Latest posts for the topic "Tripadvisor reviews"

Tripadvisor reviews

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 13:44:39 GMT

Me and Mr Nelly started to look at holidays yesterday, as always we checked Tripadvisor, and it baffles me that people who go on a skiing holiday can give what appears to be a fabulous place (according to everyone else) less stars because 'the wifi was rubbish/no english TV channels/the food was all French'. Really? I tend to ignore these, please tell me I'm not alone?

I know everyone likes to have their little luxuries on holiday, but surely you aren't going on a skiing holiday to watch TV or worry about wifi connection? Isn't a holiday a break from the norm?

Tripadvisor reviews

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 13:57:10 GMT

NellyPS wrote:please tell me I'm not alone?

You are NOT alone! Tripadvisor seems to attract whiners who really shouldn't be allowed on the Internet (or anywhere, really) unaccompanied.

Looking at reviews of restaurants near us this week and one has been given a 1-star rating for "being shut when I went there". A moron amongst many, but I think you quickly develop a sense for which reviews are useful (and genuine!).

With a bucket of salt handy, Tripadvisor can be useful.

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 14:30:46 GMT

No you are definitely not alone!! I have seen reviews by people on the same ski trip as ourselves, but who have clearly viewed the experience totally differently (and in a very negative way).

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 15:11:12 GMT

Depends on whether the reality matched what they thought they were getting. If it advertises fast wifi then rubbish wifi would be valid criticism.
What really annoys me is people who buy a budget holiday then review it as if they were expecting 5 stars.

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 16:57:03 GMT

my friends have been dubious about even putting their place on tripadvisor. I mean, it's a great place they have, and they know what they're doing etc - but as you say, get someone with a bee in their bonnet (or a ski up the bum as I say) who moans about something stupid like 'Our hosts had a day off!!' and it ruins it... even though you can write a reply it's still out there for people to see, and if you don't have 5 stars then people won't be interested - shame

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 17:25:08 GMT

I always look to see if accommodation is listed on trip advisor. It can be very useful although you do need to read a good number of the comments to get a proper feel.

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 18:01:55 GMT

Trip Advisor asked us to put our 2 cottages up for review but I wouldn't do it. I was nearly scared witless! I dumped their piece of paper straight in the bin.
We could easily have a nasty holidaymaker who thinks it's fun to try and wreck our business by blowing up small faults out of all proportion. And anyway, we get plenty of bookings (a lot of them are repeats) without using Trip Advisor.
I admit I do look at it when I'm picking a hotel/chalet for myself, and I've even written 2 reviews, but I tried to make my reviews as fair and honest as possible.

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 18:21:05 GMT

I would tend to agree with Barney. There has to be well over a hundred to make it worth taking into account. You can always get the general gist of what people are saying. I think you need a pinch of salt and some common sense. Also, if you want to go there - just do it ;-)

Ally - If you have a great cottages you have nothing to worry about. Apart from the weather :oops:

Cant you take your listing down once it is up?

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 18:39:28 GMT

Iceman wrote:

Ally - If you have a great cottages you have nothing to worry about. Apart from the weather :oops:

Cant you take your listing down once it is up?

We've been doing one of the cottages for over 16 years, and it's amazing what some people will find to complain about.

For example, I had a holidaymaker come to find me once, when I was out mowing the grass, the evening before Easter, to complain that one of the cooker hood bulbs had gone (there were 2 and the cooker was well lit by the ceiling lights). I rushed off to town and managed to find another one and my husband fitted it for me.

We had another one who said the dining arrangments weren't 'civilized' because we use a breakfast bar as a table (it's only a small cottage and it's at the normal height for a table).

Someone else complained bitterly because the wet room wasn't suitable for a wheelchair (luckily she phoned up about this before she arrived) even though I never said it was, and she hadn't asked about it before. Our agents found her another cottage but because it was only a few days before she was due to arrive we never got another booking and we lost about GBP300.

Another one was very critical about the fact that one of the children's videos wasn't working, and went on about how disappointed the kids were (how was I supposed to know - when I'm cleaning I don't have time to watch about 30 videos and DVD's). After they'd gone I just put it in the bin - problem solved!

Anyway, you get the picture ...

I have no idea if you can take it down once it's up, but I bet you can't, and I should also think you can't have comments removed once they're posted up, however inaccurate and unfair they are.

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 19:26:32 GMT

With this site i find the best bit to be the Travellers Photos.
I find the photos presented by the 'professionals' to be far from reality and value the honest snap of what it actually looks like. I mean when have you turned up to your shoebox ski apartment and found piping hot croissants and fruit on your well dressed table?

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 20:39:22 GMT

Snapzzz wrote: and found piping hot croissants and fruit on your well dressed table?

That's what MrsOA expects at 08.15 every morning with a cup of T.
:cry:

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 20:50:21 GMT

Ally - not surprised you get the odd miserable holidaymaker. There are bad apples on all walks of life.

I can top it though! We owned a couple of terraced houses about 12 years ago and let them on a shorthold tenancy basis. The rent was not paid on time for one of them and when I visited the property I found the front door unlocked, muddy footprints throughout the house, the slate surround fireplace missing (yes the whole fireplace!) and a huge machete type knife on top of one of the kitchen cupboards. :shock:

We sold the house shortly thereafter and got out of the rental business.....

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 21:02:05 GMT

BB - that does sound pretty awful! I wonder what they were using the machete for?

Whilst cleaning, I often feel I would like to write reviews on my holidaymakers, and I vent my wrath by composing them in my head ;)

There were the ones a few months ago, for example, that said the downstairs shower and wet room was only really large enough for washing their dog in ...

And the ones who let their dog sleep in one of the bedrooms and left dog hair all over the bedding, and the dog chewed away part of the foot of the chest of drawers, and they left one of the rugs stinking so badly that I couldn't get rid of the smell even though I shampooed it twice and I had to take it out and buy another one.

But I don't think there is a 'holidaymaker advisor' website where I could post my reviews ;)

Most of our holidaymakers however, are really nice, friendly people who do their best to look after our properties whilst they're staying in them.

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 22:26:17 GMT

I like TripAdvisor - but you have to use it sensibly, filtering out the rogue reviews and the downright unreasonable or unrealistic appraisals. However, if you see a theme developing over a number of reviews, then perhaps it is wise to to take heed.

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 22:46:17 GMT

I use trip advisor before bookings holiday, but strangely only for summer holidays, I hadn't thought about that before.
People like to write negative things so you have you take a lot with a pinch of salt.
Like snapzz, I find the photos useful.
However I do laugh when people write about he flight being delayed when reviewing a hotel, or the fact that no one was there when they arrived at 4am.
I guess you learn how to read trip advisor.

Tripadvisor reviews

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 23:12:49 GMT

Admin wrote: Tripadvisor seems to attract whiners who really shouldn't be allowed on the Internet (or anywhere, really) unaccompanied.

I don't like accompanying whiners.

Although I have been in the company of NellyPS, and I found the lady to be an excellent winer....

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Tue, 29 Oct 2013 17:22:41 GMT

Tripadvisor can be very misleading as far as ski resorts go, because it will only feed back on those places that subscribe to their advertising programme. In the resort where we have our small holiday apartment, TripAdvisor shows less than 5% of the actual accomodation that's available. The only reviews are for those chalets and the few privately-owned apartments that subscribe. And as you point out, even those aren't very consistent. An acquaintance of ours fed back on our apartment, as they enjoyed their stay a lot, and their review has never appeared. That's when I discovered the issue.

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Tue, 29 Oct 2013 19:49:13 GMT

taking all on board that has been said I must confess that I find tripadvisor mildly addictive :)

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Wed, 30 Oct 2013 11:37:24 GMT

I'm loathe to put much store in what TA says to be honest: as a nation we Brits are more disposed to speak out about (perceived)bad experiences than to praise good ones so TA is, inherently, biased in a bad way

As people have said you need a good number of reviews to get a meaningful sample but, IMHO, you'll still get a higher percentage of people who had a problem make a comment than those who didnt so the view will be skewed

I've just returned from a work trip to Arizona and the hotel, conference centre and the golf course all got very mixed reviews from the US citizens but we Brits who were there all loved it!

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Wed, 30 Oct 2013 12:35:15 GMT

There is the lesson with TA. Don't take anything seriously written by an American.

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Wed, 30 Oct 2013 13:52:12 GMT

andyoneil wrote:I'm loathe to put much store in what TA says to be honest: as a nation we Brits are more disposed to speak out about (perceived)bad experiences than to praise good ones so TA is, inherently, biased in a bad way

As people have said you need a good number of reviews to get a meaningful sample but, IMHO, you'll still get a higher percentage of people who had a problem make a comment than those who didnt so the view will be skewed

I've just returned from a work trip to Arizona and the hotel, conference centre and the golf course all got very mixed reviews from the US citizens but we Brits who were there all loved it!

Not sure I totally agree with this Andy. I've left 4 reviews so far, 3 excellent (5 out 5) and 1 poor (2 out of 5). One of the reviews was for a B&B in Ventnor, Isle of Wight. Just checked and they have 86 reviews, all of them being 5 out of 5.

We are returning to the same Ski Bonjour chalet in Val d'Isere this coming season (Bivouac). They also are highly rated with 24 of the 25 reviews being 5 out of 5.

Actually, this has just reminded me that I need to leave a review for a dreadful night in a Brighton hotel from last year!

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Wed, 30 Oct 2013 14:06:09 GMT

fair enough BB but I did say that we are "more disposed" to comment on bad - not that we are exclusively doing so

the review I'll be writing of BA after getting me stuck in Arizona for an additional 24 hours will be a case in point.....

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Wed, 30 Oct 2013 15:51:53 GMT

I give reviews on TA..I try to be fair and objective..I use it myself and if I can't leave a fair review how can I be informed by others opinions...Usually you get an objective picture the more reviews there are...check mine out ..they're under N3DSD

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Wed, 30 Oct 2013 17:59:19 GMT

It sounds like there are a few consistent opinions here

1. Take it with a piece of salt remembering that everyone shares bad experiences rather than good. Remember the saying, one person will tell 5 people of their bad experience but maybe only 2 or 3 of a good experience. Bear that in mind when looking at reviews

2. Look at the number of responses. If somewhere has 2 out of 5 stars with 10 responses may be different to a place with 2 out of 5 with 150 responses.

3. Look at visitor photographs rather than 'official'.

4. Read between the lines

5. If you fancy it, go there. You are an individual. Use it to help your decision, not MAKE your decision ;)

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Wed, 30 Oct 2013 18:12:53 GMT

Iceman hit the nail on the head with his points.

If somewhere I have been to is really really good Or really really bad I will post on TA about it.
If its ok I won't bother.

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Thu, 31 Oct 2013 06:31:19 GMT

And of course they deserve a poor review if the weather wasn't perfect...

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Thu, 31 Oct 2013 08:33:14 GMT

I don't take too much notice of the odd review ...... but if there is high percentage of folks complaining you have to take note

Re:Tripadvisor reviews

Thu, 31 Oct 2013 10:04:29 GMT

More is to be taken from reading the review rather than a star rating that the reviewer has nothing to reference too.
The things I take note of are:

Was it dirty? No excuse whatever the budget.
Was it noisy? In which case it's not form me.
Are the claimed facilities really there?
What do they say about the food? I'm not a fussy eater but again comments re cleanliness are relevant. Likewise a 4* hotel that just serves burger and chips is probably to be avoided by me.
Does the plumbing work? I expect ample hot water in a hotel whatever the budget.

Sure most reviews may well be negative - but read what they are negative about and then make your own judgement.