bigtyke

I write reviews of every place I can. If there has been a recent one that differs from mine, I sometimes address the difference.
When there is a negative review, I like it when the place responds. This happened one place I wrote a single negative sentence about.

HappyTrvlr

I read TA and also Booking.com as those reviews are only written after a poster has stayed at that hotel.

SavvyKathy

I think all posts should be transparent, like a purchase on Amazon or Ebay. A review should be tied to a purchase (be verified). We had a vendor remove our legitimate review with an average rating, badger me in many formats (email, phone, messaging, etc). My husband reposted a review 3 or 4x before it stuck on TripAdvisor. The vendor flagged the reviews as inappropriate. Glowing reviews could cite a name, but flagged reviews could not. He just wanted all positive reviews. Then over the next few weeks many absurdly glowing reviews were posted for the vendor to get him back into first place (Sedona, AZ / Activities - Tour Guides). In the Sedona TripAdvisor forum, people discuss the vendor’s lack of permitting, which is required for running the tours he conducts, but this does not seem to be a factor to open up shop and be a vendor on the site. You can't mention his lack of permitting to visit any of the parks or local Indian reservation in a review, or it will be flagged as second hand information or labeled defamatory (when it is official knowledge and the vendor admitted to not being permitted in a BBB complaint with this individual). I think consumer action is great. It pushes people to be better, and more accountable. More safeguards need to be in place. The links below make me question the legitimacy of many of the reviews. I wish we did not base our last trip on reviews!
http://tripadvisor-warning.com/share...p-contributors
http://real-tripadvisor-reviews.com/

SavvyKathy

Maybe the Italians investigating these practices will make T.A. better!

johnbolt

Have you ever wondered how they make money and survive ? Who pays them to get reviews? The user or the hotels, companies and corporations?

Trip advisor is obviously a biased website selling its services to the companies users are reviewing.
They deliberately add or remove, authorize or not reviews according to what their clients (hotels, restaurants, big travel corporations) want to hear rather than the truth.

I have posted many reviews on TripAdvisor, some positive, some negative, some quite neutral, most were never published under false pretense.
I realized how much the system was corrupted after having eaten in a great restaurant that had abnormally bad reviews while I just left another restaurant after having being treated badly by an horrible waitress.

It seems, TripAdvisor doesn't do business with the good one but with the bad one as they didn't published any of my reviews...

starrs

Your experience is very different than mine. TA has published every review I've written.

I don't buy your theory.

johnbolt

Not surprising. I traveled to Nepal 1 year ago and there, all the trekking agencies, hotels, restaurants are doing that, they don't hire anybody for it, they just use their employees.

It's a bit like glassdoor.com were corporation employees (like HR, marketing or management) are publishing false positive reviews.

TripAdvisor lives on the money provided by the very same companies we are supposed to review. Hardly an independent body...

suze

Trip Advisor also removes posts that are not favorable to a destination, within their destination forums. Just try to post a question about "safety in Mexico". It will be removed in the blink of an eye.

marvelousmouse

Suze- I've noticed that. They shut down posts that even make vague references to something like that, which I'm not sure I like, because I think that's info prospective visitor would want to know (or at least I would).

On the other hand, I think the reason they do it is partly to prevent the thread from turning into a train wreck. I do appreciate that aspect of tripadvisor- they appear to have a zero tolerance of trolling or cyber bullying. Now if only their website format did not give me a headache!

They also shut down old threads which prevents resurrections like this- but hey, sometimes zombies are good for a bit of entertainment

suze

I can see it from both sides. But bottomline is their website, their rules.

I don't mine their website format at all, but I only hang out in the (about 5 of the) destination forums (not reviews section or anywhere else).

Dukey1

I agree with Starrs. But TA has very explicit "rules" about some of the things you can and cannot say about either an establishment as well as what OTHER reviewers may have said. I think a lot depends on how you express some things.

There seems to be little rhyme or reason as to why some reviewers hand out their ratings and when you read the content of some of the reviews you can begin to see what you may feel is "faulty" rationale for both praising as well as downgrading a particular establishment.

As one simple example, I recently read a review of a hotel in which the traveler complained about the distance they were required to walk between the parking lot and the entrance to the hotel. Otherwise, they more or less raved about the place but only gave it a two out of five possible positive marks.

In another review the writer complained about the size of a hotel room in which the two adults and two children had occupied. Then I looked at one of the pictures this reviewer had posted of the four occupants. To say that all four of these people were grossly overweight would be charitable so yeah, I can see why that room seemed to be "small."

rizzo0904

I post to TA often and I've only had one review deleted. It was for a local hotel that houses drug dealers and sex offenders. A quick search of the police records will show that's fact, but my comments were removed.

thursdaysd

I have posted a number of negative reviews on TA (I usually only post if a place is particularly good or particularly bad). Only one has been pulled, after the owner claimed I was reviewing a different hotel. It was put back up after I made it clear to TA I did indeed know which hotel I was talking about! My main complaint with TA is that an owner can post a reply to my review, but I cannot then reply to the owner.

You do have to treat TA reviews with care. But is the AirBnB system any better? All the reviews seem to be positive, no doubt because the "guests" know they will be rated in their turn by the "hosts".

johnbolt

To starrs on May 27, 15 at 8:21pm

"Your experience is very different than mine. TA has published every review I've written."

Sounds like you work for them...

My experience with TripAdvisor is that they deliberately choose which review to be published based on commercial or promotion criteria (like the Mexico example), not the reality.

My last experience was to book a hotel that had good reviews on TA and proved to be a real disaster with the result that i couldn't sleep nor change room because it was fully occupied.

I think other people have the right to know the truth about this hotel which is very expensive for what it really is.

But no, TA wouldn't let my review being approved.

Strangely enough this hotel has only great reviews online on TA, all looking more similar than the others, like written by the same persons.

So nowadays, just sharing an experience to warn other travelers is considered as trolling by TA?

I don't buy this...

starrs

"Your experience is very different than mine. TA has published every review I've written."

Sounds like you work for them..."


Yes. That is the ONLY obvious explanation for saying "Your experience is very different from mine". As my Granny would say, "You are as smart as a whip!"
Amazing!

shhhh! I ALSO work for Fodors.


Brilliant deduction skills.

schmerl

I guess I must work for TA as well since all my reviews have been posted.
You can find fake reviews on any rating site including our beloved Fodors.

IMDonehere

At least 1/2 the opinions on TA and Yelp are by people who do not know of which they speak. And rarely are there paid assassinations or shills on Fodors. And because there is substantially less traffic on Fodors, the phonies are easier to spot.

I like Booking and Expedia for hotel opinions. You must have booked through them in order to voice an opinion. Even then you must read between the lines and measure the consensus.

I am sure others do the same as I do for a printed or on-line guide and that is you look at the book or board for places you know best and see what is said.

I live in NYC and the 80% of the opinions on TA are those of a first time visitor. I know Spain and 85% of the reviews on TA were about the resort areas in the south, a minor topic on Fodors.

There are more sophisticated and experienced travelers here and that is the charm and the reason I do not even bother checking with TA. It goes beyond the lies.

Dukey1

"My experience with TripAdvisor is that they deliberately choose which review to be published based on commercial or promotion criteria (like the Mexico example), not the reality."

I suspect your actual and factually-based "experience with TripAdvisor is more like this:

You wrote a review(s)
They were rejected AND you were told WHY
You got pissed off
You've decided it must be someone else's fault or there's this conspiracy, etc.
Since you have no actual concrete proof that your assertions about Trip Advisor are true you come and whine here.

starrs

I agree with Dukey.

john tops an old thread to whine.
Others share different experiences.
josh accuses them of working for TA.

Sounds like a grudge to me.

kwren

All my reviews have been posted too, even the negative ones. If I give a negative review I always back it up with an explanation. I often get a nice reply back from the manager.