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Thread: Trip advisor and the like good or bad ?

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    Registered User stewart38's Avatar
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    Trip advisor and the like good or bad ?

    In the 'old days' you would go into a travel agent, look at a brochure , ask the agent how much a place was , book it fly there and then fly home

    If it wasnt how you thought it would be e.g too many Germans etc you would complain when you got there got home etc

    Now of course you can go on trip advisor and get the reviews of 300 other people who have been to the Hotel your choosing

    Great idea !!! but is it

    We nearly booked a place but saw the worse 8 reviews out of 300 and it put us of the place and the search goes on and on

    I know you have to look at the overall picture but it seems all these trip advisors type sites make the decision harder ??

    Any thoughts ?

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    Re: Trip advisor and the like good or bad ?

    Most of us get one holiday abroad, per year, if we are lucky. Spend an absolute fortune and use up all our holiday entitlement. There's nothing worse than going away and finding out once you are there that you've booked a holiday in hell.

    I do think looking at reviews of a hotel before you book is helpful, but I also believe you get what you pay for.

    Having looked at holidays for May 09 half term, I fully expect to pay at least £3,000 for a family week abroad. Anything cheaper means going 3 star...in my experience, 3 star means shlt hole, without exception.

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    Registered User LilyB's Avatar
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    Re: Trip advisor and the like good or bad ?

    Quote Originally Posted by stewart38 View Post
    ... Now of course you can go on trip advisor and get the reviews of 300 other people who have been to the Hotel your choosing ...

    ... We nearly booked a place but saw the worse 8 reviews out of 300 and it put us of the place and the search goes on and on

    I know you have to look at the overall picture but it seems all these trip advisors type sites make the decision harder ?? ...
    If that's how you feel, don't read them then. Ignorance is bliss ...

    From personal experience, I have found TripAdviser to be an extremely useful aid in choosing a destination and/or hotel for my holidays. I have also contributed to the reviews as I am keen to help others in return.

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    An Eclectic Toaster
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    Re: Trip advisor and the like good or bad ?

    I've found Tripadvisor useful, so long as I bear one basic thing in mind: if it's about a location anywhere where English isn't the native language, ignore comments from US citizens.

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    Re: Trip advisor and the like good or bad ?

    Of course, the English do like to have a good moan about nothing. I looked at some reviews for the holiday park I stayed at in Devon this summer...most complaints were about the park being to hilly. HELLO....! It's Devon for crying out loud, and the holiday park is called 'Devon Cliffs', it's supposed to be fekkin' hilly.

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    Registered User stewart38's Avatar
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    Re: Trip advisor and the like good or bad ?

    Quote Originally Posted by LilyB View Post
    If that's how you feel, don't read them then. Ignorance is bliss ...

    From personal experience, I have found TripAdviser to be an extremely useful aid in choosing a destination and/or hotel for my holidays. I have also contributed to the reviews as I am keen to help others in return.
    Of course i find them useful thats the problem

    You will never get 300 perfect reviewes, a few might be plants

    We were thinking of going to Cuba then read reviews about the terrible 'cuba airlines'

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    Registered User Brighton Belle's Avatar
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    Re: Trip advisor and the like good or bad ?

    I've worked in the travel industry for 20 years and I do find these kind of sites useful because I haven't been personally to every hotel. However, you do have to take some of these with a pinch of salt.

    Be aware of the age of the person posting the review, whether they had kids, the time of year, etc. People complain its noisy and full of kids (will it is mid Aug) or its too quiet (mid Jan). Many things influence people's opinion (row with husband, poured with rain, noisy neighbours) and sometimes they take it out on the hotel.

    People can expect too much, especially if they've got a bargain late deal. They're expecting a 5* hotel for a 2* price and when they actually get a 2* hotel, the disappointment and shortcomings are even more apparent.

    I usually go for the majority view - if most people like it its probably OK. There'll always be a few people that won't be happy with anything. I've been to hotels that I thought were excellent, but then I've read reviews later and wonder if they were staying in the same hotel.

    Star ratings are always a bit of a minefield. A 5* hotel in Sharm el Sheikh is not the same as a 5* in New York. Price is usually a much better indicator. You often get reviews that start 'this is not a 5* hotel'. Well it is only £20 a night - what did you expect? In many countries is it common practice for hotels to 'buy' their star ratings from the tourist board.

    It also depends on your priorities and how much a good hotel is worth to you. Are you spending a lot of time in the hotel (eg at an all inclusive property) or is it just somewhere to sleep? If you're going half board, its worth paying a bit more because the standard of food can be important and can vary wildly. If you're self catering or eating out, it doesn't matter so much and you can get away with a more budget property without it influencing the holiday to such an extent.

    Final point (sorry I'll stop in a minute!) I usually find Holiday Watchdog or Holidays uncovered slightly more objective and relavant to the UK market. As Trip Advisor is mostly Americans, they're comparing the hotels to American standards so unless you've travelled a lot in the States, you don't really know what they're comparing it with.

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    Registered User ~*~Saligal~*~'s Avatar
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    Re: Trip advisor and the like good or bad ?

    I find checking out more than one review website the way to go - especially for accommodation.
    Keep in mind that renovations and other disruptions in the hotel are not necessarily posted on the website - so if you plan to be at a particular destination for a good period of time and don't want to be inconvenienced call them to find out. The reason I say this is that the two hotels we had stop-overs in on our honeymoon were both renovating - and there was no discount on the room rate to go with the inconvenience (one was in Hong Kong, the other in Bangkok).

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    Registered User John S's Avatar
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    Re: Trip advisor and the like good or bad ?

    I've successfully used Tripadvisor for several years, checking out info for probably over 20 trips, and (as has been said) you have to use it with care and in particular check out the reasons for any complaints. But if a hotel is (eg) ranked as No 3 out of 70 in a city, and has lots of reviews, i's probably going to be good. Similarly, a hotel ranked 67 out of 70 in that same city should probably be avoided. In my experience, the time spent on researching where you're going is more than rewarded by the benefits.

    I'm not sure I agree with the comments about disregarding comments from Americans - I think that they usually look for higher standards of customer service and facilities than the Brits who accept whatever crap is going, so use that background to assess their reviews - if they are still favourable you're onto a winner.

    Incidentally, the Tripadvisor forums are a great place to pick up info on where you're going, possibly from locals and in any event from someone with experience of the place.

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    Re: Trip advisor and the like good or bad ?

    Quote Originally Posted by LilyB View Post
    From personal experience, I have found TripAdviser to be an extremely useful aid in choosing a destination and/or hotel for my holidays. I have also contributed to the reviews as I am keen to help others in return.


    Found a great budget hotel in Rome via it and one in Valletta

    You just have to have an ounce or two of common sense - a budget price normally means a budget hotel.

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