reviews, TripAdvisor will censor you if you point out the specifics.

I must say in all my reviews I have only had one edited. I posted a picture of a Hilton airport hotels shuttle schedule and for some reason they removed it. I assume because it had Hiltons name on it or something. My post Newport Beach post mentioned above was posted as I wrote it.

I do understand what you mean but I just have not had many reviews edited but then again I have not had too many bad experiences. I typically am able to choose wisely and not end up in too many bad hotels.

Discretion required
 

I have been a contributor and user of TA for a number of years. I have found that one has to use as little common sense when interpreting comments. If a very negative post is from someone who has only ever posted once or twice then it may well be that they are venting their anger because of a comparitively minor thing - especially if other posts are generally positive. Similarly I have found, in one instance in particular, that single posts from people waxing lyrical about a hotel, should also be treated with suspicion. In the case I have in mind we had stayed there and found it pretty average. It was an old seaplane base in the Orkney Islands. Subsequent 'one off' reviews were rating it highly for beaches, shopping and wine, amongst other things (none of which exist - not opinion but physical fact). The one thing the posters had in common was that they all lived on or near the Orkney Islands. My suggestion to TA that it should be investigated was met with the removal of my posting about the site and the retention of the other quite misleading posts. I shall continue to use TA for research - I have had more positive experiences as a result, but will also continue to be a little more analytical about content and how long ago a post was made.

I was referring to censorship on the TA forums like destinations and support. If you write something negative, but true, about the manipulation of reviews - you will be attacked and censored. Like you, I have had TA photos removed for no apparent reason.

My experience, exactly! Why does TA "shoot the messenger" instead of investigating cases of abuse? I suppose in the short run they are successful in tricking readers into believing TA reviews are reliable. In the long run, honest sources of information like FlyerTalk will expose the problems and TA will be forced to adapt. Thanks for your reply.

I must admit that I find a lot of the negative reviews on TA are unjust. As someone said above - it looks like some people just have too high an expectation of the properties - to the extent that I really wonder how they live at home.

As an example, I stayed at a hotel in Naama Bay Sharm el Sheikh. I booked it as a bargain buy without reading any reviews - and when i did - I was quite worried about what i let myself in for. Re-reading the negaives - I found that the main issue for most was the rather dubious and undersized main restaurant, and the fact that the main block tended to be very noisy at night.

When we got there - we found that the main block rooms were indeed noisy - but a quiet word with reception had us moved up to the quieter "upper resort" close to a better pool which got the sun all day - and with the hotel being slap bang in the centre of Naama Bay - eating out was no problem when the hotel food was meh!

There was nothing wrong with the hotel accommodation or its faciliteis or its staff, the food was boring and samey, and that was the only real problem - and easily solved by walking across the road to one of the numerous restaurants close by, but they were being slammed by negative review after negative review most of which were totally unjustified!

The consensus is clear that Tripadvisor isn't what it used to be and isn't always reliable. That's a pity, but moving on to the issue of "what to do now," quite a few worthwhile suggestions have already been made in this thread.

One I didn't see, and which I sometimes find helpful, is to go beyond just reading the reviews and post a question on the Tripadvisor forum. It can be found via the green headbar under a dropdown menu titled "More."

When I post a question there, I am careful to do it in a non-attacking manner. I do not say "I think such and such a review is bogus. Does anyone know if what it says can possibly really be true?" Instead I say, "I'm trying to decide which of these three properties would best suit my needs. Can you please help?"

Some of the "Destination Experts" are local and actually know a lot (others don't) and can provide detailed help in the context of their forum. It seems they must work within certain editorial parameters and maintain a kind of "ever smiling, welcoming, Mary Poppins" stance at all times, and this significantly limits their candor.

I try to ask factual questions, not opinion questions. "Is there a metro stop nearby? How long a walk is it?" Not "Do you think the neighborhood is fun?"

Forum contributions from other "ordinary readers" are usually fewer and less useful, mainly because that forum is difficult to use and they run into static if posting negative information. They quickly get discouraged from even trying to answer reader questions there.

I concur that we should focus on ways to deal with the deficiencies of TripAdvisor. Your suggestion of using the destination forums is apparently working for you and might work for others. Readers should first review prior postings and replies for their destination in order to get a feel for the “expert advice” and how to phrase requests for assistance.

My own attempt to ask for advice on star ratings for Italian hotels was met with ridicule and insults stating that anyone believing that the system in Italy is the same as elsewhere is naïve at best. Perhaps I could have started with a less controversial question since many people wonder if Italian hotels “buy” their ratings. In any case, I was provided with links to articles written in Italian explaining the star ratings, and when I replied that I was a very experienced traveler who does not read Italian, my posts were deleted. Then a TA member messaged me that she was Cyber-bullied on this same forum and no longer feels comfortable posting, so now she just monitors the advice. When I posted again and asked for TA’s policy on Cyber-Bullying, my TA account was inactivated.

Coincidently, we have just left Rome (the destination for which I was inquiring), but TA members won’t learn of our experiences since I can no longer post reviews.

I don't expect a hotel to be near everything, but some hotels are so dishonest about their location. Another user on here was looking for a London hotel, and I was looking at a few he mentioned to try and help out - there were ones who were 'close to major attractions' and 'handy for X Y and Z' when they were in an entirely other city to the attractions, and the journey would take 45 minutes - not my defintion of 'handy'. In a similar way, the plethora of 'airport hotels' that are actually a $60 cab ride from the airport in question. For ones like those, if I was fooled into believing their own press / naming conventions (and frankly, if you are booking an airport stopover in a hurry, you may not have time to do your due dilligence, and instead believe that a 'Toronto Pearson Airport Hotel' is relatively close, as opposed to an hour in rush hour traffic from the airport), then I would make that point on TA. Had I booked a hotel that made no such claims, then it, of course, isn't their fault and I wouldn't.

It only works sometimes, not always. The quality of the TA forum is spotty at best and the actions taken by the moderators seem capricious. It appears they are focused on maintaining a glossy facade at the expense of gathering useful content.