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Originally Posted by Mickidon
(Post 23630170)
My complaint about TA message boards in the censoring of comments on discussion forums, to strike pretty much any negative discussion about a destination, consistent with the OP's comment about
the priority being protecting the potential advertiser's interests. On several of the boards I frequent, any mention of crime, etc. is swept away at an alarming speedy rate. That said, some of the boards have incredibly helpful regulars who can provide excellent advice. |
Originally Posted by sethb
(Post 23630248)
TA is extremely unreliable. There is a thread on the Hilton forum here about a hotel that walked 3 Diamond members, two of whom gave it 1* reviews. There suddenly appeared a huge influx of first-time reviewers posting 5* reviews for reasons like "the elevator worked" and "the room had a thermostat".
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Thus far none of my reports have been struck (good or bad).
But I tend to give my reports in point format (Pros & Cons). Hence a balanced view is provided. As some FT posters have noted, what is important to some may not be as important to others. |
Originally Posted by rankourabu
(Post 23633274)
I would not be surprised if all the chains had teams of employees dedicated to this.
i would actually be very surprised if the big hotel chains had organized teams filing fraudulent reviews. The risk of discovery would far outweigh potential rewards. And like any social-platform review resource (Yelp, Angie's List, Skytrax, etc.) TripAdvisor is at least 50 percent nonsense. There's some useful stuff but the unmoderated approach really hurts; so do lingering suspicions that the playing field is knocked askew by fake rave reviews, negative ones being yanked, or sponsor influence. Yelp, though, is even more suspect in this regard -- with floods of reports of merchants/restauranteurs/etc. seeing positive ratings disappear unless they buy Yelp advertising. |
Originally Posted by BearX220
(Post 23633456)
Then they ought to be more adept than the silly-sounding new reviewers who popped up to proclaim this random Embassy Suites in a random corner of Oklahoma "the best hotel in the world."
i would actually be very surprised if the big hotel chains had organized teams filing fraudulent reviews. The risk of discovery would far outweigh potential rewards. And like any social-platform review resource (Yelp, Angie's List, Skytrax, etc.) TripAdvisor is at least 50 percent nonsense. There's some useful stuff but the unmoderated approach really hurts; so do lingering suspicions that the playing field is knocked askew by fake rave reviews, negative ones being yanked, or sponsor influence. Yelp, though, is even more suspect in this regard -- with floods of reports of merchants/restauranteurs/etc. seeing positive ratings disappear unless they buy Yelp advertising. |
Originally Posted by cheltzel
(Post 23634086)
I am curious why you say that about Yelp.
http://yelpcomplaints.wordpress.com/ http://www.techtimes.com/articles/12...ve-reviews.htm http://www.eater.com/2013/1/23/64915...ion-libel-more The plaintiffs and journalists involved with the story use the word "extortion." |
Originally Posted by BearX220
(Post 23634291)
Google is your friend.
http://yelpcomplaints.wordpress.com/ http://www.techtimes.com/articles/12...ve-reviews.htm http://www.eater.com/2013/1/23/64915...ion-libel-more The plaintiffs and journalists involved with the story use the word "extortion." From the BBB site on Yelp ... Government Actions The following describes a government action that has been resolved by either a settlement or a decision by a court or administrative agency. If the matter is being appealed, it will be noted below. On September 16, 2014 The Federal Trade Commission filed a stipulated order for permanent injunction and civil penalty judgment in Case3:14-cv-04163-JCS against Yelp, Inc. According to the injunction, it is alleged that Yelp, Inc. collected personal information from children under 13 years old in connection with operating their online service. The complaint further charges that Yelp violated the COPPA Rule by failing to provide notice to parents of its information practices, and to obtain verifiable parental consent prior to collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children. Yelp has been ordered to pay a $450,000 civil penalty and is permanently restrained and enjoined from failing to make reasonable efforts to ensure that a parent of a child receives direct notice of its practices with regard to the collection, use, or disclosure of personal information from children, failing to post a prominent and clearly labeled link to an online notice of its information practices with regard to children, and failing to obtain verifiable parental consent before any collection, use, or disclosure of personal information from children, including any material change in the collection, use, or disclosure practices to which the parent has previously consented. - See more at: http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-franc....S7BEaGZi.dpuf |
Back to Trip Advisor - I generally find reading the latest reviews, the best reviews, and the worst reviews help best make a decision.
When traveling on business, I dined at the hotel bar several times for convenience until I finally had enough. Limited menu, mediocre food, and terrible service. When I looked on TA, it had 4 star reviews. What? How? Reading the newest reviews, most were not good. Then I started reading the best reviews they were talking about how great the steaks and service were. No steaks on any menu I saw. I looked at the dates and noticed these were from several years ago and about a totally different restaurant that use to be in the same hotel. I guess when they closed it and opened the sports bar, instead of starting a new restaurant, someone had the name changed. |
I agree. In fact, I felt the same way for quite some time now. TripAdvisor is now run by a group of people whose business model is strictly based on GREED, not the enrichment of traveling or even about traveling itself.
Trip Advisor is about deception and lies. They always have business interests first and they would use any tactics to intimidate, eliminate, and attack anyone who posts something that may hurt their advertisers, despite the fact that the posts are true and could benefit the travelers. Trip Advisor is not only unreliable, its toxic to your travel. |
Originally Posted by jetdreamer
(Post 23637655)
Trip Advisor is not only unreliable, its toxic to your travel. |
Originally Posted by moondog
(Post 23637745)
As you will note from the discussion in this thread, many of us simply do not agree with this blanket statement.
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Originally Posted by jetdreamer
(Post 23637655)
TripAdvisor is now run by a group of people whose business model is strictly based on GREED...
So you take it with a big grain of salt, that's all.
Originally Posted by jetdreamer
Trip Advisor is about deception and lies. They always have business interests first...
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There is one thing I use from Trip Advisor and that is some information about ancillary items related to a specific hotel, usually location based.
Looking through reviews, there are some gems about easiest way to reach public transport, routes to get to major attractions, location of nearby grocery store or restaurants, and so on. I never consider their reviews or ratings when deciding where to book a room. FT is a much better resource for that, especially as I typically keep to rooms in a certain hotel loyalty program. |
Originally Posted by goodeats21
(Post 23639002)
I never consider their reviews or ratings when deciding where to book a room. FT is a much better resource for that, especially as I typically keep to rooms in a certain hotel loyalty program.
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User ratings are inherently biased toward the cohort that stays at that hotel.
I'll give you an example, a buddy of mine hates the restaurant PF Changs. He said, there should be a way to filter out ratings and reviews for anybody that has given PF Changs 5-stars. Obviously they have different tastes than he does. That's why I like Rotten Tomatoes. They give you the critics score and the audience score. The audience of mostly teens might love the new Transformers movie and thus it gets a high rating. I know I would HATE IT. |
One that makes TripAdvisor stands out is there's a systematic and organized intimidation tactics attacking people who write bad reviews about a business. When I looked a little deeper I found out that TA was all about promoting business and they do this at the expense of truth and consumer protection. They practice censorship as well. In fact TA is a bit too evil for me.
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Originally Posted by rankourabu
(Post 23633274)
I would not be surprised if all the chains had teams of employees dedicated to this.
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I always read TA reviews backward: I start with the bad ones and work my way up to the good ones. You can pretty much tell whether a reviewer is being measured and reasonable or is just a jerk; I figure if I read a trivial complaint and think, "That's the WORST you have to say about this place?" I can discount it pretty quickly.
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Originally Posted by sethb
(Post 23630248)
TA is extremely unreliable. There is a thread on the Hilton forum here about a hotel that walked 3 Diamond members, two of whom gave it 1* reviews. There suddenly appeared a huge influx of first-time reviewers posting 5* reviews for reasons like "the elevator worked" and "the room had a thermostat".
I guess if folks are looking for a "lowest common denominator" tool, yeah, you could say TA is unreliable. But I think if you read and find patterns to the ratings and comments and correlate them to the rater's volume of comments and travel experience, it's a fairly useful and reliable tool. |
Originally Posted by jetdreamer
(Post 23687549)
Yes, in fact, there are companies that get contracts from big businesses to write fake reviews to promote those businesses.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/dinin...visor-com.html |
Originally Posted by jetdreamer
(Post 23687549)
Yes, in fact, there are companies that get contracts from big businesses to write fake reviews to promote those businesses.
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Perspective:
For example, for my mom, who going to McDonald's is a treat, if she goes to a PF Chang's then she would consider that to be five star treat. For my father in law, who was on an expense account most of his adult working career, he can find something wrong with the angle of the napkin and how it was placed on his lap in a Michelin starred restaurant. Key is to look at many reviews and get a gist of the place. If you were to use TA as your SOLE source of information then you will find them unreliable but use them as a source, it can be very useful. |
Also, I am mid/top elite tier at the hotels I stay at.
If it is a leisure stay, I always email hotel and mention that I am staying due to a special celebration or straight out request an upgrade. Almost all the time I get an upgrade, amenity, etc, etc - the royal treatment. So my experience at that specific hotel is very different from the expedia/OTA folks who paid minimum rate and have high expectations. Anecdote - I was checking out from hotel that gave me a suite, high floor, corner room upgrade plus breakfast from a cheap advance rate. I overheard an orbitz customer complaining from an alley facing room, being woken up by garbage truck at 6am. I do use trip advisor for photos, that is about it. I use flyertalk for hotel reviews. |
Originally Posted by ORD-TGU
(Post 23692058)
I do use trip advisor for photos, that is about it. I use flyertalk for hotel reviews. |
Originally Posted by jetdreamer
(Post 23687532)
One that makes TripAdvisor stands out is there's a systematic and organized intimidation tactics attacking people who write bad reviews about a business. When I looked a little deeper I found out that TA was all about promoting business and they do this at the expense of truth and consumer protection. They practice censorship as well. In fact TA is a bit too evil for me.
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if you think believe on these fluff then its depend on you believe or not on that stuff but yes all these are not correct trip adviser is the not only reliable but also a useful site and don't go on the review some time reviewer are the just bogus people
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I just got an e-mail from Wyndham on one of their Windgate properties... That lead to a survey which until I got to the end thought it was a legit corporate concern... Nope it was a Tripadvisor thing and I wasn't going to post with my identity.
Same stay I got a survey from Priceline with whom I booked the stay and the survey could be completed anon. Yep it was a mainly negative review |
Agree. I combine Yelp, TripAdvisor and other sources to get a baseline average of reviews. Also learning to stop worrying about "the best ever" and just look around for happy people, interesting looking places. Less digital info and more sensory info!
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Just did a small mountain trip over the weekend:
I've pre-checked a few restaurants on Tripadvisor, and as most were relatively small properties, they had anything from 3-20 reviews or so only. Which happened (for all the 4 places we visited) to be spot on. And those properties on the trip that we passed by because of bad reviews were indeed not looking too promising (when having a quick glimpse at their menu cards & the look from their location) Trip Advisor definitely isn't death for some pre-check of any conditions, as long as you use it as a tool and not your sole help. |
I've noticed a new phenomenon recently - some particular reviews, good or bad, get pounded with helpful votes. Since it is out of proportion to my normal stats over the years (helpful votes = approx. 1/3 of all my reviews) it makes me think that the same owner or malcontent is repeatedly hitting the button on certain reviews.
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Saw a "fun" sign in the elevator of a hotel I stayed at a couple weeks ago in Austria. A good review on TripAdvisor can earn you a free drink at the bar. :eek:
http://blog.wandr.me/wp-content/uplo...1011-01249.jpg I declined to provide a review online, though I would stay there again if in the neighborhood (highly unlikely to ever happen). n.b. The link above is to my blog or to one which I am a regular contributor. FT rules require that I disclose that in the post. |
I have quite a lot of helpful votes for my reviews. However I don't really pay that much attention to it.
I believe there are quite a number of frequent travelers who knows the pain of travelling, and any small thing that can make the trip better is always appreciated. A simple thing like a review of a hotel in Aberdeen, and mentioning the fact that they have a Bloody Mary counter at the breakfast buffet got me quite a bit of helpful votes. |
Originally Posted by sbm12
(Post 23749755)
Saw a "fun" sign in the elevator of a hotel I stayed at a couple weeks ago in Austria. A good review on TripAdvisor can earn you a free drink at the bar. :eek:
But if this is the way things are going now, then I have written loads of hotel reviews over the years so I'm a pretty credible TA voice. Any hotel managers want to negotiate something, hit me on the PMs ;) |
There are so many silly once a year vacation travelers or tourists posting as "The voice of experience" on Trip Advisor that I take most everything posted there with a grain of salt.
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Originally Posted by lighthand
(Post 23750099)
I have quite a lot of helpful votes for my reviews. However I don't really pay that much attention to it.
I believe there are quite a number of frequent travelers who knows the pain of travelling, and any small thing that can make the trip better is always appreciated. A simple thing like a review of a hotel in Aberdeen, and mentioning the fact that they have a Bloody Mary counter at the breakfast buffet got me quite a bit of helpful votes. I mean, the airport Novotel at Bangkok is quite nice, not cheap, and very close to the airport - every second review on TA for that property pretty much says that, why would I waste time writing it again or waste anyone else's time expecting them to read it? |
Originally Posted by heraclitus
(Post 23694190)
How so? What are the intimidation tactics?
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Lot's of good points in this thread. But it all comes down to the fact that rake reviews cannot be prevented. Even businesses that have a lot of reputable, real reviews are getting fake ones to reach a higher ranking and so on. Such is the nature of amateur reviews, nothing one can do about it.
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Originally Posted by MarkWu
(Post 23754347)
Lot's of good points in this thread. But it all comes down to the fact that rake reviews cannot be prevented. Even businesses that have a lot of reputable, real reviews are getting fake ones to reach a higher ranking and so on. Such is the nature of amateur reviews, nothing one can do about it.
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Originally Posted by MarkWu
(Post 23754347)
Lot's of good points in this thread. But it all comes down to the fact that rake reviews cannot be prevented. Even businesses that have a lot of reputable, real reviews are getting fake ones to reach a higher ranking and so on. Such is the nature of amateur reviews, nothing one can do about it.
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Originally Posted by China Clipper
(Post 23754300)
Probably not what was being described above, but I wrote a review of a hotel in Italy which was a tad scathing and the proprietress responded (with some derision of her own) using my actual name and that of my travelling companion as well. You can see how this might have a chilling effect upon anyone considering posting another such review. It took several weeks to get TA to remove the personal references.
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