is trip advisor dying?

Some people say you should never respond to poor reviews as that makes the negatives stand out among the positives.

I disagree. If you dont respond then it makes it look that you dont care.

I have only one poor review in my Ebay shop and that was due to a customs delay at the other end in dealing with the package. So I felt it important to post that some things are entirely beyond the seller's control.

In another of my shops a buyer stated that she received "poor communication" despite a prominent notice to the effect that I was closed for vacation. My response made it clear that the issue was dealt with immediately. The next buyer to leave a review made a point of saying that the help and communication she had was excellent.

When you get one or two bad reviews amid mainly good ones it says more about the reviewer than the business being reviewed. Often the complaints are fairly petty or they refer to matters the company could not be held responsible for - such as bad weather/strikes/etc.

TA reviews are usually accurate I rate quite a few places only occasionally is it negative. Google and some other reviews I take less notice and are often fake

Just arrived at my rental house in France for the month of June. As 5* perfect as stated on TripAdvisor. Maybe half a point off for a few crumbs in the cutlery drawer and the sunloungers are old-fashioned deckchairs. I'll forgive them that, we can always buy some new ones tomorrow. Dog has settled nicely too.
Now to open the bottle of wine and later discover the beach 500 yards away.

I always consult TA and try to ignore the top and bottom, say, 10% of comments.
I do think tho that it’s important to leave positive comments. People , in my experience, are very quick to criticise And much slower to praise.

Thank you GNHQ for correcting the thread title.
It was really annoying me

I wouldn't say I 'rely' on reviews, but I do use them as a useful starting point to get a feel for the place I'm thinking of booking.

I'm surprised so many people rely on these reviews. If you go far enough down the list, you'll find they all contradict each other. I just rely on hard facts nowadays : Is there parking on the premises? Is it free? Is there WiFi(although this might not always function in all rooms). Is breakfast included? Is there 24h reception? What size are the rooms?

Even photos can be enhanced and taken at such an angle as to disguise any eyesores.

I once posted a review listing a couple of minus points and was asked to take it down. It wasn't even that bad. But as the hotel addressed me as "Herr Schneider", I'm not even sure they were referring to my review. If they can't even get my name (and gender!) right, then they certainly don't merit a more positive opinion. (I think this was a Google review, not TA)

Gundy,thank you for your reply.

Following my post I do have to say that our Trip Advisor boys (now married with families) sold their business a while back… when they got an offer they couldn’t refuse.

You make your fortune and go build something new somewhere else!

I think TA is still very useful but I do not know how it is being run.

We booked a lodge in the Lake District last year, which generally had good reviews, then a couple of days before travel I looked again, and the party in the lodge before us left a scathing review, asking why it was called ‘luxury’ when it clearly wasn’t (the price they paid should have given them an idea of the standard) and how filthy it was.

I didn’t say a word to my OH and others who we were going with but held my breath til I arrived. Pleased to say it lived up to our expectations and whilst not luxurious, we were not expecting it to be. It was just a little dated and perfectly clean inside (though the decking could have done with a wash)

Horses for courses

I’m writing this in menorca after posting on Tuesday the hotel is fabulous the food is wonderful and I needn’t have worried! Might not look at trip advisor again!

I'm off tonight to stay in a holiday home in France during June. I was reading the TripAdvisor reviews this morning, all 5* French reviews, until one in German complaining about the uncomfortable slatted bed, dirty crockery and cutlery, along with cleaning the house which took them 12 hours. Yikes! It's from 2022 so maybe they were worried about covid. I'll see tomorrow.
So yes, I read TripAdvisor, but only after I've booked the place I like!! Oops 😆

Gundy thank you for letting us know you are connected to TA.
My complaint is that I asked a question about a place I wanted to visit,a reply was "should you be going"
I did a "report" posting yet the reply is still there,the reply added nothing to the question I was asking.

Comments left by travelers around the world are really valuable, whether + or -
It helps you decide on your travel itinerary.

So if someone leaves a nasty review - maybe they had something bad happen, or are genuinely just grumpy people and always see the negative side of everything. (Who’d want to travel with them?)

People are happy to share their good and most pleasant experiences with the general public. Trip Advisor is a purposeful tool in guiding you to a great vacation.

(TA) Started by two family tree members of mine (through marriage) - two young brothers who had a bright idea after graduating and started an industry many years ago.
Thank you guys! 🥰
USA Gundy

It is interesting to read that so many of you read and rely on TA reviews. I have always rather distrusted them, wondering how many are fakes. I have left only one review, praising an activity afternoon we took the GSs to.
Is TA dying? asks infoman. I have no idea.

If anyone clicked on my profile and read my reviews they would think “this woman is easily pleased”.
In fact I’m not but I only tend to leave a review if somewhere is very good.
I have occasionally left them if very bad too though.
If a small(ish) business is just mediocre I tend not to leave a review as I would hate to add to the threats a small business faces, especially if they seem to be doing their best. If they are rude or disinterested though that’s a different matter.
In the case of large businesses, such as Premier Inn, I have left both excellent and poor reviews for different locations because I have found these hotels can vary widely, and with the resources available to them they should be addressing issues.

I often look at reviews on TA and have found that on the whole the experience has lived up to the hype..I always leave a review after the first visit and have no hesitation in leaving an honest bad review if necessary.. A meal at a fish and chip restaurant which claimed to cater for vegetarians was the subject of my recent bad review when I saw my haloumi burger being fried alongside the fish

I use it a lot too and leave reviews both positive and if necessary negative. But, anything negative will be addressed at the time with the place, so their response is posted as well.

On occasion I skim restaurants and hotels however, I prefer Booking dot com for hotel reviews or recommendations of dear family and friends and Time Out for restaurant reviews.

I read the reviews on TA.

A while ago I read a review which was very unreasonable, in my opinion. They had stayed in an older hotel and complained that it was old fashioned. They also complained that it was dirty as they had found a dead fly on the windowsill. It all sounded a bit OTT to me. I clicked on the actual reviewer and many of his reviews were similar - just moaning, nothing positive.

I don't like putting on a bad review but I have done this once when we paid extra for a sea view room only to find on arrival that the hotel did not have any sea view rooms. The owner was very snotty with us. Unfortunately, I had not read any reviews on this occasion. When I did read them, after the event, quite a few other reviewers had said the same thing.

You can usually get a good idea with the percentage of good reviews over bad ones. Food is a bit more personal though so what one person is happy with might be horrendous to another.

I use TA a lot, however I left a review about the worst ever meal I have had in my life in Eastbourne. They changed my ratings to make it look better. I am not impressed.

I often look for hotel comments and disregard any small minority of overly critical negatives unless there is a run of them over the past few days or weeks.

Many posters on TA said the food in the hotel in Feurteventura was very good. We found it to be pretty awful. One person was vociferously complaining the meals had gone way downhill since she’d last visited in 2019. I really, really missed vegetables all of which were a greyish mush. I ate a cooked breakfast every day (only had 3 on a 22 night cruise last year) because there were no alternatives other than cocoa pops, crunchy nut cornflakes or baked goods which stank of rancid oil. Won’t be back. So can’t really trust reviews as one man’ s meat ……….

Blondiescot

Callistemon21

I love TripAdvisor, but then, as a DE I would say that, wouldn't I?
I'm being dim here, but what's a DE please?

Oops sorry, DE is Destination Expert. If you go onto the forums for a particular area - Edinburgh, for example - there are usually several DEs who know the place well and can answer questions about it.

Thanks Blondiescot

It's a while since I've been on TA.

I always use TA when travelling and searching for restaurants both in the uk and abroad. I do loads of research. I used to post reviews of hotels etc but haven’t for a while . Some of the reviews make me laugh as people obviously don’t do their research. We’re going to Paros in September and the only poor review for our hotel was about a 15 minute walk into town , when all the reviews recommended a car . Or a woman who complained a fish restaurant only served fish !!!.
I also use other sites like booking.com and Airbnb where people also leave reviews