I went to look at the reviews for the Carlton Hotel Opera in Vienna.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...ra-Vienna.html
I then saw this message on TripAdvisor:
Message from TripAdvisor: TripAdvisor has reasonable cause to believe that either this property or individuals associated with the property may have attempted to manipulate our popularity index by interfering with the unbiased nature of our reviews. Please take this into consideration when researching your travel plans.


Now I think that a skillful manipulator would be able to circumvent whatever safeguards TripAdvisor has in place to detect such fraud, but it's interesting that TripAdvisor is now specifically pointing these hotels out.

I read majority of the reviews, and didn't really detect anything unusual. I wonder if TA has deleted the suspicious reviews?

Hello WillTravel, that is interesting. It is good that TripAdvisor is addressing the issue. Hope you are planning a trip!

Hi all,

This has been an issue at TA since about August. Check this thread:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...or_better.html

s

When we stayed at the Jesmond Dene in London in 2006, I thought we were at a different hotel than the one reviewed on tripadvisor. It was disgusting and yet it is one of the top B&Bs in London. I certainly can't explain it. Hotel manipulation might.

I like to check hotel reviews at hrs.com for Germany as you have to book through hrs and stay at the hotel before you can rate the hotel. I compare the ratings with those of Tripadvisor. Tripadvisor has more verbiage and that can be helpful. Between the two and a couple guidebooks, I have never been much disappointed.

It is a shame that we have to be so careful.

Regards, Gary

Hi LoveItaly, yes I do have three trips planned right now, one of which is this trip to Munich, Passau, and Vienna in November.

Some posters made the reasonable objection, on another thread, that the weather will likely not be good, but I am going to Munich for professional reasons, and logistically and price-wise it worked best to proceed onwards to Vienna rather than anywhere else.

Booking.com has 377 reviews of the Carlton Opera, with an average of 7.2 which is typical for a hotel in this price range. But it does seem to be a constant theme that the staff are rude, and some reviews are very low.
http://www.booking.com/hotel/at/carltonopera.en.html
It's somewhat harder to fake with Booking.com, as the reviewer has to have made a booking through the site. (I have thought of ways to circumvent this, but no need to post them.)

Travel Yahoo has one awful review:
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-reviews-36...hqzjd61CbiphQB

I tend to take on-line reviews with a grain of salt unless I can correlate them with a guide like the red Michelin, where professional inspectors are part of the equation. It's interesting to read personal reviews, but just about everyone has his/her own standards.

Also, the T/A review popularity lists are just that...populaarity, not necessarily an indication of good a hotel actually is.

Now, what do we mean by good?

49 reviews on TA for this Terrace Motel in Gatlinburg Tennessee and not one of them is a "3" , or average.

36 of them, or about 74% are 5*.

I looked at the travelers photos posted on TA. This is quite possibly as far from a 5* as you can imagine, visually.

I would kick them off of the service.

Thanks for the heads up. I will make sure to check the sensibleness of ratings on fringe places from now on.

re: "...that the weather will likely not be good"

WillTravel, by "not good," did you mean rainy or just cold?

Some rain is likely, and temperatures are likely to be in the 35 - 45F (2 - 10C) range.

About three years ago we were in Vienna and Budapest in late March and it was COLD, only about 23 F and snowing. I went with friends from So California and they were freezing. But, we had a great time and saw everything and didn't mind the snow or cold. It was just beautiful in Vienna.
Hope you have a great trip.

I recently stayed at 2 hotels which had a notice in guest rooms advertising -

- a 10% discount, or
- an upgrade to a suite

- on your next stay to guests who posted positive reviews on TripAdvisor.

Bribery or what?

Steve

Steve, I have been nagged about posting on TA by hotel/B&B owners. At a B&B I stayed at in South Africa, which has been #1 in its area for a long time on TA, the owner reminded us several times to "be sure and post on TA when you get home."

<i>I recently stayed at 2 hotels which had a notice in guest rooms advertising -

- a 10% discount, or
- an upgrade to a suite

- on your next stay to guests who posted positive reviews on TripAdvisor.

Bribery or what?

Steve</i>

Steve, did you then review that hotel on TA &amp; mention that notice? I would.

Someone pointed out all of the fake reviews on TA to me and once I looked at some of the places that I stayed, I completely agreed and now take them with a grain of salt.

If I ever do check the site, it is only to make sure there are not too many negative reviews, otherwise, I would never base my stay on one of the positive reviews. I do realize competitors also post negative reviews, but most of the time they are pretty transparent.

wannagetaway wrote: &quot;I do realize competitors also post negative reviews, but most of the time they are pretty transparent.&quot;

I think most of the fake positive reviews are fairly easy to spot also. I don't disregard them. Their existence tells me that the hotel has an attitude to ethical business that I do not share.

Padraig - good point and agreed!

While researching hotels in Italy I found one hotel where a lot of reviews had the word definitely spelled definately. I think it unlikely so many people would spell the same word wrong. Still, I have had good luck with Tripadvisor reviews, ratings, and photos.

Also, I have no problem with a hotel proprietor asking that I leave a review, only with those who offer something in return for a positive review.