Trip Advisor Credibility??

[markis10]

Is it any wonder Trip Advisors reviews need to be taken with a grain of salt when they actually promote quantity (at what I expect is the expense of quality)????

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[TD="colspan: 2"]2012 Contributors of the Year[/TD]
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[TD]Celebrating the incredible TripAdvisor travel community[/TD]
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[TD]Top Reviewer of 2012 (2nd year in a row!)[/TD]
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[TD]859[/TD]
[TD]reviews[/TD]
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[TD]BradJill[/TD]
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[TD]Hong Kong[/TD]
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[TD="colspan: 2"]See BradJill's reviews[/TD]
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[TD]The Hotel Inspector[/TD]
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[TD]227[/TD]
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[TD]hotel reviews[/TD]
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[TD]Julia_Pech
Russia[/TD]
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[TD]See Julia_Pech's reviews[/TD]
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[TD]The Foodie[/TD]
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[TD]294[/TD]
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[TD]Dogsheep
United Kingdom[/TD]
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[TD]See Dogsheep's reviews[/TD]
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[TD]The Sightseer[/TD]
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[TD]786[/TD]
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[TD]attraction reviews[/TD]
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[TD]BennyMalaga
Spain[/TD]
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[TD]See BennyMalaga's reviews[/TD]
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[moa999]

Although the thread might have more credibility if spelt correctly.
I do however agree with you.
227 hotel reviews - Julia needs another job.

 

[Austman]

Maybe the reviews with the top Helpful Votes would be a more useful measure?

 

[tgh]

ta is a great resauce ( to continue the theme ) that has provided me with a huge amount of useful information.
It is probably true that some , even many reviews are of little value , but that doesn't devalue the overall usefulness of the resource at all.. IMnsHO
They do constantly bombard me with promo's seeking more reviews, but I do them as a re-contributive effort rather than an ego support tool.

 

[tuppaware]

Like anything on the internet you have to read between the lines.

Constant bad reviews on a hotel are most likely correct. One or two bad reviews maybe not.

 

[drron]

TA is useful only if you are aware of the poster's bias.Though if you spend a little time it is easy to get an idea of their particular likes and dislikes.
I find the hotel and restaurant reviews only useful when looking at the bottom 2 ratings level and why they were rated that way.For instance the reviews for PER Se restaurant in NYC at the 1 star level most rated it at that because they could not get a reservation or couldn't change days 1 or 2 days out.
Then there is the price bias particularly when it comes to hotels-the lower the price the better the ratings tend to be.At one time in NYC a Best Western was rated as the top hotel.
So TA is not a place for a quick browse.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

love tripadvisor, i use it all the time.

definitely worth checking up on hotels with this site.

 

[markis10]

Note to self - brain spell check not active until second coffee takes effect, thanks Straitman for fixing my title!

Back OT, I would not pay too much attention to any of the reviewers mentioned in terms of content, and I have seen some glaring errors, with one hotel in Darwin claimed to have a smelly underground car park when all their carparking is above ground etc etc.

 

[Homer]

TA is useful only if you are aware of the poster's bias.

Absolutely. I think the most obvious case in point are hotel reviews by honeymooners, often it seems by the newly minted bride. Honeymooners seem to love everything, even if other travellers are less enthused, so I always take those reviews with a huge grain of salt.

 

[Bundy Bear]

Absolutely. I think the most obvious case in point are hotel reviews by honeymooners, often it seems by the newly minted bride. Honeymooners seem to love everything, even if other travellers are less enthused, so I always take those reviews with a huge grain of salt.

I guess honeymooners get the best rooms in the hotel, and if the bed is ok they aren't likely to complain as I am sure they have more important things on their minds.

 

[Homer]

I guess honeymooners get the best rooms in the hotel, and if the bed is ok they aren't likely to complain as I am sure they have more important things on their minds.

I think they tend not to be frequent travellers; many honeymooner reviewers seem to be blinded by a "free" bottle placed in their room or the scattering of rose petals on the bed/bath, etc. They seem to be deceived by faux luxury. A lot of reviewers indicate that this is something they've saved up for - their "once in a lifetime" vacation. They're in their "honeymoon phase", literally, and the world looks lovely to them.

But yeah, I take your point about the bed...

 

[ortho85]

Is it any wonder Trip Advisors reviews need to be taken with a grain of salt when they actually promote quantity (at what I expect is the expense of quality)????

I have to say, I've had great advice from BradJill.

As other's noted, there's good and bad on T/A. Often I have regretted ignoring bad reviews.

Cheers!

 

[yohy?!]

dont bother even opening the reviews anymore on TA (been burnt too many times), just use it for the user posted photos as a contrast to the hotel ones

 

[markis10]

dont bother even opening the reviews anymore on TA (been burnt too many times), just use it for the user posted photos as a contrast to the hotel ones

A good point, something I often do!

 

[fersea]

Trip Advisor is on the internet. If it is on the internet it must be right.

 

[RWJ777]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; I just hope that Trip Advisor's eyes behond beauty the same way I do.

 

[harvyk]

Does having loads of reviews on trip advisor somehow reduce that persons credibility? I personally don't see how...

Provided the person who is writing the reviews is giving a fair and accurate account of their experience, I don't see a problem if they are a first time reviewer or they have written 1000 reviews beforehand. In any case I'm not going to trust just their review, I am going to look at the general trend in the reviews, because if nothing else I know from my own experience that I can deal with a business and have a really good experience and then someone else can deal with the same business and have a really bad experience. Both experiences are just as valid, but meaningless on their own as to how the business treats their customers in general.

 

[markis10]

Does having loads of reviews on trip advisor somehow reduce that persons credibility? I personally don't see how....

That of course is the question being asked, now if we take the top hotel reviewer and have a look at the reviews, it would seem a mattress run was in order:

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[TD="width: 300"] Kolkata (Calcutta): The Park Kolkata: nice location [/TD]
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[TD="width: 300"] Kolkata (Calcutta): Middleton Inn: business design [/TD]
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[TD="width: 300"] Kolkata (Calcutta): Hotel Park Inn: Notfor long stay [/TD]
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[TD="width: 300"] Kolkata (Calcutta): The Sonnet: perfect [/TD]
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[TD="width: 300"] Kolkata (Calcutta): NIPS Service Apartment: Quality [/TD]
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[TD="width: 300"] Kolkata (Calcutta): Next Generation Guest House: Friendly [/TD]
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[TD="width: 300"] Kolkata (Calcutta): IndiSmart Hotel: good place [/TD]
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[TD="width: 300"] Kolkata (Calcutta): The Pride Hotel Kolkata: fun and relax [/TD]
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[TD="width: 300"] Kolkata (Calcutta): Coral Residency: it was good and safe [/TD]
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[TD="width: 300"] Kolkata (Calcutta): Swissotel Kolkata: convenient for the airport [/TD]
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[amaroo]

dont bother even opening the reviews anymore on TA (been burnt too many times), just use it for the user posted photos as a contrast to the hotel ones

I scan the number of reviews & % breakdown for

Excellent
Very Good
Average
Poor
Terrible

Before deciding to read any reviews.

IMO TA is still a valuable resource & provides great advice other than just hotels/restaurants.

 

[mella2007]

I very rarely believe many of the hotel listings in the Top 5 at destinations. Normally they are run of the mill/family type places of which I don't like to stay in.
For example, Aman Resorts are some of the best in the world and never make any of the highest rated lists due to most travellers not being able to afford and their small room numbers.
For example, I'm going to coughet in a couple of weeks: No 1 property on TA is something called Rising Sun Residence. Looks like a poxy apartment on the Gold Coast