Any Trip Advisor users here?

[_Johnsy]

there are reports some tripadvisor reviewers are shills paid to either talk up a dump or trash their opposition
what i do is let the best and worst reviews cancel each other out and look at the trend of the middle of the road reviews if they are negative too i'd tread carefully but if they are mostly positive it should be ok

p.s. lots of negative reviews complain about rude staff my question is how did you treat them?
some people think because they are paying to stay somewhere that means the staff are their personal minions to scream at and order around as they please i have stayed in places with "rude staff" and never had an issue

Agree & some people complain about the smallest things as if it was the start of world war 3. No place is going to be prefect. if your on holidays, relax & enjoy yourself, after all it's only a place your sleeping & showering at.

I've used stayz twice & both times were excellent.

 

[18to87]

I've used it for the last year or so and have about 100 reviews. I wish I used it before then as it's a good diary of sorts for my travel thoughts. Out of those 100 I have probably left 5 reviews of 3 stars or less. Regarding a couple of bad experiences at hotels, I have given the hotel a chance to apologise or rectify the situation before leaving a review which more than once has led me to raise my ratings from a 1 or 2 star to a 4 star.

 

[bubs]

I swear by Trip Advisor as well.
Saved my bacon when I went to San Francisco.
A hotel in San Fran is heavily advertised in Australia (i.e travel agents get a bigger cut for sending unsuspecting people to it).
I booked first, not realising.
A quick look on Trip Advisor informed me immediately that the hotel in question was in slum city, surrounded by homeless and drug users who constantly harass the guests.
Changed that afternoon.

 

[horrie hastings]

I was just flicking through a few things and noticed a new restaurant had opened in Kingscliff and it was called Taverna and seeing I like Greek food and have friends who live in Kingscliff and sometimes I go and stay with so I decided to check out the website, also noticed it had a trip advisor page, the restaurant only opened in mid December but already had 7 pages of reviews and after reading the reviews which were all positive I noticed at least half of the reviews were from contributors who had only posted one review which was for this restaurant, makes me think staff family and friends posted to boost the restaurant popularity.

 

[Parra]

The positive comments can be useful and are the only comments I take notice of.

Negative comments are a waste of time.

 

[horrie hastings]

Negative comments aren't a waste of time if the place is truly crap, although some people interpretations of what is good and what is crap differ so I generally read between the lines of negative reviews, some people just whinge over virtually nothing.

 

[Parra]

If there are no positives to counter a bunch of negatives then fair enough. I stay in a lot of hotels and I find most negative reviews are just wrong. Whether it is fussy people, sour grapes , vindictiveness I don't know.

 

[horrie hastings]

Just used it to sought out Adelaide accommodation for when the Roosters play the Storm there in June, the reviews were all over the place for some of the more pricier options.

 

[kdalymc]

Yes will use TA for everything my missus is the boss and unless it has good reviews we don't go ... I must admit though the top 10 things to do are usually pretty generic and boring I've wondered if there was an underground version with better stuff that sort of off the grid

 

[Stewbum]

Used TA and Expedia extensively during our 6 months travelling in the US, and TA recently in Fiji. Invaluable in not repeating the mistakes others made. Rewarding warning others of the ones we made.

 

[Tiger Shark]

TA is great, especially the forums. Often find myself doing some research and lurking among the forums before a trip. Often find if you've got questions it's a good place to get answers. Have used it for Restaurant ideas too but not so much based on the ratings.