My husband and I normally narrow the hotel choices down. Then, we use Trip Advisor as a guide. When we look at the reviews, we look for recurring themes. If a bunch of people are saying the same thing, it is probably true. We normally then wind up posting the choice here or on Flyer Talk before making a final decision.

Heavens - Like many others this is one of the resources that I use and I have posted my opinion of many of the hotels that we have stayed at. I do think the site has value.

I would like to see a few more reviews on the hotels here on the Fodor site and for more locations.

Sandy

Most recently I dismissed TA negative reviews on a mid town East hotel .. because it offered the absolutely best location .. and booked it anyway .. however .. it turned out the reviews were right on .. and I will never ever go to that hotel .. if anything the reviews were not negative enough .. ! I do think combining the most useful info on this site from other Fodorites wanting to honestly share ... and TA is really the best option ...

I absolutely use it as a guide. I look here first to see what Fodorites have said then I use TA to see what is written. I look for themes. Do most posters rant about paper thin walls? Do most rant about cleanliness? Do most posters rave about proximity to the beach or proximity to good restaurants? Do most rave about the staff, their attention to detail and helpfulness?

I've posted quite a few reviews myself on both hotels and restaurants on TA. I see no reason not to use TA as a guide.

BTW, one time on this forum, a poster wrote about this great hotel in Rome. In her trip report, she mentioned (without complaint) that this hotel had to move her down the street the last two days of her stay because of a problem with booking. I went to TA to get other reviews and discovered that a LOT of posters complained that this same hotel had moved them down the street-even after they had confirmed their reservation. The funny thing was after one or two of these posted complaints, there would be a "review" of the hotel praising what a great place it was-written with many spelling errors and poor sentence construction. These particular glowing reports were obvious fakes. In the end, I crossed this "great" hotel off of my list for my next trip to Rome.

I don't honestly know what to make of TripAdvisor. I have read that some of the reviews are posted by agents of the hotel in response to very negative reviews.
If some of the posts are like paid political advertisements, TA is not what I would call unbiased.

There are a couple of places in the Caribbean where you can read several descriptions and find all types of variations. Some reviews either blast the place or praise it to the skies.
Now which one is right? The blaster or the lauder?

Be cautious on making decisions on reviews. Many claim to have unbaised reviews but there is no way of knowing who is really posting. An example of such are reviews of the Occidental Grand Xcaret(outside of Cancun). The review that truly describes the resort can be viewed at www.brentmidlock.com

Heads up. That link takes you elsewhere.

I have no idea why the poster will do this, but the link will take you to a website memorializing a child.

binx joined Fodors today and is doing nothing but posting links to that page.

Keith

ok binx, what's your story?

I just began using TA on my last trip and I thought it was invaluable. I scrutinize the reviews for details since I'm particular. As an example, I disqualified lodging that was described as not having any counter space in the bathroom. I disqualified on water pressure. The proprietors certainly don't offer that kind of info, and many people don't care about such things, so I'm glad that there are other people like me that do care. I make compromises but not on some things. I'm actually more interested in the negative reviews to be honest, since they generally are very specific. I'll admit a score of 4 to 5 stars consistently does catch my attention, and perhaps many aren't legitimate.

I was thinking before my trip that I would have liked to have seen more traveller photos since I find them helpful. In that spirit, I reviewed my lodging and posted several photos upon my return.

Of course, Fodors is always helpful in every aspect of a trip. Thanks for your assistance in planning my trip. Your responses to my annoying posts inquiring about apparel were especially important to my trip. I would have been quite uncomfortable if not for your advice.

I read a bad review about a hotel in Zanzibar that I was hoping to stay in. I immediately emailed the property manager and asked him direct questions about the complaints. He answered me promptly and honestly. He said that the problems had been corrected. I stayed there and had an absolutely perfect time, and received a bottle of wine from the manager for trusting in his response.

May I say .. I too called the hotel directly to ask about several different bad reviews .. I spoke with the manager of the hotel .. who was very lovely .

Sorry ..
She responded to each complaint and told me that in one instance the bad review was deserved but had been corrected .. she promised that she would put in a room that would be their finest ... It was absolutely awful .. the worse room and/or hotel I have ever stayed at .. and I did stay because we had no time to look for another hotel .. The only good comment I can make is .. the sheets were clean .. and the bathroom was clean .. beyond that everything else was awful .. awful .. awful as was posted on TA .. and that I chose to ignore .. !

When I see 7 + comments all saying the same negative thing I tend to believe it. I have posted comments a few times only when I thought things were exceptionally bad and a potential customer may be spending a significant amount of $$ to stay somewhere or dine somewhere and might be disappointed. If I can save someone from spending a lot of money on a possible bad experience I'll write a review but it's only happened a few times.

I HAVE to share this story. A couple of days ago I was looking at reviews for hotels in Anguilla. I love being able to see photos posted from travelers. It ususally gives one a good feel of a place (if photo is not blurry! ) . Well, after looking at photos in the newest review of one particular hotel, I went to the hotel website. The EXACT same photos!! Ok...if you're going to do that, can't you be a bit smarter about it and post DIFFERENT photos?! Needless to say, the review was positive. And needless to say, we won't be staying at that hotel. Wouldn't you find that insulting to your intelligence?

But, Heavens, to answer your question, I do use TA reviews among many OTHER type of reviews (Fodorites, magazines, etc...). I usually can spot a review from just a difficult traveler, a hotel employee or a hotel competitor. I "think" I can anyway

Interestingly, all the TA forums are "gone" this morning.
M

They are back, but the IDs of all the persons that posted are gone. Those comments about businesses (good & bad) are useless if we can't see what the person has done before.

Also their system has lost our registrations. When I tried to sign in, TA said there was no such account.

Keith

I noticed that too...so we all have to resign up, wonder what happened...

The TripAdvisor site is "undergoing maintenance" ..

Scarlett, you mentioned "VT" - which site is that?