I find it funny when people are generally clueless, like this one:

"I have eaten a lot of pizza in NY and this is by far my favorite. We have been to each of their locations and the pizza is consistently great every time."

Thing is, the place in question only has 1 location.

I find it breathtaking that anyone would actually pay attention to anything on Tripadvisor or any other review site, for precisely this reason.

I mean, I can understand looking at the basic review metrics (e.g., 83% of respondents liked this hotel, or whatever), but I generally assume most people writing a review on the Internet will be either cranks and weirdos, or shills for the place being reviewed.

Huh? isn't that where the metrics come from? So you understand paying attention to the data that the cranks, weirdo's, and shills generate, but not what they actually say?

Your post itself is a review of Tripadvisor. (As is mine, and everybody else here.)

Does that make me a crank, a weirdo or a shill? (Well, yes, kinda.)

A review of a beach... the reviewer not happy. The beach was too sandy!!!

"It's a great beach, just too sandy. Very nice for swimming. Water was so clean and crystal clear. Overall nice experience on Tumon Beach. Recommend travelers to visit anyways."

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUse...umon_Guam.html

My favourite reviews are of the flea pit hotels in major cities. How people end up in these places is a mystery.

Reminds me of Thomas Cook's top complaints from a few years ago. I'd be willing to bet they're not real, but then you read some TA reviews and start to winder ...

I remember coming across reviews in the past that would rate a place as "1 star" and have a glowing review for it. Confusing it for #1 was funny to see, though I'm sure not for the property!

Metrics such as 83% are useless if you don't know what kind of person rated it.
That's why TA is the most read - because of the personal insights.

Unless you are irredeemably literal-minded, what you are seeing is not "this hotel is terrible " but a reviewer who frets about dust on top of the light switch or whatever, and you weight the review accordingly, depending on the extent to which you feel the same.

Anyone with half a brain knows how much salt to take a TA review with.

I strongly suspect I have rented from them! Showed up one afternoon to a [major name] car rental desk at a very small town's airport. Was handed keys, some paperwork, and practically shoved out of the door (last flight, airport closing). Got to the car, did a double take, and ran back in to the airport to catch the guy just before he left (coat on an everything!) This 'rental' car had obviously been nicked from someone's granny because someone screwed up. The car was about 15 years old, had knitted cushions on the back seat, was missing a wing mirror, and various other damage to it, none of which was marked on the inventory sheet (mainly because the inventory sheet was for a completely different car, methinks). He waffled about not being able to redo the sheet because the computers were shut down etc. so I made him hand write and inital all over the one I had, including a written statement that assured me the rental company insurance applied etc etc. All I could think of given I was standing in a deserted tiny airport car park with nothing else around!

"only about 1/3 the area shown on the map. Its nice enough and very "groomed". the cactus collection is particularly nice. there is to much bamboo " (original spelling)
Jardin Majorelle in Morocco, not really sure how can you have "too much bamboo" in a garden :)

You will regret staying in this hotel. Room 303 smells like smoke.

The breakfast was advertised as being a Full cooked to order breakfast. When we came to the hotel we were only given a roll and coffee.

We were forced to wait in line for checkin for 45 minutes. The clerk at the checkin counter was disrespectful and would not even listen for a minute while I confirmed my requests with the agent. It took 1 hour just to get my room key only to find out that I was given a dirty room that had a funny smell.

You got to be serious. OMG How can this be a 3 star hotel? U have to look somewhere else.

Our hotel is one of the best. We pride ourselves on high quality customer service. Our breakfast is one of the most comprehensive in the area. (This came from a hotel that had 2 stars average but this review was rated 5 stars so it had to come from an employee or someone higher up at the hotel).

Sound like legitimate complaints, dude. Don't you understand the point of this thread?:confused:

I read this as part of a review on a hotel I stayed at in Baku, Azerbaijan (Days Hotel):

"Need a desk and an office chair to be a business hotel really. Or watching all the laptop ads all over, everyone thinks that we are fancy young girls typing on our laptops lying on the bed? If so, no... we are not. At least I am not."

Just found it a rather amusing and elaborate way of complaining about the fact that the hotel room didn't have a desk. :-P

You can't go swimming in the ocean in January off the east coast and garden route of South Africa because the water is too cold.

And

My wife does not do small boats and our boat (massive cruise ship) were ferrying people ashore, so we didn't get off the boat at xyz destination.

The "small boat" being talked about has a 50 person capacity and only travels 500 feet.