Trip Advisor Fake reviews

[Rhone Man]

Pete's post makes me think of a couple of other things:

• Fake reviews are, on the whole, usually quite easy to spot (usually characterless, short on specifics, long on effusive praise, no balancing comments about things that could be improved).
• There was talk a while back about a more formalised review system on SB, but I think it got bogged down in logistics. But clever use of the search function still unearths some frank reviews.
• Agree completely that someone who flames an operator over some minor misunderstandings is just as damaging as people who post fake reviews. Keep it balanced.

 

[The Chairman]

Fake reviews are, on the whole, usually quite easy to spot (usually characterless, short on specifics, long on effusive praise, no balancing comments about things that could be improved).

Not always true. This is also indicative of a newbie after their very first trip ANYWHERE. We have the forensics (IPs, etc) to determine who/what/where on these kinds of posts. Just so we are consistent, please report them and let us do our job. Needlessly and publicly castigating a newbie only makes ScubaBoard appear to be unfriendly and runs off truly excited divers. Its at this point where question asking becomes important for all of us. "Glad you had such a great time, was there anything that did not meet your expectations?" or "Wow, you are so excited that you didn't give us many details. Can you give us their itinerary?"

Now, I am certain Rhone Man was not suggesting that we jump on anyone, but I just need to be sure that we all use a bit of circumspection when we see a post or thread where we disagree with or suspect the conclusions (not to mention the premise). Our semi-anonymity makes us act in a different manner from time to time.

 

[Damselfish]

The other problem with dive related reviews on Tripadvisor is, on average, they seem to be written by people with limited dive/dive travel experience. (People with wider experience figure out it's not the best place for that and wind up on sites like here.) So someone may write a well meaning review one way or another, with no intent to deceive. But what seems good or bad to them may vary a great deal from what many people here would say. Or perhaps they have inappropriate or different expectations than many divers. Sometimes it's easy to tell, but not always. Of course that happens here too, but I think not as much, and on here people will usually comment on that sort of thing.

 

[genemoren]

Actually Buckaroo Banzai's Blizzard Beach Family Adventure Toon Town Resort and SkateBoard Park sounds like it could be a fun place.

 

[cowdog77]

I've had good luck with Trip Advisor..............but I only give credence to reports by folks with high numbers of reviews.

 

[cindivan]

there is a glowing review for Ocean Explorers posted a few weeks after the original post on this thread. So confusing. We are diving in St Maarten on a cruise stop, and now I am totally confused.

 

[robbcayman]

Trip Advisor needs to monitor IP addresses. If they see multiple reviews from one IP about one single place they need to shut it down. They really have allowed a once decent system to lose integrity. By losing the site's integrity, they lose credibility.

Sometimes you just have to roll the dice and see if a place lives up to the hype or horror.

 

[Damselfish]

No matter how good you are at reading between the lines it's getting harder and more time-consuming to figure out what's real on any of the review sites - about hotels, restaurants, anything. The unfortunate thing is, besides possibly misleading some people that a place is better or worse than it really is, the problem can also cast doubt on reviews that are legit. (And what's dumb is, it would appear people that shill blatantly don't get that they may do themselves more harm than good.)

I'm currently looking into going someplace which has a large number of great reviews, especially considering as far as I can tell the place is either only soft open or just barely opened. There's also a discussion thread about it. Now, the place might actually be great and the reviews legit, but the doubt the whole thing causes could make me not go there. (Buccament Bay in St. Vincent, which I only found looking at the packages on Indigo Divers website. Anyone know anything for real?)

 

[Skydiver1]

Another source of distortion on diveshop reviews is brand new divers who are overwhelmed by the experience of diving and then associate that amazing experience to the diveshop. I've dived in some places with terrible equipment and shabby dive shops, which have users reviews thanking the shop for the most amazing experience of their lives

 

[ASA400]

Hi guys!
New poster here, long time diver. How does Undercurrent rate on dive reviews? Reason I ask is that I saw a review from someone who said their Guam diving experience was crap, citing lots of sand and no coral. Now I haven't been in Guam in a long time, but as I remember, the only place with limited coral was Piti Channel.

Jerry