Pinch of salt required
 

I never take anything in TA as gospel any more than I assume that travel and accommodation providers web sites do not exaggerate aspects of what they have to offer. I tend to disregard grossly vitriolic comments on TA, particularly when they are one of only a couple of comments made - my impression is that all too often there is a 'getting back at the provider' motive. Similarly grossly complimentary comments from someone who has only ever posted one or two comments also raise a cynical suspicion. I use TA as a guide and temper my reaction to posts with discretion. One can always go to a forum for advice if uncertain about entries. To say that TA is no longer reliable is a bit of a broad statement to make just as it would be a risk to say that it is always reliable.

I find that with a large enough sample of reviews and some discretion, I can usually make a decent judgement of a property.

The most credible I find usually make very specific praises/complaints and reference the room/service level. A property can be a very different experience depending on standard room vs superior/executive vs club floor vs penthouse suite.

My own review history (14 now) probably would look suspect, as I give mostly positive reviews averaging 4/5. I attribute this to the literally painstaking effort I put into finding the right property for me. I also take into account the star level (a 3* has a lower threshold to meet than a 5*). Sometimes I wonder when reading the reviews, "Did you not even give the hotel's website the most cursory glance?" I swear, some people don't even try.

I like writing good reviews on Trip Advisor. I find it helpful when there is a positive hotel stay, to share my experience. Alas, the number is in the low teens of reviews I've actually written, because the reviews that are already on the website I find covers most of what I would have to say anyways.

The vitriolic reviews is the ones I read. All hotels have them. #1, does the General Manager care, and follow up? We selected Floridays this past spring break, and I contacted the general manager prior to arrival. There was an unfortunate mishap, but the general manager followed through and made the stay for us exceptional. Our family had a great time. Had the General Manager not followed through, and I was left to deal directly with the staff, I would have had an awful stay, and a vitriolic review myself. Thankfully, I gave this hotel a 5 star rating in my TA review because of the excellent personal attention.

Yes -- when I read a negative review that mentions specific problems encountered by a guest, I want to see an individualized follow-up from management that addresses the person's situation and not just a generic "sorry we didn't meet your expectations" kind of thing. Sometimes you'll see hotels that seem to have a standard pre-programmed response to every complaint, which to me is as bad as not responding at all.

The trouble with that, is the book is, at minimum, 18 months out of date (by the time the reviewers have stayed, written up, published, to book shelves etc.) I bought a few books on Amazon last month, and the latest update for several of the well known ones were 2-3 years ago. Plus, you have a very limited sample - perhaps just one stay - which as we all know can go very well or very badly - a mass sampling will probably give you a better overall idea IMO.

I like that TA is current - there are people who were there last week, so they can give you almost real time information. If you venture into the forum side, there are people who post 'live from' threads.

It has its limitations, sure. But it can also answer the questions on things that are important to you - beds hard or sort? Shower curtains, or glass dividers? What sort of coffee is in the rooms, etc. Things that don't make it into more formal publications, yet may have burning importance to you.

This answer is an insult. I don't see how someone could pull off the wallet to 'managers' like this.

You might want to avail yourself of the free platinum status with Accor hotels that seems to pop up frequently - you'll find a thread in their forum on here - room upgrades, etc.

But some managers are so arrogant and think they are right and the customer is demanding and had not done his or her research before booking.:D

Perhaps you are unfamiliar with danielonn's posting history. A quick search and read might change your stance ;)

No, the post was insulting to the French. Go back and read the post again, or at least what I quoted above.

Exactly.

Unbelievable some of the recent candid management pushbacks from some hotels. You'd think that some of these management figures lived in the hotel as their homes.

But one thing that has resulted in TA is management looking after the customers more closely and providing better service and product at the hotel level. A renovation would make old hotel reviews old.. at least I see quite a few hotels undergoing much needed renovations to improve the customer experience.

Of course, we have to read it on TA before venturing out to the old holes.:)

Got it. Resembles an actual answer read earlier in the thread.

Generally, the current renovation cycle is occurring not because of customer reviews, but because of the economic cycle. Renovations were severely restricted during the Great Recession. Now that hotels in general are doing well, there's CAPEX available.

All based on macro economics, not on customer reviews.

I do agree that TA has become less useful mostly because some places fake reviews. mostly when looking for restaurants (when it's a privately owned small place, the owner will work harder to fake his reviews)

some reviews are so obviously fake it's embarrassing....

the way's to avoid that:
1.compare ranking\reviews with other places like booking.com and expedia. if a place is ranked very high at TA and got bad score at expedia or booking.com...something is fishy
2. PICTURES!! that is the no.1 advantage of TA...being able to see how the place really looks....i look more at pictures then read reviews (i'm referring to hotel reviews)
3. read only reviews from "Star" reviewers. i'm a Top Contributor and take TA very seriously...and i'm pretty sure that most "Star" reviewers do the same and are reliable
4.read reviews that were "Terrible", see what the issue was about....was it because they did some mixup with the rooms the ruined the vacation (may be just a one time thing) or was it dirty room\noisy rooms. also sometimes people are just being too sensitive about something and gave "Terrible". that is also the place to understand if there is actually something terribly wrond with the hotel
5. Hunch! - after reading probably hundreds of reviews i thing i can get a hunch from TA about the quality of the hotel and seeing the whole picture fro the info you get
6. understand that some people have different taste then yours.....i'm a Luxury hotel lover....but some people are looking for the best bargain. and if they got a bed and a room that doesn't smell they will give it an excellent review.
7.a ranking for a place with 2000 reviews is more reliable then 100- reviews...

after all this said. i do believe that TA needs to enforce some policy to kick out fake reviews...like from new users to send proof of stay.

i truly love TA and it's concept, and i hate it when people abuse it...

The biggest problem for me with TA is when I'm looking for reputable tour operators in a city. There's usually a lack of reviews, and a lot of them are fakes, ie. 2 posts or less.