As I've advised up thread. I read to worst reviews and see if I can handle staying at the subject hotels. Doesn't matter what the ranking is. You can read all the positive reviews you want.. but in the end, without reviewing the horrible reviews, we don't get a complete picture.

For example, we stayed at Trip Advisors #1 rated Family Hotel in the US.. 21 nights at Floridays, Orlando.. this past spring break. Reading the horrible reviews, I thought, ok.. I think my family can handle this. Just gotta make sure if I book with an owner, we've got daily towel refresh and regular room service. Problem arises.. GM handles the situation perfectly. I ended up giving them a 5 star review.. My only review posted in probably in 3 years.

It was a 3 bedroom condo, 2 bathrooms, 1,600 square feet. Granite in bathrooms and full kitchen. 4 TVs. Free parking. $116 per night.

Here is a problem for me. If this place is five stars, then what is a truly impeccable and luxurious establishment such as The Dorchester in London or the Plaza Athénée in Paris, 10 stars? Why would you give them five stars?

About 20 years ago when Zagat expanded to other cities outside their home base they printed a warning that restaurants were rated compared to each other locally not nationally. Thus, if Daniel is a 28 (out of 30) for food in New York, you should not expect the same quality meal in a restaurant rated 28 in Indianapolis. I understand that approach although I do not agree with it.

Giving an establishment a high rating when it is the best of the lot, all of which are substandard, is like rating a restaurant "Best Sushi In Mogadishu."

Landing Gear, that's a good point.

However, the same topic comes up with costs:

In Zurich (or New York, or Singapore, for that matter) you can get a 3* hotel hardly for 100$, and 5* won't be found for less than 200++$

Compare it to, say Bangkok, Hangzhou, Kuala Lumpur, where 3* will cost you maybe 30$ and 5* can be have for as low as 60$..

You won't rate the hotels in Zurich overpriced because of that, will you? Also, you don't expect LESS from the hotel in Bangkok just because it's only 1/4 of the one in Singapore, or do you?

There should always be some kind of "localisation" with any ratings in my opinion.

And not just that - depending on the location, I've also different "expectations". A 5* hotel in ZRH which is 300m away from a train station certainly won't offer free pickup service from there. Go to BKK, it's very common to offer such services. Will I rate the hotel in ZRH worse because of no-pickup service? Certainly not!

However, a 5* hotel with only an outdoor pool in Switzerland would get downrated by myself, while a 5* in BKK also just having an outdoor pool certainly wouldn't.

For me, a lot of things can be seen either as positive or negative, depending on the situation. Just a few things are either always good or always bad, no matter what. It's those things that I try to look / filter for.

Unfortunately there are plenty of morons out there who do exactly that. Example. A guest comment card I received a few months ago tore us up because our prices were double the price that they paid in Mexico for a larger room, closer to the water. They seriously were comparing a hotel in downtown Seattle, to one in Mexico, based on price and distance from water.

That is why you have to read between the lines on Tripadvisor. It does not make it any less accurate, as this thread suggests, that hotel in Mexico WAS half the price. That is a completely accurate statement. If someone is stupid enough to take a statement like that at face value, then they probably should hire a travel agent to do their work for them, and therefore have someone to complain to.

Just in time for Christmas, a rather famous inn has been given a five star review on Trip Advisorr, spoofing the inaccurate and biased nature of the site.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/tr...or-review.html

I do use multiple languages daily in both my professional and my personal life, but I am confident that my English skills are not in question, nor are my reading comprehension skills a concern. If a language barrier exists, then it certainly is not on the part of this poster.

However, being able to read and properly comprehend multiple languages does have a benefit on Trip Advisor, as I can filter out tourist-type comments which may not be relevant to me. For instance, one of the top rated restaurants (not just gelateria, but restaurants) in Rome sells gelato near San Pietro. It regularly has queues out the door thanks to North American tourists who are visiting the Vatican, and they rave about it on Trip Advisor. It is the same mass produced, highly coloured, piled in mounds poor quality gelato found at countless low range shops around Italy and France. Yet the artisan gelateria are rated quite poorly from the same type of traveller, who often complain that the gelato is kept in small quantities in a lidded metal container, and that they were not permitted to sample every flavour. (It is the norm to produce small batches of quality product, and to protect it from light and air, and most of these places do not consider themselves to be the local Baskin-Robbins, offering unlimited sampling)

Reading reviews in local language provides me with a more accurate assessment of the establishment.

Why thank you. That's very kind of you, as I certainly don't have a quantity of posts and strive for quality of posts instead.

Quantity of posts on Trip Advisor is however relevant to me generally only to be able to assess a reviewer's personal tastes. If for instance a reviewer considers M Horton to be an excellent boulanger, or visits Red Lobster for a quality seafood dinner, then I know that their opinions are of little relevance to me.

For those who do not believe that Trip Advisor is reliable, and that reviews are balanced, I'm curious if they feel that this poster was being untruthful?

It would be useful to be able to generate a report which included the number of reviews as one criteria, but if it is possible I can't figure out how. Even better would be to filter it by (number of reviews)x(number of other reviews each individual reviewer has). That would filter all the one-time posters.

On one hand you read quite a few Trip Advisor reviews.. on another, you're saying not to take all posts serious.. then you go onto providing an example of a post whether or not we take it as gospel or not.

We all have filters, and we have different criteria to the information we are gathering off of trip advisor. There are going to be unique view points to each and every stay and post. So what you find to be effective is going to be unique and different from everyone who reads the same Trip Advisor posts.

Trip Advisor is raw information for our access. We can access information from those who are posting about their experience. Its not a perfect way of gathering information. Its a source of information used correctly can be invaluable.

Although, there is the intervention of moderators what not, and the website is now owned by Expedia. But some of the most valuable forums on the Internet are owned by large corporations. Again, its how we filter and use the information ultimately.

I look on thıs websıte for credıtable feedback from elıtes.

You forgot to dot your "i"s! :D

I'm not utılızıng Englısh keyboard.
:)

Is it possible for establishments to pay to remove bad reviews on tripadvisor like yelp allows? Just asking to see if the reviews can be games by the places...

This must qualify as one of the most restrained comments that I've read on FT in a long, long time.

I just read this entire thread. There's a lot of repetition!

Most people at FlyerTalk are savvy enough to know to "take it with a grain of salt" when looking at reviews and ratings. That's pretty obvious. But the sheer scale and audacity of the purposeful misrepresentation on TA is really not something that even a fairly experienced traveler is prepared for--until s/he experiences it firsthand. For me, the real shock is not that fake reviews and shilling take place, but rather the total lack of concern and professionalism by TA. I heartily concur with the complaints about lack of oversight and enforcement of standards, as well as the "shoot the messenger" attitude.

Example: the Crowne Plaza River Oaks in Houston. I was excited about staying there last year, partly because it had so many positive reviews on TA. It was actually the worst hotel stay of my life. Worse than a Motel 6 by far. TA initially rejected my review for vague reasons. I edited and re-submitted several times before finally figuring out that the offending phrase seemed to be "I cannot imagine how this hotel receives so many good reviews." After removing this, the review was accepted. I've never had a single problem with a positive review being accepted.

I couldn't figure out the disconnect between the reviews and my experience. Around this same time I stumbled across the NYT article about fake reviews. So I went back and took a closer look at the reviews for this Crowne Plaza. Vast numbers of positive, 5* reviews from generic members with only 1 or maybe 2 reviews. The number of total reviews was way larger in proportion to the hotel size than any other hotel in Houston. Many of the positive reviews mentioned the same specific employee by name. I hadn't paid much attention to the vagueness and oddly large number of these reviews initially because I couldn't imagine fraud on that scale for such a minimally important purpose. Now, all became clear.

Unfortunately, TA makes it extremely hard to report something like this. Notice that there is no "contact us" link on their homepage? I had to submit my findings to them as an addition to my review (I can't remember anymore exactly how it worked). I received a form response and nothing else. Furthermore, I believe that TA does not care at all about these fake reviews in my opinion, because it does not interfere with their bottom line. Even a year later, nothing has been done, and this hotel is still highly ranked, with the same employee receiving constant plaudits. I'd say TA is ripe for a much nastier expose than has been done in the past. Too bad we don't have Mike Wallace to chase down the CEO anymore.

[If you want to see my review, go back to January 2013 and look for a review called "Worst hotel stay ever." It's really quite comical.]

Did your review remain online? Sorry to hear about your experience. Nowadays I read Trio a Advisor less, but when I do, I read the worst reviews such as yours and evaluate whether or not I would be able to survive a stay there. A bit comical, but I find the worst reviews the most helpful.

The easiest way to find hotturnip's review is to Google both phrases "Worst hotel stay ever" and Crowne Plaza River Oaks. That was funny. A cursory look at other reviews indicated the repeatedly and glowingly mentioned employee. Did you ever talk to her, hotturnip?

Thank you for your example about the Crowne Plaza River Oaks in Houston. It piqued my curiosity so I looked it up. It's an eye-opener for me because I consider myself a savvy traveler (having strategies for spotting fakes, knowing when to apply a "grain of salt", etc.) but what's going on with that hotel's TA reviews may well have fooled me if I were using TA for hotel advice.

The issue is the sheer number of glowing reviews. I do agree with you that the number of reviews are far out of line relative comparable hotels in the same geographical area. That raises suspicion the reviews are phony or solicited. But with so many reviews piled in there it becomes impossible (short of creating additional software) to filter out the suspicious ones. Because of sheer numbers I would have grouped your review into the category of "Quarrelsome person had an uncharacteristically bad experience at this hotel and is going on a crusade against it."

Now I know better. And unfortunately, "better" means that I trust TA even less now.

I usually don't read the 5 and 1 ratings. Mostly I enjoy looking at traveler's photos of the rooms. They're more realistic than the professional ones. Except why would anyone take a photo of the room after it's been trashed? I only take shots when I first get there and everything is clean and tidy.

Trip Advisor would be more reliable if hotels, travel companies and attractions could also leave reviews about their guests and clients.

Suppose I leave a negative and whining review about a hotel, then you could click my name and see what hotels have said about me, then make your mind up about whether I am just tool that leaves negative reviews and makes a nuisance of myself.

Hotels and attractions could also bid for the best trip advisor users. "He's got 5 stars and never steals the towels, let's give him 10% off"

I can figure out whether a person is a nuisance/whiner just by looking at their number of reviews, their ratings distribution, and maybe a few recent reviews. Usually just the number of reviews is sufficient. And that's if it's not obvious from the content of the review. I don't need to see feedback from the management-- and generally when I do, it reflects poorly on the management because they're just doing spin to deflect bad reviews.

I like when hotel management follows up with concerns. Certainly when I had issues, I appreciated the general manager following up and making amends. Doesn't happen all the time, but I appreciate the attention.

Plus, I'll email ahead of my stay and receive excellent treatment upon arrival, the few times I've done this

Problem I have with TA - and any rating site really - is the people who have a specific situation that 99.5% of other guests won't encounter. But due to that 1 situation they give it a 1 star. Something like "I booked 2 rooms and was promised the 2 rooms would be next to each other. I checked in and the rooms are actually 5 doors from each other and the front desk refused to do anythng about it. This is the worst hotel ever!!!!!!!!" As stupid a reason that is to give the hotel a 1*, it gets factored in the average.

duplicate - please remove

I wrote a review that was not very enthusiastic. The manager of the property got back to me via Tripadvisor's message system. He offered me a significant cash value gift card to delete my review. There are a few ethical issues here, not the least of which is how Tripadvisor doesn't really have a way to patrol their site. It's an interesting tactic on and it probably has worked from what I see in the reviews of that property. Most of the negative or neutral reviews are recent. I wonder how long before they will be deleted.

Those who patron hotels through tour packages could post a review. Value paid for maybe convoluted, but what's stopping customers from posting reviews on Trip Advisor?

Did you take the money and delete your Trip Advisor review? Interesting to leave it up to others to negatively review in the future.

This tactic shows that Trip Advisor is big business. Surprising. That the manager would contact customers and offer cash incentives to delete a review.

I didn't take the offer. TripAdvisor has rules against it but no way to enforce them. My advice is that you can trust bad reviews on TA but not good ones.

You can't automatically trust bad reviews either.

Specific case is a very negative review written by a guy about IHG Le Moana in Bora Bora. He was there at the exact time as us, and he wrote so many lies about the property, it was clear he had an axe to grind.
Trip advisor removed it because the manager could prove he lied. When it was taken down, he wrote a second, slightly amended review.
Removed again.
You would think he would give up. Nope. Third and fourth review followed. I believe the fourth version is still posted, but his one star review still is a crock.

You should have taken the money. You cannot remove a review yourself, it needs to go through Tripadvisor, and they have to approve it. If they have any inkling of coercion, they will not approve removal. See my previous posts about this for my experience as a hotelier trying to get false reports removed.

True; there are a number of cases of competitors bad mouthing the competition.

It's amazing to me that with the number of actual reports from FTers about companies trying to manipulate reviews that anyone would still believe that Tripadvisor is reliable.

Currently planning a US vacation and encountering this quite a lot.
The owners must despair!

Ignoring 'fake' reviews it's all rather relative.

When I was in Malaysia last year one cheap place we stayed in had a leaky AC and some incredibly noisy guests early in the morning both nights. Wasn't annoyed enough to complain as we were leaving anyway but didn't feel it would be appropriate to give less than 3 stars because I hadn't given the staff an opportunity to make amends.

If I'd gone and spoken with them and they'd been polite, apologised and offered us one night free then I'd probably have given 4 stars. If I'd gone down and they'd handled it poorly or terribly then it could have been 2 stars or even 1 star.

So yes, the rooms next to each other example may seem trivial. However if everything else was fine, but they screwed that up AND refused to do anything and were rude when we raised it with them it could easily turn what would otherwise be a 5* review from me into a 3* review.

- - -
On the more general issue of trusting reviews. Tripadvisor etc know this is an issue and that's why they want to integrate things like Facebook. If I'm looking at reviews then I'll trust friends and friends of friends far more than some random stranger.

I also like seeing management follow-up in general.

In some cases, management replies are clearly spin to give the appearance of paying attention. For example, if (non-trivial and detailed) concerns are always followed up with a cut-and-paste "We regret that your stay did not meet your expectations. We hope that you will give us an opportunity to serve you in the future," then management may as well not even follow up.

On the other hand, if the response is equally specific - "We apologize for the plumbing issue you had. Due to the cold, a pipe had been damaged earlier in the day. It was fixed by 9pm and we have taken steps to make sure the pipe will not be damaged again. ..." then I am reasonably sure that management is actually responsive and not just playing the social media game.

+1

I am really impressed when the management response gives instructions on contacting hotel management directly to follow up on the issue.

I pay attention to number of reviews, and the distribution of the reviews. If a property has 2000 reviews and 85% are 4 or 5 stars, that states something.

Also, I pay attention to the author's activity, how many reviews, countries, etc.

This just amused me. I went to a casino in Pittsburgh yesterday that I was really impressed by. So I went to review it and the reviews are utterly hilariously stupid and stupidly hilarious. Like:

And

It's a freaking casino! People come there to drink and smoke and lose money!

CMK10, well, for myself I would expect that at least the Non-Smoking section of a casino would indeed be, well, smoke-free. And if the ventilation system indeed is working badly, then I do think this comment is very well allowed.

The first one made me chuckle, though :D

Fair point though I found it to not be noticeably smokey at all, especially in the smoke free areas. And I'd hope that if you did find it too smokey, you wouldn't insult all the locals while complaining!

I thought it was more humorous rather than insulting, but I guess personal feelings can vary.

But lets get back to topic:

Just back from a trip to Australia, used TA in couple places, and was never disappointed by the reviews. But the majority of restaurants just picked randomly and later double-checked with TA about their reviews. Basically, they had pretty much the "correct" ratings from what I've felt they should be having. All in all, I was rather happy with TA, both for hotel and restaurant reviews "down under".

Sounds like Trip Advisor is starting to become a factor for restaurant reviews. Usually, there are enough other sources I can check out more easily i.e. Yelp, or local magazines, coupon books, brochures, and even onsite concierge/front desk for recommendations.

A few queries on Trip Advisor for restaurants, and I was quickly frustrated. There's lots of information.. its navigating through filters. Perhaps I can try google and click the link straight away.

I agree that bashing a hotel for a small slip is churlish though it's reasonable to rate its customer service in responding to that mistake. I try to make it clear in my reviews that that's what I'm doing. For example I might write:

True - often there is just too much information when "searching" randomly in a city.

Usually, I'll either search for a certain restaurant, or check out a few places which got interesting reviews (meaning, not necessarily the best ratings)