TripAdvisor

[LitNetIsGreat]

What are you thoughts (if any) on the TripAdvisor website? Do you think it is a good thing, consumer power and so forth, or does it potentially damage businesses? Do you write reviews on it?

For example there is an article about how it can damage business here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/jan/25/tripadvisor-duncan-bannatyne

The main points in criticism being that some people give poor reviews for overly pedantic reasons which can damage reputations. The other side of the coin of course means that genuinely poor places get rightfully criticised and good places praised.

Granted you can often get completely contrasting views of the same place (which is half the fun of reading the reviews) but overall I think it is very useful and I for one certainly wish I had access to the internet for it last week on holiday. (The hotel we stayed at promised free Wi-Fi but that is a different story, besides it is good to go without the internet for a while.)

Last week we had a choice between two Italian restaurants on holiday and no one to really ask which was the better. Anyway, being a 50/50 choice we naturally picked the horrendous one and the one 'not to be missed' we missed. Having got home we checked the website and would have certainly gone to the other restaurant based on the overwhelming positive reviews of it. That might not sound like the end of the world, but it certainly didn't feel good to be ripped off with crap food and to have missed out on the great one.

For the first time I felt compelled to review another place today, well two actually, one that annoyed me and the other that was good and I felt deserved a mention of praise and I do feel a little better for posting the reviews (well they are still pending). I have not negatively reviewed the Italian as of yet but I will do when I get around to it. Originally I felt that all of this was a little petty and if you have got any genuine complaints you should take it up there and then, which I did, but still I think that it is a legitimate exercise if you feel compelled to do so.

[Delta40]

We used Tripadvisor for our UK accommodation and found it very useful. We gave fair reviews when we arrived home and were shocked to find some of the comments other people gave. It was like they were talking about a completely different hotel! Still, I guess you can't please all of the people all of the time.

[Paulclem]

We've used it in the past to good effect. We relocated from one hotel to another, before the holiday, as we noted in the reviews the proximity of one hotel to a local church. Whilst the hotel was good, the bell ringing apparently went on a bit in the morning. The kids were much younger then, and so we moved bookings. The place we stayed at was great and we reviewed it so.

I think with the reviews I've looked at you get a mixture, but you can usually tell the very picky ones, where the hotel is good, because of the weight of the positive reviews there too. One we stayed in had been reviewed as having unhelpful staff, but they were great. We went on balance that only one review said that.

We also used it to good effect in Paris where there were two Hotels in the same chain, but different locations. Using Trip Adviser made all the difference, as one location was very dodgy.

[JBI]

Well, I used hostelworld for years and I will tell you this. I only comment when it is terrible, which I think most people do. When you begrudge something you are more likely to comment. Of course, it is nice when someone sends an apology email back because your comments are so apt and violent.

Still, humans are extremists. The number of people who will bother to comment on a mediocre meal are fewer than those who will comment on a terrible one. That is to say, a small restaurant better put on the show of its life for the first 2 years of business otherwise it will always be negatively reviewed.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Yes I agree that it is easy to pick out the odd reviews from a majority of good ones, but like JBI said for a starting up business they better get it right. Having said that I'm afraid if they are offering woefully poor service/rude or if the food/place is awful then they deserve to fail in my book.

I also agree with JBI's points that most people, especially first time posters, are only likely to write up a review if they have had such a poor experience that it compels them to do so. Either that or the other extreme, though cynically I think that rarer.

Still it is good to see that it has been useful as highlighted above.

[Emil Miller]

I have looked at 'Trip Advisor' and found it somewhat divergent in its recommendations. I have also checked out Expdedia. com and found it amusing to read reports on hotels in places that I have stayed in. They are pretty accurate allowing for the difference of opinion that some may have according to temperament or individual circumstances.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Yes that's another factor when taking into account reviews. Maybe this takes into account some of the positive reviews of that very poor Italian I went to on holiday?

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g190788-d2159402-Reviews-The_Italian_Restaurant-Great_Yarmouth_Norfolk_East_Anglia_England.html

You would perhaps think from that that it was not too bad, apart from the one clearly bad review, it comes across as more positive than negative but this was not my experience at all, far from it.

There is no mistaking the positive reviews for Piccolos in Sheffield though, where we regularly eat and where we went last night, top class food here.

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186364-d2095048-Reviews-Piccolos_Italian_restaurant-Sheffield_South_Yorkshire_England.html

Great place indeed.

[Emil Miller]

Yes that's another factor when taking into account reviews. Maybe this takes into account some of the positive reviews of that very poor Italian I went to on holiday?

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g190788-d2159402-Reviews-The_Italian_Restaurant-Great_Yarmouth_Norfolk_East_Anglia_England.html

You would perhaps think from that that it was not too bad, apart from the one clearly bad review, it comes across as more positive than negative but this was not my experience at all, far from it.

There is no mistaking the positive reviews for Piccolos in Sheffield though, where we regularly eat and where we went last night, top class food here.

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186364-d2095048-Reviews-Piccolos_Italian_restaurant-Sheffield_South_Yorkshire_England.html

Great place indeed.

I have found it a good idea to stay with a place if it suits. I stayed at various hotels in Paris until I found one that was in the right locality and had a very attractive chambermaid among other services on offer. After that, I returned there for a number of years but the last time I was in Paris I stayed with a friend who was working there.