Turning off from Tripadvisor

[EvaB7]

Hi,

I've recently stopped using Tripadvisor as in my view it's just become a hotbed for fake reviews, used to be good years ago but I don't feel I can trust it now. Question is are there any other good sites to use or may be I'll just post here next time and hope that mumsnetters have been to the places I'm interested in?

Cheers

Eva

tripadvisor is always something you have to take with a pinch of salt. we post genuine reviews on there so its not all fake. what we use it for are trends in the posts. so if everyone says "great place but the swimming pool was cold" we know that the swimming pool is probably cold!! you can always search on what other reviews the reviewer has posted if you are suspicious. personally, I would still sooner have it and use it as a tool when booking somewhere than not.

I used to do the same but find it too tiresome now to read through all the reviews trying to figure out which are genuine and which aren't. I wouldn't know how to identify the trends. Unfortunately I think they've become victims of their own success which is a shame as I used to like it. A friend of mine said that he only trusts the bad reviews but personally i don't even trust them anymore. Ho hum, i'll just have to ask around.

I will post separately about the Maldives and see if any mumsnetters can tell me about where is good to go there as I've had issues with suspected fake holidaymakers so am avoiding Tripadvisors forums now too (I've come across too many posters who I suspect are just companies trying to sell expensive resorts).

Check out booking.com because they are much harder to fake. You have to have a verified booking to leave a review on there.

I fine the hotrl reviews tend to be very accurate and the attractions. Restaurant ones less so as anywhere that has a lot of customers e.g coffee shop, takeaway will be higher up the list. A local curry house was number one ranked in our city and then had a flood of disappointed reviews it's literally a curry shack for want of a better word. Kebab van now featuring highly above Michelin starred restaurant in our town. I do post lots of reviews because I use it a lot.

We stayed in a hotel that was teeming with bed bugs, and had to leave at 4am and then boil, microwave and freeze all our stuff.

I posted on TripAdvisor and they refused to publish it. I also reported it to the popular late booking agency we booked it through and they continued offering rooms there without interruption.

If you want to know, you have to read Trip Advisor and maybe Booking.com, and try to read between the lines.
To be honest plenty just have totally believable reviews, some have just crap ones with the odd glowing one - which makes you wonder, sometimes there is one that sticks out and if you read between the lines someone had a bad experience and blames everything on the owner (eg. I turned up 3 hours late, didn't phone to let them know I would be late and no one was there, and they didn't let us cancel for free because it was raining),
Google streetview can help sometimes eg. for bad neighbourhoods.

Restaurants can be very biased if its a student town - just look at Oxford, I think a Kebab van is the second best restaurant.

I never take the reviews seriously where the poster has just posted once or twice. Have picked up - and I hope given - some useful tips over the years, although I agree that it is getting less reliable.

I always read reviews of hotels/destinations - but from a variety of sources.

The 'bad' review which comes from a first time poster I don't take too seriously - they frequently just have an axe to grind. But regular reviewers and contributors to the forums are much more reliably honest with feedback.

I always try to review hotels and restaurants I have been to. Whether good or bad. However I am on Trip Advisor a lot as a Destination Expert it's not that swanky..

So with Trip Advisor being the largest site for reviews it is useful to find out more about your hotel/restaurant first - but then back up that info by using another site - such as the hotel booking website or whatever.

Eva - do you usually just read the reviews on places or do you go on the forum for each destination? I find that those are the most useful - either ask your own questions, or search for a similar topic to read what genuine members have to say. Spammers and promoters are usually reported and removed - as on mnet - so a poster with a high post count is quite likely to know about the particular destination.

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions, much appreciated. I'll definitely try checking out booking.com in future as it is useful to have some reference points when deciding on hotels.

Re Trip advisor's forums, they are what put me off the site for good as I kind of was already sceptical about the reviews sections but when I read some of the stuff on the forums (recently I was looking for info on the Maldives) there seemed to be some obvious promotions on there from companies posing as holidaymakers. I think I reported one but I don't know if they ever did anything about it.

It's good in a way though as only by getting turned off Tripadvisor did I think to check if Mumsnet had a Travel Chat section and was pleasantly surprised, so at least I have some new more authentic options now :)

Maybe the forums differ by destination - I have some very knowledgable American's do a lot to plan my last trip to Germany. They love the area I was going to and could suggest the best places to see etc.

Thanks for the info about "booking.com". However only 9 (shortish) reviews against 600+ on tripadvisor for the hotel I'm going to shortly, for example.
As said by Heels99 I tend to find hotels and attractions reviews very accurate.
Really useful to contact reviewers privately....you can get some great info and feedback for specific questions. If you look at the posters review history...you can easily weed out any fake/poor reviewers.
Also the forums have some good "experts" as well.

err.. mumsnet review pages? www.mumsnet.com/reviews/travel/hotels-in-europe

i find TA too big and too full of people having a moan. and different people have such different expectations, its become impossible.

I still find TA reasonably useful for hotels and attractions but not for restaurants. TA does not split up coffee shops from Michelin starred restaurants so it is useless. Lots of people rave about mediocre restaurants but have never been anywhere good, so I am not interested in their opinions on fish and chips. There are better places to choose a restaurant, such as the Good a Food Guide in this country.

I would always look at bookings.com too because you can see if views are similar. As a regular user of TA, you do learn to ignore some reviews, eg "John, the bellhop, was the best ever!". He obviously gets a bonus if a guest mentions his name! Do I care about this aspect of the hotel's service? No, probably not and John has probably left by the time I get there. I am interested in the size of rooms, the cleanliness, the location of the hotel and whether everything works, eg hot water, lifts, service at breakfast etc. I write up a lot on TA but I would like to think I am fair. I think the majority of people write up what they find but if something goes wrong, it is how the hotel cope with it that matters, not the one off fault.

I find TA very helpful for hotels, especially for a cursory glance- if a hotel has hardly any 1 or 2 star reviews and a good number of 4 & 5 star, then generally I think it's likely to be ok. I tend to pick on the poor reviews, firstly because they are more amusing but secondly because that means you can quickly pinpoint any genuine issues.

I do find it annoying when people score down a hotel for things that are completely outside it's control, like say the Taxi firm or holiday company.

And yes not very useful for restaurants. For some reason cheap places with large portions seem to score highly rather than good quality establishments.