I just got back from Costa Rica and tried to post a Negative review on a White Water Rafting Trip that we took and my reviews were rejected because it did not meet their criteria. They would not explain. Reason I choose the Rafting company was because of the positive reviews from their web-site, so it's the last time that I'm going to use their input. Can't trust a web-site when you're not allowed to give your honest opinion.

You can help people by posting your experience in the FORUM section. That is moderated in a different way than the REVIEWS section. When people are asking about such-n-such company for Costa Rica, you can reply to their thread and tell them your experience.

nomad,
Try to get your review in, as the forum section doesnt impact their rating


Sometimes the best you can do on TA is just to give them 1 star and objectively describe your experience. Outside of that some subjective conclusions(like 'I feel their website is intentionally deceitful') can get your review flagged

TA has their fake reviews Fodors has their pj posting Fodorites. You just can't get good info anywhere.

Nomad, I have written unfavorable reviews and had them published on Trip Advisor. Did you check the guidelines to see why your review might have been rejected? Did you contact TA for a reason for the rejection?

Your opinion would be valuable to a future traveler. Try to find out what needs to be amended on your review and re-submit it.

I think that, for the most part, Trip Advisor can be trusted. They publish my honest opinions all the time.

TA has their fake reviews Fodors has their pj posting Fodorites.

If you want to post your review here we can probably tell you what "criteria" it did not meet according to TA rules.

I've posted a several neagative reviews on Tripadvisor and they were all published.

Certainly negative reviews are published all the time. So if yours was denied, then it's something specific you said, or a way you phrased it, or something. Read the posting guidelines maybe you can figure it out yourself. Or as I mentioned post it here and someone will spot the problem.

I'm about to write a rave review on TA of a place in Italy and it will be one of many 5 star reviews for it. There is only 1 4 star review and nothing lower. This was the most amazing vacation ever and I would hate to see the owner penalized for only good reports. He works really hard to keep everyone happy and we hope to go back for another week.

I've also posted negative reviews, but I try not to include things which might have only been a fluke because I don't want it to lose someone business if it was only a 1-time thing - I want it to be a fair listing. So sad that people have to ruin a good thing.

Nothing but 5 star reviews will not hurt the place, unless they are all by people the only write 1 (or 2-4) reviews. Trip Advisor has made it much easier to see if the person who writes the review has reviewed many places or if they have given 5 star (or 1 star) reviews to every place they listed.

If someone has reviewed in many cities and has given a spectrum of reviews, I am much more likely to credit what they say.

Keith

>

Thanks Keith - that would be me!

Cornell researchers have developed an algorithm that detects fake reviews.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/20/te...ws-online.html

Anyone who is a genuine tripadvisor reviewer should read it.

I have also added an explanation of my review philosophy under my profile.

As many have noted in the replies to this article, one class of fake reviews (1 highly negative or positive review, with no profile details) is easy to spot.

The NYT article explains about the guidelines given fake reviewers paid $5 per review - to post neither a super negative or positive review. Very interesting. The researchers also analyzed the use of language in discriminating between fake reviews (they seeded 400 of them into the study) and genuine ones. I would love to see a comprehensive listing of the criteria in the discriminant function.

Though on the whole, I continue to follow the very sensible advice - research, research, research, etc. provided here, to make up my mind about how to judge the individual reviews and aggregate ratings. Interestingly, the NYT article noted that Tripadvisor is biased towards positive reviews.

I booked a small Inn in Palm Springs based on positive reviews. The reviewers raved about the wonderful friendly hosts, the stunning rooms etc. Whilst the hosts were ok, and the rooms were average, no way were they amazing as reviewed. At the end of the stay I was presented with an embossed pen with the Inns name on it and a request by the hosts to 'write a positive' review. Needless to say I wrote an 'honest' review. I think the majority of the first time reviewers of this property were suffering from 'The Emporers New Clothes' syndrome.

Hi Frank,

I just happened to come across this again as the same 26K poster (now 39.5K)is NOT a DE and is still touting the same resort on one particular brainwashed forum. He used to have a "per-click revenue" business to help websites earn more money. Any negative experiences of this one magical resort are flagged. I'm sure TA is making plenty of money from linked bookings.

I was a DE (of another forum in the area) and all my tips are still linked on the "Top Questions". My advice was valued by many and even a staff member sent me a thank you message that my info "made" her honeymoon.

The poster in question is a "stealth marketer" and has many worshippers that flagged any post I made and ended up with so many that TA banned my screen-name without a word. I am a real traveler that never received gifts based on my screen-name, dinner with GMs, upgrades to the Presidential Suite and many more freebies and perks. My photo website is still all over that forum almost 2 years later and still gets views.

I would never let a business know my real name and my screen-name.

DE/Business Owners on the forum I frequented were so "popular" that people could only parrot those two hotels to recommend (and most had never been to at all) when there are over 100 hotels to stay in that city.

Be careful who you listen to...even if they have 5,000 posts- some are just repeating someone's else recommendation of the forum for places they personally know nothing about.

IMO there are a couple of "issues" with these fake review mechanisms and the biggest one is that people's tastes and standards vary widely.

I recently read a review of a San Diego hotel ion which the reviewer complained about the "small" size of the room. They had also posted some pictures of the family in the room. When I saw how OVERWEIGHT every member of that family is I realized why they thought the room was "small."

My husband and I recently took our 2 boys on a trip to a resort in the Dominican Republic to one of the Iberostar resorts. We found this resort on Tripadvisor and saw the rave reviews about it. We read most of the reviews good and bad. There we about 63 terrible reviews and over 2,000 excellent reviews. So we decided to go since the excellent review well out weighed the terrible.

I have to say that all of the 63 terrible review were the ones that were correct. We were so blown away as to how this resort got such high ratings. We even got sick along with several other people in the resort. We wrote an extensive review on tripadvisor of the place and we have yet to see it published on their site.

We are well seasoned travelers so this is far from our first vacation. However, this was our first vacation to an Iberostar and our last.

i am sorry you had a bad experience chefkara.

I always find T A helpful although I never had the patience to read so many reviews as you did. wow did you really read them all?

Honestly I do not think bare stadistics will do, and you have to use more than one source to arrive to a reasonable conclusion.

I think some space must be allowed to the fact that what can be great for one person can be totally different to another.

On the whole I believe TA is very helpful.
.

I usually write good to excellent reviews, but I am convinced that that's because I do my homework before booking anything. I read read read before making my decision.

I recently wrote a terrible review of a restaurant (a small local place that an acquaintance recommended) and it was published right away. I wonder if there is a system for bigger places to be able to block negative reviews.

To chef: It sounds like the problem is the trip advisor staff and not with the resort, At least so far as seeing your review published......

I recently wrote a very positive review of a tour company in Scotland and it did take a number of days before it actually appeared on the trip advisor site. How long ago did you write your review? If it has been more than a week I would contact the trip advisor still in try to get to the bottom of what is going on