Trip Advisor website, questions,
 

Has anyone ever used this site and found their reviews helpful?
I am looking there for further London hotel info.
Thank you.

I've checked reviews there in addition to Fodor's and guidebooks. The thing with tripadvisor.com is that anyone can post and sometimes the reviews may not be too accurate. It's hard to explain but sometimes one can tell if a post is false.

Hi

If you are looking for reviews I think that www.epinions.com is a better site.

Regards
Gard
www.gardkarlsen.com

Yes, I look at them and even contribute. Just one more input into a decision. I don't take any particular review as gospel, any more than I would with recs. on this forum. I always look with a sceptical eye at both raves and slags. The former as possible plants; the latter as peope who just like to complain or have hidden agendas (disgruntled former employees) or unrealistic expectations. I read a funny one the other day; a guy ripping a place in Glasgow because the manageress wasn't able to fix his tv within an hour so that he could watch a football game.

Isn't epinions.com similar to tripadvisor.com meaning that anyone can post reviews?

Francophile, any website that allows users to post (epinions, tripadvisor, Fodors rants & raves etc.) can have "plants" (people with an agenda). I find tripadvisor very useful, not only for reviews, but for their links and often, on the same page as the reviews, some sort of guide of price.

You can usually bank on reasonable accuracy if all the posts are similar. The problem ofcourse is when they don't agree.

I find tripadvisor really useful also, because of the articlees and links it posts. Great one-stop info on a hotel (plus the address).

I have never noticed reviews that I think are obviously false; for negative reviews, I look for details to see if the reason would bother me and the credibility of the thought process.

I just look for consensus across several sources. However, if some review is really negative about something that would matter to me (like noise) and the post seems believable, I will not book a place if I am staying a long time or paying a lot of money, even if only one bad review. There are too many other places to go.

i use trip advisor in tandem with fodor's, and i have found that i only really hold a person's opinion in regard if i see it is something being said consistently -- if many people find the same negatives or positives about a place.

bump

I checked out epinions.com/ and it doesn't seem to have many hotel reviews-for example, on London. I have sent in reviews now and then to tripadvisor.com/ and I really find their site helpful. I am not a plant!

Reviews on tripadvisor of specific economical hotels in London seem to vary considerably from one person to another. Perhaps it depends on one's expectations of an inexpensive room or maybe room qualities within the same hotel vary a lot.
Typical complaints are over very small rooms and bathrooms in old buildings.

Thank you everyone for your input and opinions.
I too found the epinions site not too beneficial at least to me as I prefer small, family run type hotels.

I guess one just has to try to really read between the lines,
as one persons complaint about small bathrooms or dirt could just be someone being "cranky"

Using it though for the first time has been helpful though for revising a booking for part of our up-coming trip.

thanks again.