TV Attack of The Trip Advisors

[DaGaffer]

Did anyone watch this the other night? I know its all in the edit (and the producers managed to find a particularly unsympathetic bunch of hotel owners and Trip Advisor reviewers), but it does amaze me that so many hoteliers refuse to accept that the customer has a right to an opinion.

Personally I use TA a lot, and have done a few reviews myself, and I'm curious if any of you lot use it the same way I do; I tend to review the hotel and the reviewer; if someone is a serial moaner who gives everything one or two stars, I'll automatically discount their opinion, and I tend to pick up on the objective stuff in reviews ("hotel is 14 miles from the beach across a ten lane motorway") rather than the subjective ("the receptionist looked at me funny"). Thoughts?

 

[Gwadien]

Bit of a vicious cycle really, because people won't go to these hotels, if they look at Trip Advisor before hand, for example, the hotel get seriously reviews at one point, but then change their act for the future, who's going to go to the hotel, with those already bad reviews? - people who don't look at TA? - Well, they're not going to post a positive review, if they don't use it in the first place, also, I think it's highly unfair on hotels because people bitch way too much now, when we was last on holiday, this one woman was complaining about the food, saying that they didn't offer enough choices, but instead of saying something to the manager, she just said i'll save it, and put it in my review when I get back home. - Then it's already too late for the hotel, if you had a problem on the first night, complained it could've been sorted by the next day, so the hotels can't seem to defend theirselves in any way.

 

[Vae]

I do the same as DaGaffer. You have to learn to read between the lines in the reviews and focus more upon the facts rather than people's opinions about service etc especially if, overall, the opinions are mostly good. Unfortunately you will always get a few people/reviews which are negative and if you only focus on them you wouldn't go anywhere! I used TA extensively when planning a Mauritius honeymoon a couple of years ago and we changed our mind about our first choice of hotel due to the negative reviews (although 90% positive), concentrating on the facts. The hotel we went to in the end was excellent (and had 95% positive reviews) with the negative reviews being more subjective.

I also found the discussion forums for the island to be quite useful as you got more personnel recommendations.

 

[Raven]

I base my choice on whether they have a micro brewery or not. And whether that beer is in the good beer guide.

Foreign ones, then meh. Wing it.

A beds a bed.

As for these review sites. I reckon they are good. Bad business should be punished and forced out of business if they refuse to improve. The customer(s) is always right when it comes to voting with your feet.

 

[ECA]

mmm can't seem to get 4od working which is weird as I've used it before ( on older pc ).

 

[taB]

Going to have to watch this. Apparently the gf's parentals visit The Olde Forge fairly regularly and think the guy's a bit of a legend.

I work with a few hotels and the general manager of one large outfit responds regularly to Trip Advisor posts (positive and negative) which I think reflects well on them.

 

[Chilly]

Did anyone watch this the other night? I know its all in the edit (and the producers managed to find a particularly unsympathetic bunch of hotel owners and Trip Advisor reviewers), but it does amaze me that so many hoteliers refuse to accept that the customer has a right to an opinion.

Personally I use TA a lot, and have done a few reviews myself, and I'm curious if any of you lot use it the same way I do; I tend to review the hotel and the reviewer; if someone is a serial moaner who gives everything one or two stars, I'll automatically discount their opinion, and I tend to pick up on the objective stuff in reviews ("hotel is 14 miles from the beach across a ten lane motorway") rather than the subjective ("the receptionist looked at me funny"). Thoughts?

Fuck em. Free market in action. They shouldnt have been so shit in the first place. You can always rename your hotel and claim to be new management if you are really fooked.

 

[ECA]

Some people are really petty fucks though, even the #1 rated restaurants for manchester/brum/london have some terrible reviews obviously written by a sad pedantic arsehole.

 

[Chilly]

Sensible people will realise that giving a restaurant one star because of the napkins is not a big deal.

 

[mank!]

I've reached a point where I won't book a hotel unless I've read reviews on TripAdvisor first. I'm a bit ashamed to admit that.

I nearly posted a bad review of a 5* hotel in London we stayed at recently because the £26 breakfast didn't have baked beans... it was at that point I realised I was losing grip on reality somewhat.

 

[Gwadien]

I've reached a point where I won't book a hotel unless I've read reviews on TripAdvisor first. I'm a bit ashamed to admit that.

I nearly posted a bad review of a 5* hotel in London we stayed at recently because the £26 breakfast didn't have baked beans... it was at that point I realised I was losing grip on reality somewhat.

See! fine example, if you asked for beans, I'm sure they'd get it done for you

Besides, they're not used to having normal people in the hotels, they usually have the rich business men so they feed them dollar bills.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

For £26 breakfast the last thing I'd want to see on my plate taking up valuable space would be half a can of 50p beans.

 

[mank!]

No beans, no breakfast!

Anyway, my point was that TripAdvisor (and similar) are a really good resource if you're far too anal to just pick places at random.

 

[Gwadien]

For £26 breakfast the last thing I'd want to see on my plate taking up valuable space would be half a can of 50p beans.

Take that back, Baked Beans glues a breakfast together.

 

[Ch3tan]

I use TA as Gaffer does, the people in the program need to move with the times.

 

[Mabs]

while i think TA is a worthwhile website, all things in moderation

and some of those reviewers want shooting, in the face, repeatedly.

 

[Corran]

Used it when planning wedding to check out hotels in cyprus. Read the reviews, get a range of ideas and read between the lines of what is there. So much is petty shite but added together could give an overal view of how things are.
It just another handy resource to help you make a decision. Dont base everything on what is there but it can help you make up your mind if you not sure if it is for you or not

 

[old.user4556]

To para-quote Ricky Gervais; the internet is just a toilet wall where anyone can write anything - it's graffiti. Trip Advisor is the same.

Luckily, it's easy to spot the tards from a mile off; one out of five stars is a dead give away. I would only give a hotel one star if I found a shite in my kettle and piss ran from the taps. Additionally, anyone who bleets "MY NAPKINS WEREN'T FOLDED AND THERE WAS ONLY ONE OF THEM" is quite clearly a moron. I like to read nicely balanced reviews and I try to review places I stay based on what I paid versus the rating of the hotel - I always write a list of pros and cons with commentary afterwards.

 

[ECA]

I seriously wonder who these people are though who go to a nice restaurant and maybe some small incident occurs and all of a sudden it's worthy of defaming online in some sort of petty revenge attempt?

I don't get the mentality at all.

 

[DaGaffer]

I've never given a one-star but I have given a two; and I'd stand by it. Its also about context; if I was in the middle of Bolivia I'd tolerate far more than if I was paying top dollar in the middle of London; any hotel that sticks five stars on the door and offers shite service is asking for trouble these days.

Oh, and ECA, its only defamation if its not true.

 

[old.user4556]

Bad grammar and punctuation also puts me off.

 

[mank!]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15575171

Best review ever.

 

[MYstIC G]

Going to have to watch this. Apparently the gf's parentals visit The Olde Forge fairly regularly and think the guy's a bit of a legend.

I work with a few hotels and the general manager of one large outfit responds regularly to Trip Advisor posts (positive and negative) which I think reflects well on them.

2* AA?

http://search.enjoyengland.com/en-GB/Details.aspx?ContentID=40790

Opinion is and always has been subjective. I'd rather trust information from people I know than from keyboard warriors but if you don't know anyone then I don't see why the net shouldn't be a resource.

 

[Everz]

We used Trip Advisor a lot on our route around America and found it extremely useful and handy. As noted you have to sift through the serial moaners but once you get past that there is some quality information to be had and used. Especially the ratings on hostels and locations, some of the stuff we did would not be possible if it wasn't for sites similar to this as we would be going down a blind alley.

On the other hand the right to an opinion is worth it, we wrote mainly about our shit experiences on there to warn people away from a hotel/hostel and less about a good experience. Should go about it tbh as alot of them could benefit from a higher rating on there, but rating is hard for example the India House in New Orleans, sharing a room with 12 others, and 2 showers between 30-40 people was never great, but the atmosphere was amazing and was a perfect location to the French Quarter and going off to Baton Rouge etc etc. It's hard to rate that as good or bad imo as it was certain aspects of one extreme to another.

 

[DaGaffer]

We used Trip Advisor a lot on our route around America and found it extremely useful and handy. As noted you have to sift through the serial moaners but once you get past that there is some quality information to be had and used. Especially the ratings on hostels and locations, some of the stuff we did would not be possible if it wasn't for sites similar to this as we would be going down a blind alley.

On the other hand the right to an opinion is worth it, we wrote mainly about our shit experiences on there to warn people away from a hotel/hostel and less about a good experience. Should go about it tbh as alot of them could benefit from a higher rating on there, but rating is hard for example the India House in New Orleans, sharing a room with 12 others, and 2 showers between 30-40 people was never great, but the atmosphere was amazing and was a perfect location to the French Quarter and going off to Baton Rouge etc etc. It's hard to rate that as good or bad imo as it was certain aspects of one extreme to another.

So long as you tell it like it is, then that shouldn't be a problem. I reviewed hostels on Hostelworld.com all the time and it was often a case of "a bit of a dump to look at, but fantastic atmosphere/location/activities" etc. Let the person reading it decide whether that's good or bad (for them) or not.

 

[old.user4556]

So Gaff, I got round to watching this programme.

That bloke at the Olde Forge, what a cunt. Ignorant, rude, arrogant and thoroughly all round cunt. The "one star woman" came back for a meal, and the pair of them were bitching about her before she stepped into their B&B like a couple of high school kids. Their attitude was all wrong, they should be seeking customer feedback as part of continuing improvement instead of moaning that everyone with an opinion is a bastard.

Regarding The Hollies where the two gay men went; clearly a fair review - water left in the kettle? No thanks. The flashing light and lack of blackout blind is just woeful attention to detail, that's the sort of thing that keeps me awake at night. Just like Basil from the Olde Forge, she was on the defensive right away - "nothing I can do about his light" instead of "absolutely understand your concern, I will commit to putting in a black out blind in". If I was looking to stay there and saw a comment about the lack of decent sleep aids, I would avoid the place.

The clearly gay bloke and his mum - wow, didn't he have an axe to grind. I appreciate that changing of the sheets is a biggy, but not topping up the freebies in the room and bringing the wrong drink hardly is not worth mentioning is it's an easy mistake to make. If they brought him a drink with bad attitude, that would be worth mentioning.

I would have been interested to know what rates were paid at these places as I reckon that would have played a pivotal role in making an opinion.

 

[old.user4556]

(just read some rotten sentence structure in my second last paragraph, currently doped up due to a bad cold)

 

[Mabs]

lol yea the bloke with his nan was classic, "oh he was bullied at school and now he likes the power".
while the couple at the Old Forge were grumpy twats.. they had that woman dead to rights, "oh look, im going to be on TV, im so important". i would of punched her myself.