Take Tripadvisor reviews with a very large grain of salt

[gotdogs?]

Many of us on Scubaboard are also Tripadvisor members. Overall, I think I can weed out most of the bogus reviews. I still use Tripadvisor, but am very cautious. It is interesting cutting and pasting the Tripadvisor reviews of a company(hotel or dive op) and looking up the authenticity on Fakespot.com. While Fakespot uses a certain algorithm, I am sure it also is not 100% accurate.

'One in three TripAdvisor reviews are fake,' with venues buying glowing reviews, investigation finds

 

[Charles2]

But...…….If its on the internet, doesn't it have to be true?????????????

 

[Snoweman]

Agreed. I stopped posting to TA a while ago. I felt like they had gotten too big for their own britches, and it was really being abused. I will check them out occasionally, but I will really try to check out where the reviewer is from, where that have "supposedly" been and go through some of their other reviews in order to see if I think it's a bot, or the real deal. Too much of a PIA to really be used much. Plus, I think their recent formats are difficult to navigate and is skewed to their paying customers.

 

[drrich2]

Create a large-scale system where business interests are concerned & people will learn how to game it, but it still has its uses. I imagine we could probably have a similar conversation about the reviews & star ratings on Amazon, and likewise I use those.

A few ways I approach online reviews:

1.) Look at some 3 or 4 out of 5 star reviews. Hear the perspective of someone who's not claiming across the board excellence, but reports some bad (or at least needs work) with the good.

2.) Consider the source. Has the person posted a lot of reviews vs. 1 or 2? What are his/her expectations? In some regions dive op.s get a lot of occasional divers accustomed to hand-holding; they may, for example, make sure everybody has a 'dive buddy.' In some regions, customers are viewed as more independent adults; you're welcome to buddy up with someone if you wish, but crew aren't going to play match maker or require it. Someone only experienced in the 1st category, takes a trip and does some dives in one with the second, may report them as unsafe, unhelpful, etc...even though they're just want many divers want.

3.) Reviews that also discuss competitor products, and praise some aspects of the competitor product, are more credible to me.

Richard.

 

[DjDiverDan]

I quit posting on or trusting Trip Advisor several years ago. Cozumel used to have a very good restaurant, Danube, down just a little ways south of the International Pier. It got several very good reviews on TA, so I decided to try it out, and had an absolutely spectacular meal - excellent service, great food. So I posted a review on TA, and some friends who also had meals there also posted very good reviews. Danube very quickly made it to the top of the recommendations for Cozumel on TA. Then, suddenly, all of the really good reviews for Danube disappeared, including my own and that of my friends, Danube got several terrible reviews, and just as quickly went to the very bottom of the TA list. I tried to find out why, and all I could find out was that someone anonymously reported that the good reviews were nought and paid for by Danube’s owner (not true, at least with respect to my review and others I know of), so TA just deleted them. Danube failed, and Cozumel lost a really good restaurant, all because TA was easy to game.

Frankly, for dive ops, I don’t even trust those reviews on TA that are genuine, simply because there is no way to know just what the diver’s experience level is or what they were looking for in a dive op. Too many reviews that simply said “So and So Dive Op is just the BEST!” with no details at all about just what the reviewer liked. For all I know, it was the reviewer’s first trip to Cozumel, did one day of diving off a cruise ship, and was just thrilled to get underwater. Hardly a valid basis to declare that whoever took him or her was “just the BEST!”

 

[Kharon]

I never look at the positive reviews. I start at the bottom and work my way up. It's easy to distinguish the cranks from the people who have real gripes. Not so easy to tell the cumbaya types from the accurate best reviews.

 

[Wookie]

No review is objective, and I'm so weird that it's unlikely that anyone elses review would be of interest to me. I neither read reviews or post them.

 

[Snoweman]

No review is objective, and I'm so weird that it's unlikely that anyone elses review would be of interest to me. I neither read reviews or post them.

Interesting. I like to know if a place has crappy food, or bad service, or dirty rooms before I actually invest my time and money to try them out.

 

[vovanx]

it is not only Tripadvisor - any large website which allows to post some kind of reviews (either text comment or a simple "1-5 stars" mark) is filled with human bots from third world countries.
google for "earn money writing reviews" and enjoy.

 

[Wookie]

Interesting. I like to know if a place has crappy food, or bad service, or dirty rooms before I actually invest my time and money to try them out.

I have eaten at all 3. But I love Brussel's sprouts, cabbage, and boiled beef. You may not. I like my food hot enough (spicy) that it is ruined for most folks. You may be from Maine, and maple syrup is the hottest spice you've ever put on breakfast. I happen to like a habenero sauce a girlfriend makes for me for my eggs.

I'll put up with a surly waitress for fast service, and refills on the water glass often.

I prefer not to snooze with bedbugs, but have you ever looked at your socks after walking through even the cleanest room? There is no such thing as a clean hotel room. I just put up with the scuz.

All reviews are subjective. They can't help but be, as they are told from the point of view of someone not me.