to think threatening trip advisor. ..

[softlysoftly]

... makes you a wanker?

Either send the complaint directly to an establishment or say it on the visit and give them an opportunity to deal with it.

Or if you feel aggrieved and unheard or think others need to know about the issue then do a tripadvisor review.

Sending threats about "welll this happened what you going to do about it tripadvisor beckons I think...." (ps the additional dots ups the wanker factor)

Basically translates as you want something for nothing.

Oh and saying "I'm going to report you to tripadvisor" is possibly worse, it's a review site not the fucking police

I think it depends what the something that happened was. Lots of people use trip advisor to choose accomodation and I think will be able to sift out the undeserved complaints if they are surrounded by good reviews.

If I have had issues with a hotel I have usually complained at the time but a couple of times have been totally exasperated by people being unwilling to supply what I paid for. My argument has usually be conducted with the travel agents/ tour company though.

Most people reading the review will think that they are a wanker too. They should raise it at the time, politely.

TA does have its place but it is misused by some people. I look at the pictures for the condition of accommodation and it has put me off some places. Maybe TA should look have a better appeal process and remove unfair reviews.

What happened?

I totally agree tripadvisor has its place I use it.

What I don't agree with is issuing a threat to a company. Ie x happened and I might do a TA review....."

The .... usually meaning give me something free or else.

No if you feel it need to review then review don't go issuing threats.

I think that unless you work or have an association with a setting that can be reviewed on trip advisor, some people can be a little naive about how frustrating it is that people do not contact the place they have a problem with directly.
i say this as my parents take trip advisor reviews as gospel, no matter how much i explain it is not.

I recently wrote a complaint to management of a company and explained that i have never complained before (true) and i did not want to go through TA as i feel its an unfair platform to discuss issues in. He was extremely greatful and dealt with the issue impressively, and he appreciated that i hadn't took that route.

I've seen it a few times. I'll give an example:

Guest x comes to a restaurant without a booking, told they can have a table in 1 hour.

Guest x then says "well noone said I had to book I can't believe this if I don't get a table I'm reporting you to trip advisor"

Guest x gets no table so reports.

To me guest x is a wanker using a review site as a blunt instrument to get something they want and in revenge when it doesn't work.

I find TripAdvisor very useful - when booking accommodation I always look at the poor reviews.

If the people giving 1 reviews sound like twats, or like they just have very different ideas of what constitutes a "good hotel" it can influence my decisions more than a big pile of "very nice 5".

OTOH I think you may be a bit unreasonable - I think some establishments need to be reminded that the news of poor customer service can spread very fast and very far.

at 'ups the wanker factor'

I agree vole some businesses are appaling at responding to complaints.

We have 90% recommend and mostly 5/4 * 4 bad 2 of which we accept as was in the early days precisely because we try to be perfect and respond when we aren't.

So when we get threatened actually it turns your complaint from one that I would have taken seriously toone that earns you a big (polite) fuck right off.

I would imagine idiots saying this sort of thing are in the minority, surely. Like the annoying folk that think shouting about trading standards will get them preferential treatment in everyday unavoidable situations. Like a long queue.

As for Trip Advisor it's self. I love it! Some of the reviews are unintentionally hilarious. Like ''waiter smelt bad and slapped my wife'', and ''too much water came out of the taps; i would only give it 3 out of 10''.

I go on for a quick look at an hotel and end up on there for ages lolling.

I use TripAdvisor to plan all my travels, I find it very useful. It's usually easy to filter out the unreasonable complainers from the genuine reviews.

e.g. I was looking at a hotel in Egypt, which had lots of great reviews and one with 1* - the review was slagging off the weather, the egyptians, the country in general, not one word about the hotel! So the poor hotel has a bad review against its record because the reviewer didn't like the country it was in...

With the example you give above softly - what's the worst they can say? "I wanted to eat at this restaurant, but they were full. I subsequently did not eat at this restaurant".. anyone with common sense will just look straight past a review like this, since it says nothing about the restaurant (other than the fact that they're popular!).

One thing I do find useful is when the proprietor responds to the reviews - both good and bad. so with the example above, you could respond "Thank you for your review. We strongly recommend that people book a table during busy times, as we do experience high demand (positive spin!). As you had not booked, we did advise you at the time that there would be a table available for you in one hour. You chose not to take us up on that offer. Should you wish to visit in the future, we would gladly book a table for you if you would telephone in advance. We take reviews very seriously, and will therefore be making it very clear that booking is essential during busy times" - That way, the reviewer is firmly put in their place, and anyone reading can see that you have given a sensible response.

Other reviewers will complain about genuine things e.g. decor is old fashioned, room is small etc - but I just weigh it up and think 'is that important?' and decide accordingly.

Those who run decent establishments shouldn't fear TripAdvisor in my opinion.

I always go to the bad reviews first and make a judgement about both the negative points and the writer.
If they seem ignorant, expecting too much and/or complaining about insignificant things then I ignore.
If they seem to be well expressed, genuine and balanced then I would take a poor review into account.

On Trip Advisor the owner has a right to respond and some of those are very telling too.
I've seen some dreadful rambling rants and I've seen some skillful replies as well.

My favourite ever was a measured reply to the points raised (which seemed to address and negate the complaints) with a final comment along the lines of 'perhaps the unexpected arrival of your wife and children' had a major impact on your and your friend's enjoyment of the weekend experience, however, we felt it would have been inappropriate to intervene ...

Either send the complaint directly to an establishment or say it on the visit and give them an opportunity to deal with it.

I too disagree slightly with this - yes, of course if it is a genuine complaint, then complain. But TripAdvisor isn't just about complaining, it's about describing what a place is really like

So if a room is small, old fashioned, musty, has traffic noise, difficult access or whatever - none of that is anything to complain about, since the proprietor can't do anything about it - but it is something to note on a review so that people can make an informed decision.

I have chosen to stay at plenty of places that have bad reviews, but they might be cheap. or whatever, and so I go knowing about the potential bad points, but accepting them. So when you arrive you don't get a nasty surprise when its not as it was described on the proprietor's website.

Sorry, I realize I've veered off from your original question OP - yes, threatening to 'Go to Tripadvisor' as if they're the police is definitely wankerish.

I think I should have separated the "or" so go straight tothe establishmentor tripadvisor as the 2 options rather than threaten.

I think as a business you get to the point where at first every bad review is like a gut punch. Honestly really upsetting but you steadily get to a point where you have to try and be objective and as long as you did your best if there is nothing constructive there all you can do is ignore. TA reporting service is pointless, yes you have a right to reply but there is no influence on your rating which directly affects income it really does.

One of the bad reviews was openly racist, yet tripadvisor ignored any reports and while people who read it can see through it that doesn't hinder the fact that you drop in the rankings and it just shows as a black Mark on those skim assessing.

My business is on trip advisor. Its good and bad. One groups of customers told us they would give us a bad review if we did not gibe them free drinks. We refused. They put on 3 reviews, then a week later another review under a different name.
the problem with trip advisors is that its difficult to get a bad review removed. Even though another customer saw the reviews and reported to trip advisor that they had witnessed them threatening us.
We had another complaint we cooked on a BBQ, even though our name states we are a BBQ restaurant.

The upside is that most people who come in, that have seen these reviews, think the people who did them are wankers. We are a busy restaurant and the bad ones didn't seem to effect us.

Most people will take the overall rating and judge the tone of the bad reviews. Overall we have 4.5 stars on over 500 reviews. That matters more than a few shitty reviews.

I have seen reviews on there that have complained that an Italian restaurant (in Italy) had no English waiters and all sorts of crap. Normal people recognise these idiots.

We generally respond to all reviews including negative ones.

I use TA & take many of the reports with a hefty pinch of salt as it's usually obvious who are the moaning tossers.

Boreoff - I am always impressed when owners take the trouble to reply, it shifts the establishment up a notch or two in my own ratings.

Thanks magimedi I think its important, to interact with customers and when complaint is genuine it needs assessing.

Just to point out, you shouldn't believe all the goods one either. A couple of restaurants close to us have been placed at the bottom of the list because TA believe their reviews are fake. Don't know if its true or not but fake positive reviews do happen.

Taking the overall view and rating is a better idea.

I agree and we are thinking of starting to respond to reviews, one partner has been adamant we shouldn't so a bit of debate!

Also agree re the good ones, the 2 top restaurants in our area are clearly putting on fake reviews there are 5 with the exact same phrasing! You do need to pick through.

Awareness wise it works though, tourists to an area will go through the top maybe 10-20 restaurants to choose an option, they aren't looking by name which means clearly fake reviews not handled by TA are galling.

One of the restaurants near is had a review that finished with 'come and see us and you will be impressed'.
TA still didn't take it down.

I find TA useful, but you can spot the twats with ridiculously high standards and unreasonable complaints, so I do take it all with a pinch of salt. And yes, they are probably the ones you are talking about OP

Agree with Cosy, basically