:O

TxTravelPro - that's what I was hoping, that they would have still moved you without threats :) At least they realized there was a problem and dealt with it promptly.

I had gone to one hotel and when I arrived at my room, the bed was missing (except for the headboard). I just walked back to the desk and said "it's a very nice room, but I'm afraid the bed's a bit too hard for me". They immediately moved me to another room with TWO beds!

The internet has become so ubiquitous in recent years, companies now exist which do nothing except post shill positive reviews about their clients on dozens (or sometimes hundreds) of various websites, and post shill negative reviews about their competitors. So the only option these days is to try and decipher aggregate opinions amid all this deception. It's usually not hard to do, especially when reviews are posted over many months or years.

The worst case of shill posting I've ever seen was from Hilton. The Hilton Waikoloa on the Big Island of Hawaii was getting a (very much deserved) reputation as a crowded tourist nightmare, when all of a sudden dozens of negative reviews about other Kohala resorts started popping up all over the internet, every one of which concluded with the same thought: "I should have stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa!".

Downright funny, although probably not to the other resorts.

The one that gets me every time is "bugs in the room". I hate that one. Were there really bugs in the room or did some malcontent post that because the maid didn't give her them the right number of towels? Or it just a mean-spirited prankster? And if I end up visiting the hotel and don't see a bug in the room, does that mean the reviewer was lying or was I just lucky?

Like I wrote on 10/21 here, my friend had bugs and larva in her room in the same hotel as I was staying and I didn't have bugs. But I did end up having a mouse in my room and she didn't. So we would have had different reviews of the hotel, wouldn't we!

I am going to stay at a hotel in a nearby town next weekend. The last time I stayed there (while work was being done on our house) we had tons of ants and some mice in the room. Eeek!

But that was quite awhile ago. I talked to the hotel and also friends that have had friends and family members stay in this hotel and I have been assured that there are no ants, bugs or mice. I sure hope not!!

When I read multiple negative reviews that all state the same complaint, ie, uncleanliness, bad service in specific areas, etc I do take the comments into consideration.

I like how you can now click on a user's name on Tripadvisor.com and see a poster's previous reviews, it helps to check previous reviews to see if the comments are believeable or not.

I don't like the "did you find this review helpful" yes or no link as I notice a lot of people get "nonhelpful" votes for perfectly good reviews. I wonder if people sit around and click "nonhelpful" sometimes just for the heck of it....