Trip Advisor - useful or a lawsuit waiting to happen?

People are increasingly looking at governments or corporations or whatever faceless entity they come across as the newest omnipotent deities to make ridiculous demands or complaints about, whether it's someone blaming the hotel for baby turds or wailing 'why isn't the government doing anything?' on the news because their flight was cancelled after the Icelandic eruptions.

Did they not sacrifice enough goats to sufficently placate Vulcan you stupid mare? :confused:
 
Westyfield2 said:
I'm with Ray & Fox on this, these days TripAdvisor is just confusing.
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The worst was booking a Grand Canyon trip. I agonised over it for weeks - the reviews were about 50% negative, some quite serious complaints about how the services offered by some of the bigger firms 'ruined' holidays, etc etc.

In the end i gambled and was rewarded with a flawless trip...
 
[TW]Fox;18321461 said:
The worst was booking a Grand Canyon trip. I agonised over it for weeks - the reviews were about 50% negative, some quite serious complaints about how the services offered by some of the bigger firms 'ruined' holidays, etc etc.

In the end I gambled and was rewarded with a flawless trip...
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Whereas I, after doing Disney one day, looked up Knott's Berry Farm on TripAdvisor (after seeing signs for it) and read some great reviews...

Went there the next day, at $43.95 each, and it was an absolute dump (kinda like the rest of LA then :p). Complete waste of time and money. Should have gone back to Disney for a second day!
 
I don't understand what the big deal is. A review site is expected to have positive and negative comments about everything, otherwise a review wouldn't be necessary. There is no way the site should remove user comments unless they violate terms of use.

Take any product out there and read the reviews. Take your very favourite piece of electronic equipment and read the reviews. I'll bet there is at least one person who says it didn't work out of the box and they will never ever buy another product from that company again.

If TripAdvisor has anything going for it, it is the fact that people are writing good reviews. Normally people don't write a review unless they are complaining.


edit: I'm looking at an Amazon review of the Denon AVR-1611 7.1 Channel A/V Receiver... this bloke raves about the sound quality, the surround separation, how cool it runs, the appearance, the price, etc., but gives it a 2-star review because he doesn't like the remote control. Seriously??
 
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Yeah, this is nothing new - it's the same as any other site with reviews. I use Trip Advisor a lot - for my travels and when I book accommodation for people at work. It only gets tricky if there are a handful of reviews and they're split between good/bad. The place in question can respond to comments as well - that's something else I look for.

The one's that amuse me are on recipe sites - often you see...

"switched the salt for sugar, the chicken for beef, 10 cups of water instead of 1, and also added a dollop of the dogs barf. Meal was DISGUSTING and my guests left unhappy. DO NOT USE THIS RECIPE!!!!!11111"

:confused::(
 
frosty03 said:
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If the site edits and filters comments, then yes, since they can control what users write.
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Trip Advisor does filter, or can filter comments. When you post a review, it does not show up immediately, it gets moderated before it is posted, it takes at least 24 hours. So they do have control of what is being posted. However, I think they only delete the ones where they think it is posted by other rival competitors or spam?

vonhelmet said:
Was that a review of the Mandeville hotel in London? They have glass doors on their bathrooms, with only a teeny bit of frosting. Not sure I'd want to spend a night there with my wife if either of us were in any need of a dump at any point.
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No, it's the Drakes hotel in Brighton.

Yes, the glass door was frosted (there are a lot of negative comments about that on TA), and yes when it steamed up it was practically see through...(there is a photo of my backside taken through the glass door of me in the shower in her camera...no, I don't have it, and no, she didn't delete it! :rolleyes: ) but if you are comfortable enough to sleep with your partner, then what's the problem of a glass door? To get over the noise from having a poo, we just ran the sink or turn up the music.

The best ones are people complaining the floor gets wet...well, it's call a wet room for a reason, and the shower is above your head in the ceiling, I mean, where do they expect the water to go except to the floor you are standing on?
 
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