Anonymous

I agree that you have to keep a watch out for posters who have an axe to grind, especially over staff attitudes, minor amenities, or other subjective aspects.

I once wrote a review of a hotel that I stayed in in NYC, and the previous review had been written by somebody whose stay overlapped with mine. The breakfast room that she thought was cramped had seemed charming to us, and the staff who she thought was so awful had been perfectly nice!

suze

Similarly one person hated my favorite hotel in Waikiki. They said the carpet had stains and the bathroom mirror had rust around the edges. Well both those things were true, but I did not mind because it was a very economical hotel, with a lot of aloha spirit, and plenty of other ammenities to make up for those two complaints (beautiful tropical gardens, two lovely pools, free 1/2 pineapple upon check in, free coffee on the patio in the morning, etc.).

dmlove

Which is exactly why facts are better than opinions! I personally would be very unhappy with carpet stains and rust on the mirrors, but I understand why suze does not find those objectionable in this particular hotel. So it's better to state that the carpet stains and rust exist rather than to say "I hated this place" or "I loved this place".

wliwl

Gekko - "Also, many people get the service they deserve, in my experience."

Yeah, I agree with that.

suze

I think what's trickier is when people complain that the staff was rude to them. That has more of a hideen dynamic to it and is not so cut & dry like something physical about the hotel room. This comment is NOT about the same hotel as above, just generally speaking. Because people are pretty much always nice to ME... makes me wonder what kind of attitude these other folks roll in with to get such bad treatment

starrs

I agree with Gekko too.
I think it's pretty easy to identify the outlier reviews and get a fairly accurate idea of the hotel's pros and cons.

nytraveler

Obviously there are some plants - by hotel employees, or owners of smaller places. But - they are usually so obvious that you can pick them out (all praise - and often inappropriate and no negatives)..

There is no benefit to Tripadvisor to tout one hotel over another - why would the plant fake reviews?

gail

My posted reviews are very reliable

socialworker

Hey, gail, as a fellow MA resident, I really appreciate your humor. To me it is not a coincidence that two of the top TV funnymen (Conan and Jay) hail from our fair state.

The key to understanding MA humor is to know that it is not necessarily stated as if it were meant to be funny.

slangevar

I'm with Suze... I almost never pay attention to reviews that complain about rude service (especially after seeing how many people deserve it!).

Fodorite018

For the most part, Trip Advisor is really good.

I had one occasion to post a negative review, and an employee posted a fake review after that. I knew it was an employee because they specifically mentioned things that I left out, that only an employee would have known. At that hotel, it seemed to be the case for every negative review. But I don't think that is the norm at all.

I like the forums there, just like here. I much prefer to get a dialogue going where you can get more info about a place.

There was one poster who decided to lift a page from another travel site and post it as her own recommendations. About as blatant plagiarism as one could imagine, but thankfully TA stopped that. I just never did understand why someone would even think to do that, but it shows that there are all sorts of people there.

lcuy

When a friend and I stayed at Evergreen Suites in Las Vegas, the hotel offered a discounted room rate for your next stay if you posted a positive review on Tripadvisor!

My girlfirend posted a negative review (even at $29 a night, it was hard to find positives!) and never got her discount certificate.

volcanogirl

I always make sure to tell hotels/inns that we post on Fodors and Trip Advisor - seems like they make an effort to do things well if they know you'll chat with other people about it.

Melnq8

I've been posting on TA for a few years. I've never paid much attention to their hotel rankings - I'm much more interested in reading the comments of the people who've stayed at the places I'm interested in.

Sometimes I'll go to TA as a means of getting some hotel names to research further, other times I'll come across a hotel that interests me, then look to TA for reviews.

I take what I read with a grain of salt and I look for trends - if I see the same complaint over and over again, I tend to believe it.

I dismiss comments that I find petty, as well as those which seem over the top. I look for things that are important to me - for instance I'm much more interested in a quiet room than if a property has a nice pool.

I've run across a few reviews that were suspect, but I just ignore them.

I try to be fair and honest in my reviews - if I have negative comments, I try to explain them.

We as travelers all have different needs and expectations - reviews are incredibly subjective - there's just no getting around that.

Incidentially, I've stayed in a few hotels several times and had entirely different experiences each time. You just never know...

Dukey

Since I post on TA whenever I have had a hotel stay I always use it as a reference point when potentially booking a hotel I haven't used before.

I'm using it right now for a future booking in Amsterdam since we've decided not to use our more usual hotel the next time we travel there.

I think you have to read the reviews carefully and decide for yourself whether or not both the "pros" and "cons" related by reviewers are things YOU feel are valid.

Also, when I post reviews I make a point of being as objective as possible. Rather than saying "the room was large" I also give paced off/measured dimensions.

I'll never forget the reviewer of a hotel who said, "the king size bed was huge"....really? Since there are only two sizes of "king size beds" that didn't tell me much.

sland

I used trip advisor a lot for my research. I also use Fodor's for my trip as well.

When I was living in Europe, we traveled a lot and I do not know any of the places to go. Since I do not speak French or Dutch or German, it is hard to find out which or where is the best place to go.

Fodor's and the people from this thread is my no. 1 source to book for all my trip and I am so confident that I will not get lost once I reach my destination!

I hope this help!

suze

I might use the hotel reviews for research, but before coming to a final decision, I would post the hotels I was considering on open forum here on Fodor's as well as the destination forum at TripAdvisor. Then people I "know" (i.e. regular posters) could help me and give their input specifically.

Aduchamp1

It is like any advice take the best and the worst and see where the middle may lie.

I recently looked for a hotel for one night in London for a cheap price and it was helpful where people spoke of deal killers-like bed bugs or a rumbling underground.

sland

I agree with you suze!

galaxygrrl200

Also, and this is most important, is that what's "fabulous" to someone who typically stays in suburban 50s-style motels, is not necessarily fabulous to me.

This is super true on Trip advisor. I like high end hotels. Nice two star hotels, I still would pass on and trip advisor does not note the difference. I tried some hotels that were two stars with good reviews on trip advisor and I did not like them at all.

Different strokes, that's all