TripAdvisor faces ASA investigation after review complaints

[juddles]

.... nor are the honeymooners as everything is either terrible and ruined their trip, or amazing and not a single thing wrong.

That is so so true!! As a rule I totally disregard reviews that are written by them.

 

[BAM1748]

Yes, some of the things people complain about is funny, like the pillow was too soft, or too hard, room service took 5 rings before they answered the phone.......

 

[lmere12]

I always start with TA, ignoring 1 posters and look for places that have a lot of recent reviews. Then I cross reference with other hotel booking web sites such as Venere etc. I've left reviews which I feel are accurate in my opinion but everyone's opinions are different. I use TA knowing full well that there will be phoney advise on there and have to use some nous to sort them. Would be great if they could control it better, I've noticed the past 12 months it has become worse.

 

[Moopere]

You can't really expect to control this stuff in a useful way in my opinion. Its simply the electronic version of word-of-mouth, club gossip or mates chattering to one another. There is no useful absolute measure. Peoples opinions and expectations are different, staff at the hotels changes all the time, economic (and other) conditions in a hotels host country are always on the move.

The amount of effort required to police the activities of spammers or company reps bagging the competition would be massive, quite probably impossible given the global nature of the sites content.

The management of the various hotels has an opportunity to speak on reviews left by travellers and I see a fair bit of interactivitiy of this type on behalf of the better hotels. To do this well is a skill, like any other, but one I'd expect the most senior hotel managment people would be able to accomplish (be they big or small hotels/residences)

If any social / statistical work could be done its going to be via the algorithm TA uses to calculate the at-a-glance star rating system. Presumably more recent posts factor higher than older ones, and some nifty social science based work is, I suppose, trying hard to level out, as much as one could expect, both the very high ratings and the very low.

 

[JohnK]

Need to look for trends, not specific one off issues. Every place has one off issues but if the trend is they have many one off issues :shock: then you can draw you own conclusion.

Agree. I have a very simple theory for choosing hotels and that is I want to form my own opinion unless a place has a long list of scathing reviews.

I have travelled often enough to know that some travellers will never get along with hotel staff or management and should not be providing reviews for everyone to see....

 

[BAM1748]

Agree. I have a very simple theory for choosing hotels and that is I want to form my own opinion unless a place has a long list of scathing reviews.

I have travelled often enough to know that some travellers will never get along with hotel staff or management and should not be providing reviews for everyone to see....

Re you second point, the same with airlines, some people should just switch carriers rather than just keep complaining about them.

Matt

 

[JohnK]

Re you second point, the same with airlines, some people should just switch carriers rather than just keep complaining about them.

Good point although what if there is no, or little, choice?

There are lots more hotels than airlines so the decision of switching airlines is not that simple. And who is to say that the other airlines do a better job anyway....

 

[2353]

I use and review on Trip Advisor. I suspect they try to weed out or verify the adverse reviews to an extent as the only one I've ever given less that three "stars" took about a week to be "posted" on the site - the others which are generally three and four "stars" seem to take 24 hours.

There is always the possibility of fake reviews - basically you are relying on ethics and honesty which have considerably different meanings depending on who you talk to.

 

[farawaymum]

For US cities oyster.com is another site that I use for hotel research- it contains a lot of detailed information and photos that usually drill
down to a floor by floor analysis of the rooms.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Just doing some research tonight on Da Nang in VN for an upcoming holiday. After this thread I had to laugh at this 'review' by a traveler from Michigan where I think the first language used to be english. Key signs, language doesn't match the home port of the traveler, only 1 review, overly positive and poorly written. A nice and secure hotel

Reading the other reviews on that page, they look dodgy as well! and all co-incidentally have just 1 review.

That review is gold! I would've complained that it was poor that the GM of the hotel wasn't able to perform open heart surgery!

That is so so true!! As a rule I totally disregard reviews that are written by them.

Agree totally. They can be a real PITA. They always feel that the airline owes them an upgrade because they're on their honeymoon. Yawn.

 

[drron]

I have been doing some restaurant reviews on TA for Tasmania.They are all taking 7+ days to post now.
I have to say though any one using restaurant rankings on TA really doesn't know their food.A few examples-
Anvers cafe here in Latrobe is rated the 16th best restaurant in tasmania.now it is good for breakfast with a difference(anyone for chocolate) and a light lunch but it is still a cafe with good solid but unexciting food.
Kates Berry Cafe in Swansea.A shed at the back of a berry farm.We loved our scones,jam and cream.But number 17 restaurant in Tasmania?
The Source at Moorilla.Fantastic.Easily the best restaurant we have been to in Tassie.Fantastic staff with a very capable Maitre'd.Expensive but worth it.So it is rated number 121 in tasmania.
Drift,Mersey Bluff,Devonport.Easily the best restaurant in devonport-though before i did my review it was ranked at 14 in devonport,1 place in front of Maccas.Now rated at 6 in devonport and 122 in tasmania.Really good food from the people who ran Angassi in binnalong bay.But people mark it down as it is casual and you order from the bar.So who cares-it is 50% cheaper than Wild in Penguin and has better food as well as regular changes of menus.
I will review a couple here on AFF.

 

[Moopere]

Restaurant reviews are always a problem it seems, no matter which site one uses. I was trying to use review sites a couple of months ago to find something new in "fine dining" over here in Perth, unbelievable how difficult that proved to be. Lots of places out there of course (well.... perhaps not _lots_, but enough) but the review sites are chock full of cafes and fast or takeaway food coming up in searches for fine dining.

Part of the problem must be language, people don't know how to delineate the different experiences and either "love" or "hate" the food, therefore Macca's make a great burger for someone and get a 5 star, someone else got steamed asparagus with a light sauce which they were not expecting and rate it as a 1 star.

Is a five star burger joint (ie, top of the fast food ecology) better or worse than a barely passable silver service joint? No reasonable objective scale exists. Subjectively its usually a crossover of how people feel emotionally about the place, the service and their perception on the day of the food quality and flavour.

Mind you (strokes chin) hotel reviews and subject to the same human vagary, so one wonders .... perhaps better classification (price based?) and searching/sorting options would help???

 

[PineappleSkip]

Tripadvisor has created a bit of a monster through their very success - and the influence that successs has on consumer choices. This is what has made ratings so important to establishments, and increased the temptation to cheat.

They have done bits and pieces to deal with it - such as the recent initiative to flag frequent reviewers. I've reported quite a few items - mainly self promotion forum posts - that violate their guidelines, and generally they've followed up. Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.

To their discredit however any review I've done that casts doubt on the reliability of reviews of a hotel - and I've only done this where there were obvious indicators and the hotel was totally inconsistent with the high rating - hasn't been posted.

The biggest problem strikesme as being the paucity of reviewers. If every guest reviewed and published their stays it would be much harder to rort the ratings. The classic problem is the 'had a bad experience' one review wonders. You see similar here. People whose first and often ony post is to rant about an experience they didn't like. This may unbalance ratings and creates a further incentive to bodgy up reviews.

Over the last 12 months I've noticed hotels starting to solicit reviews of stays. Hats off to places like the CP Kuala Lumpur who simply exhorted people to review their stay as a method of feedback to them and give a moe balanced picture of the hotel to others. Thrown rocks to the HI Flagstaff AZ who simply exhorted guests to post reviews if they were good.

And the problem often seems to be localised with hotels in a location aware of what's going on and racing to outcompete each other. For example Port Macquarie seems to have an implausibly large proportion of flawless guest experiences - the top 7 tripadvisor hotels all average 4.5 star ratings and this suggests more than just a plethora of marvellous hotels.

Cheers skip

 

[QF WP]

I've been adding some of my TR reviews for hotels lately...

 

[QF WP]

Well Trip Advisor have just advised : "You've earned your first badge on TripAdvisor"

At least I haven't had any complaints (yet) and plenty more reviews to post.

 

[amaroo]

Love TA however, have learnt that not every destination (hotels) attracts the same consistency. For mass market tourist destinations I've found you have to discount the reviews to ensure a stay that reflects the rating.

I will never follow the ratings 100% blindly - some times the best hotel "for me" is rated well away from No 1 & lies somewhere between 10 - 20.

Restaurant reviews are even trickier to work out & I hardly use this option. I prefer to go out & find a good looking place or rely on the more traditional review method of hard print

 

[turtlemichael]

Coming to the end of an extended stay in Paris I have found tripadvisor basically useless for restaurants. Reviews and ratings often make no sense. The only thing I use it for here is to get some restaurant names then do my research using other sources.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Well Trip Advisor have just advised : "You've earned your first badge on TripAdvisor".

TripAdvisor announced I had a gold badge a while ago, but I'm still waiting for my gold member kit

OK, just a gold tripadvisor earring would suffice...

Cheers skip

 

[Blackadder]

Like any ratings, take out the high and low end rankings and you are closer to the mark.

 

[Austman]

I use and review on Trip Advisor. I suspect they try to weed out or verify the adverse reviews to an extent as the only one I've ever given less that three "stars" took about a week to be "posted" on the site - the others which are generally three and four "stars" seem to take 24 hours.

My recent hotel reviews (all got 3 stars or more) have been taking a week or so to post. But I wrote 6 reviews yesterday - one for the hotel (gave it 4 stars) and 5 for area restaurants and activities. Three of the reviews had no photos and were published within 24 hours. The other 3, all with photos, are still pending. Maybe photos delay the publishing?