I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express RDU last week. Today when I was about to throw away my receipt (now that the points have posted), I noticed a business card was stapled to it. The card says "We Encourage You To Review Your Stay in TripAdvisor". It also said they wanted honest reviews. I had also stayed there two months ago and they weren't doing this then.

Interesting. Selecting a hotel or restaurent based "mainly on pictures and other useful practical information...". Wonder if this means mainly pictures or mainly both pictures and other useful practical information...

I posted 3 reviews recently and nothing appeared. I also find that the hotel having the last word is disappointing, as it is a legally scripted statement with no intention to carry through and no way to method to hold them to honour the commitment.

I am currently in the Renaissance Riding school hotel in Vienna Austria. The renovations have left a 2 inch hidden step between the room and bathroom. It has been here for a year. The management have been informed many times and have now installed a metal strip to protect the tile floor from damage when your bear foot kicks the raised tile. I am no doctor, but I know the stone feels less pain. Nevertheless, it would seem that TripAdvisor protects their buddies of criticism. But when somebody trips falls and cracks their head open. I wil be there to confirm that the management knew of the potential safety and the TripAdvisor failed to pass on the warning to fellow travellers.

After hearing repeatedly from hotels.com in TV commercials that their reviews are all genuine and not from people who lie on the internet as a swipe at TA couldn't help but note the link to TA right on their hotel pricing page and that it's several times the size of the link to hotels.com reviews. Seems everyone loves to hate TA but can't do without it.

I left a review this weekend for a second branch of a small local burrito joint. I've been very satisfied with their food in the past but, while the service was good, the food was lukewarm and mediocre at best on Sunday. My order was also a bit messed ip and my friend was just grossed out - and has always enjoyed their food. I detailed this in my review because it's been good from their food truck and other shop.

Today, I received a message from the owner requesting a call. They're clearly reading and, especially as a local restaurant, interested in addressing customers' concerns.

I plan to call tomorrow.

This is the reason I stopped wasting time on the site now. I left a mediocre review (note: it's not terrible but 2 stars if you need to wait for hotel shuttle but 3 otherwise), while I don't approve of false negative reviews, some of the hotels' short comings are genuine.

OT, but how did it go?

Was TripAdvisor ever reliable? I started looking at it a couple of years ago. I looked at reviews of places I have been and found that the reviews didn't even remotely resemble what I had seen with my own eyes. One guy complained about the Concierge Lounge at a Marriott EA I had been to. Said the service was bad. That Marriott doesn't have a Concierge Lounge. I saw enough of that kind of crap to where I never look at TA at all.

I tend to skip TA for reviews these days and just look at the forums for tips and advice and it's been quite helpful in that respect.

If I'm looking for hotel reviews, I tend to look at the ones posted on booking sites that only allow users to review a place they've booked through them so you know that they've actually stayed there (Booking.com, Expedia etc). The reviews might still be a little skewed due to overly high expectations of a property (I've read some that criticise the timings of FREE shuttles to theme parks when they also get free wifi and two double beds in the room for $45 a night!) but the average user wouldn't be able to flood the site with fake reviews.

I just now received an email from a very marginal hotel I stayed at last week asking me to submit a TA review. They probably won't be very happy with what they read.

Mini-rant: Skylines are not attractions. One of the top attractions for New York City is "New York Skyline". TA even asked me "Have you been to the following attractions?" and the first one was New York Skyline. How do you go to a skyline? There are so many places you could view it from that just listing it in that generic fashion makes no sense.

Interesting that Marriott has now blocked reviews on all their hotel websites except "By Invitation Only". And the reviews won't be posted until they have been reviewed by a moderator to see if they are "valid".

I reckon skylines are attractions, but your TripAdvisor example is certainly apropos too.

(One reason I went to Hong Kong so many times is because of its brilliant urban setting. Still can't get enough of the A21 bus ride from HKG to TST/Hung Hom and any Stanley route.) Additionally, Chongqing would get my vote for a contemporary Blade Runner milieu.

Ended up being away for work...

I took a driving trip through the Southwest two years ago, a trip which requires a fair amount of planning concerning hotels. I used TripAdvisor quite a bit re the hotels and found it very helpful if used within its limitations.

I tend to care less about the "We liked it" kind of review and go for the details. Yes, you have to wade through the ultra picky guest reviews. If many people say it's "miles from anywhere" and I want to be able to walk to dinner, that may weight in with me. Complaints about loudness less so, because noise doesn't both me. I especially want to hear about lack of elevators, as my sometime traveling companion can't carry luggage up steps. It's the totality of the review, really, and what it says about the things I care about.

I stayed at one place in Moab where the constant review was that the rooms were too dark. This is an issue for me, but I booked anyway because it had some other things that the available hotels did not. Sure enough, it was a cave. I reviewed it when I returned and added my two cents to the "it's too dark" issue. Shortly thereafter the management noted that they had upgraded the lighting. Now, I don't know if they actually did, obviously, but they would have been foolish not to. A certain percentage of hoteliers will make these changes because it is good for business, and then we all win.