Investigation into Reviews

I have given up reading them. There are always so many conflicting statements - e.g. hotels "Good breakfast selection" vs "Poor breakfast buffet" and "Friendly staff" vs "Unfriendly staff". Often they complain about things that wouldn't bother me.

So I just base my decisions on verifiable facts: Parking included/in house?, Location, size of room, facilities provided, 24h reception etc. On Amazon or similar, I just go by things I need to know such as wattage, size, material. With books on Amazon I can look at a sample on my Kindle before ordering if I'm in doubt.

The ones full of spelling and typing errors are awful to read, but it's very unlikely that they're faked!

Anya, we do the same as you, particularly with Trip Advisor and have found that if you go with the majority view, you always do well.We have found some really good hotels and pubs and b&b's this way.

I was relieved to find that the reviews on the Expedia booking site for the hotel my sister and I stayed in last week were accurate and have been able to add my own review confirming what I'd read.

I always leave reviews for accommodation and restaurants and when I can I check existing reviews before booking. I've always found it helpful to do so, although as GillT57 has pointed out, what some people deem problematic may not be so for me. I once booked a hotel in Thailand that had very bad reviews on TA, but the 'problems' that other people encountered were not things that concerned me. All said the hotel was scrupulously clean, had good food and service - but other things; roaming dogs, steep hill, building site nearby etc. put them off. We actually had a fantastic experience and rated the hotel 5* on TA when we returned.

Amazon now mark reviews as 'purchase verified' so you do at least know that the item has been bought which is one step nearer to being a believable review. As to Trip Adviser, I read with caution as some of the reviewers seem to be after a free meal/holiday/drink or whatever, talk about everyone a critic! I read a cross section of reviews and if the majority are mentioning the same problem such as cleanliness or hygiene being poor I will probably not book there. But, if the moaning is about things such as they wouldn't serve drinks after 2pm or asked us to take our kids out of the bar at 9pm then that is a plus as far as I am concerned. Also, irrationally I know, I tend to disregard reviews that are badly punctuated, badly spelt, stream of words type things.

There certainly I is JaneA as the owner can reply to,any comments made, and very interesting some of the replies are.

I once, justifiably, gave a cafe a poor review and received a lovely apology, explanation and an invitation to visit again for a free coffee and cake. This reply was published on line and visible beneath my review.

But I've read other replies to different places which were so acid that it made it obvious the original poor review was totally justified.

In general the first thing I do if I want to book a place is look at the spread of the reviews. If 5 or 4 s predominate then I go ahead even if there is the odd less favourable rating. But somewhere with an even spread of 1-5 would definately NOT get my business.

Another check I make is the FSA Hygiene Rating. I recently gave a restaurant a 2* rating after having to return some chicken wings which leaked blood. I had failed to check their FDA rating and when I did I found it was only a 2 (requires improvement) so no surprise there.

I believe there is Jane. I seem to remember a similar case and the owners contacted TA and after looking into it the review was removed.

One of my nephews works in a pub/restaurant which has recently had some reviews which contain blatant untruths, such as the price of lager being three times the actual price, and people complaining the steak is tough when they have demanded it is well-done.
I'm not sure whether there's any mechanism on tripadvisor for owners of businesses to refute bogus reviews or not.

On TripAdvisor you have an option to see other reviews written by the same person. Some always praise to the skies and others are grumpy old curmudgeons who only see the hole in the doughnut, but the ones who give a good range of reviews are often genuine IMO.

Which? independant.

I hae me doubts. Cross referencing on the net can help to decide, again not always reliable.

I ignore any that are on the lines of "This is a load of rubbish. What you should buy is . . . ." and go on to review a completely different make, with links to where you can get it. Clearly they are (at the very least) friends of the seller of their "favourite", and quite possibly they came from rent-a-recommendation.

The same applies to those who seem to have found the product being reviewed as a one-way first-class ticket to heaven.

Then there are those phrases which would never be written by a normal buyer, just a sales guy doing a pitch.

It is the in-between ones that are difficult to assess. If you read enough, you get a picture of a product that most people seem very pleased with, some found it wasn't what they wanted and a few must have bought theirs from a bad batch. Or you might find that most people were disappointed with their buy but a few are over the moon and almost ecstatic with delight.

Hmmmm. Back to good old common sense? Or get a subscription to Which?

I'm not sure you can lizzi50. I suppose consistently brilliant or poor reviews should be viewed with suspicion but I was wondering the same myself!
I know Tripadvisor has been criticised in the past, not sure how reliable any reviews are now!