My complaint about Tripadvisor

[extradishes]

First off, I love Tripadvisor. I use it often.

However, my complaint is when I start reading hotel reviews, and the 5 of the 8 most recent reviews I see are all glowing 5* reviews, everything was perfect, and they're all from users who have no other reviews in their history. Now, it's possible this happens to be an excellent hotel. But am I the only one who suspects the hotel's management may be trying to pad their own ratings on Tripadvisor?

[thereuare]

This is nothing new, which is why you need to take many reviews with a grain of salt and not give too much weight to any one reivew, but rather use to get a general feel for a consensus for the property.

Not only is it believed that some hotels add reviews to make their hotels look better, but they can also write negative reviews of their competitor hotels in the area.

[stasik]

It's not unheard of at all for hotels to try and scam the system. The noise-to-signal on TripAdvisor can be quite high. I guess you just have to sort through it to get to the truth. You've done the right thing, picking out reviews from "one-shot wonders" and appying a dose of skepticism. Although all of us, at one time, had only one post or have written reviews that we don't particularly care for anymore.

I will admit though that in looking through reviews I will find opinions from long-time posters that differ vastly from my own. Still trying to figure out how anyone gives less than four stars to the Mandala Suites in Berlin. Some people are very unforgiving of mistakes, where I will give credit for sincere efforts to make something right. I also tend to give or take away credit for value for the money while some people fit their scores firmly into a certain box.

The content is the key. And if a reviewer takes time to point out positives and negatives and how those factor into an overall score, those are the people that I will give the most weight to.

[extradishes]

I agree; I like to see positives and negatives in one review in order to take it seriously. And yes thereuare, it seems like sometimes the competition seems to slam a property too.

Over the past few days, I was looking for a room in a small town in SW Utah (Springdale or Kanab basically, but I looked as far away as Jacob Lake AZ). Some of the smaller inns and B&Bs (which would theoretically have fewer reviews since overall they host fewer guests) had as many as 800+ reviews. Really?! The small motels in that area have 100 - 200 reviews, a little closer to normal, but (I thought) still somewhat high for a seasonal area.

If the owners/managers spent the amount of time managing their property as they seem to spend writing fake reviews, they wouldn't have to create fake reviews. Logic is a crazy concept to some people, though.

(I ended up booking a room in a B&B over the phone)

e.g.: probably the most egregious example I've seen, Tripadvisor's page for Desert Pearl Inn, 866 reviews, #1 of 13 hotels in Springdale Utah (97% thumbs up!).

#2 in town, Cliffrose Lodge & Gardens, 338 reviews

[Bob24]

I also use TA regularly and review every property I have stayed at. In fact, I just reported a local property to their "fraud" division. It is the Millenium Hotel in Minneapolis. The place is a dump. However, in a few day span in mid May, about 8-9 reviewers in a row rated it 5 star and gushed about it like it was the Taj Mahal. It was all their first reviews.

Now, it is possible that one or two misguided hillbillies could stay at an average or below average property and think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. However, 8-9 first time reviewers would not think that the Millenium is 5 star in just a few day span.

I reported it about a week ago and so far no action has been taken.

[Aisling]

I may be accused of being a "profiler" but what I've noticed over the years is that a persons review seems to have a lot to do with where they come from. If they are from an affluent area they tend to grade harshly. I know this sounds like stereotyping but there seems to be a pattern. I also noticed some will post pictures of the most trivial things....a button left on the floor that wasn't vacuumed... a smudge on a lampshade... uneven wallpaper... Someone actually did that!! :)

I think the real travelers photos tell the truth...if you can get past the prissy nitpickers.

[almohizea]

when it comes to hotels, I go with booking.com reviews, and sites that adopt their reviewing system...

you can review the hotel only if booked through them... at least you know whoever wrote that has actually been there...

[radar1]

It would not be very hard to police the reports if Tripadvisor wanted to. They could see if all the reviews were posted from nearby where the hotel is located, or if they were from out of town. I can see one or two fake reviews maybe slipping through, but how does a hotel manage 8 or 9? Different employees posting at the same hotel? It should throw up a red flag if the same person posts multiple reviews of a hotel or hotels in a short time.

[friend]

More hotel reviews = more hits = more advertising dollars. TA says they police reviews, have systems in place to detect frauds, etc. But I know people who have detected fraudulent reviews well after the fact. I use TA reviews for factual information ("2 blocks from a bus stop") but not much more.