+1 ... especially your comments about TA actively delaying/blocking negative feedback on businesses.

I find it valuable but the cost in my effort to properly vet and research places has really increased.

I know this is an old threat but just adding in that I, too, rely on TA while also trying to review hotels and restaurants as I travel. After more than 100 hotel reviews, I would think that my reviews no longer require close scrutiny. Most of my reviews go through and are posted within a day.
But I submitted a review 6 days ago that is still pending review. I can only guess that it's because I highlight a regulatory problem by the hotel, which would be hard to substantiate independently (I wish I took a photo of it). I can't tell if TA is worried about libel from posting ... or if TA is in the hotel's pocket. Either way, disappointing.

Don't trust Tripadvisor reviews
 

Hi,
Recently I booked a resort (outside US) for me and my extended family (wife, parents and in-laws). The reviews on Tripadvisors looked very promising and it shows the resort ranking 5th out of around 230 resorts and hotels in the area. However, our stay was horrible, the hotel was super dirty, and the manager was rude and so many other issues was really bad there.
I came back after taking punch of pictures on blood stains all over the curtains and sheets, molded bathroom curtain...etc and posted a negative review on tripadvisor. To my surprise only one dark unclear photo was posted under my review, though I am sure I had uploaded no less than 9 clear other photos! It is impossible anyways to add more photos or edit a review after it is posted. I thought it could be some kind of a glitch in their system to not upload all my other photos, so I deleted the review and re posted again with the same pictures except this very dark one. This morning, again, I found the review was approved, but they picked the relatively darker picture and posted it as the only picture! At this point it is very clear to me that they are trying to hide the truth.

Also I have tried to reach them through the feedback form on their site to tell them to inspect the fake other reviews, but their form has a glitch (on purpose?!) and after hitting the send button, nothing happen and my message never arrived them.
I tried to find a working email from them that receive messages, but all their emails are no-reply ones.
Just wanted to spread the word out, so those of you who trust their reviews may reconsider.

In the old days, it wasn't possible to book through tripadvisor, now that it has a conflict of interest and became a travel agent, I think they want their hotel partners to always look nicer than they are in reality. I think I would consider booking.com or google maps reviews as a more reliable sources "through they still act like a travel agent" in the future.

I had exactly the same situation in August! The hotel was recommended as the best. But my room was much less than on the site, there was no jacuzzi. The hotel manager refused to compensate the difference and behaved rudely.
I could not leave a negative review about the hotel in Tripadvisor. Same as you.

I've alerted a moderator to merge this with the main Tripadvisor thread. I'm surprised that you are surprised that TA is full of BS reviews. No serious traveller takes that site, well, seriously!

My trips are handled by a specialist of our company, but at that time I flew on my personal business. So I used the tripadvisor.
Surprise!

Any decent alternative?

For hotels, I've found lately that the hotel booking websites (e.g., Booking.com, Agoda, Hotels.com) are surprisingly okay, especially for hotels with a good number of reviews, since they generally only allow reviews from people who have actually booked through the websites and stayed at the properties in question. Out of curiosity, what's the resort you booked? I'd be curious to check it out on those sites to see if it also is well-rated there.

You also may have just gotten unlucky; it's not unheard of for hotels to get worse just because e.g., they're under new management that's just neglecting it and riding on the good press, so even without gaming the systems, the ratings are often out of whack

All review sites are full of BS reviews, with some real reviews scattered among them. I still use TA, and various other booking sites too, but I do so judiciously. Throw out the top and bottom 10%, and then consider.

I also submit real reviews to TA, to try to keep things balanced a little bit.

We could make our own rating app.
Stranger things have happened. See the history of Michelin Guide, which is, indeed, the same company as Michelin tires.

One in three TA reviews fake (?)
 

'One in three TripAdvisor reviews are fake,' with venues buying glowing reviews, investigation finds | Fox News

Byuing "bulk reviews": 10 for 69 GBP.