With all sites that post reviews, you have to remember that it's someone's personal view that is expressed. If there was loads of bad reviews, all mentioning something that was important to me eg - there was a smell of sewage - then I'd certainly avoid the place, but I tend not to take much notice of the occasional one. Some people state things like - it certainly wasn't 4 * - but one person's 4 * is another's 3*. My brother in law expects things like bathrobes and slippers in his 5* accommodation, and would make a fuss if they weren't. I couldn't give two hoots if they were there or not. I have stayed in 4* which I did not rate as de luxe as it was advertised, I've also stayed in 2* which have been great. It's the things that matter to you that count.

from time to time even on this site i have read reviews about hotels in which i have stayed, once , maybe more, and wondered to myself, has the person giving a bad / different hotel review at the same hotel in question. We all have different wants/ needs and expectations, and there in llies the varied reviews..........I often laugh to myself when reading reviews about entertainment in spain , re dancing, folks ( brits) say from time to time, all music they think is for the spanish....lol quess what...........your in spain lol
so trip advisor is not any worse than this site or other sites ref advice on holidays............in finishing. I would once again say that more often than not on
returning from a holiday where some members on any site have given a poor review, we have found it a load of nonsence............perhaps we have been lucky
or more down to earth in what we expect, given the cost we have paid and finally its not just the site you have mentioned above

Harry

Trip advisor is an excellent site to use, there are regular reviews posted on hotels all over the world and very helpfull and informative forums.
Most of the regular posters have devised sections on particular areas they are very knowledgable about , based on the most frequently asked questions, like best restraunts, airport transfers, currency, best hotels etc.
I myself, am 'destination expert' for kendal ( where I live ) so regularly answer questions on the kendal forum.
I think trip advisor is a great travel tool along with our wonderful Holidaytruths !!!!
With regard hotel reviews, you often find that if you are looking at reviews for a destination that many americans and canadians frequent, these reviews tend to be written mainly by our cousins accross the pond and some tend to pick holes in things that wouldn't necessarily matter to us, therefore giving a bad review.
hope this helps !!

Remember aswell - if you've had a fantastic holiday you just tend recommend it to friends/family if the subject comes up. If you've had a terrible time, your probably going to want to tell the world and its wife about your experience and therefore more likely to write a bad review on a site like Tripadvisor.

I think the trick with all holiday/hotel review sites is to look for trends and recurring comments regards problems.

I:e noise, bad food, overcrowding etc etc

As stated by gr123 people are far more likely to post a bad review as they feel the need to get the problem out in the open.

Many places we have stayed at in the caribbean have been slated on trip adviser by US and Canadian reviewers and we have found them first class.

Then again I don't think there would be a hotel in the world that would tick everyone's boxes?

when reading reviews on TA or here, you have got to read between the lines.
if you are looking at a review of eg a spanish hotel, and the writer has complained about no entertainment, or the pool being shut in march; that does not mean the same will apply during july/august.
the same if they claim the weather was lousy- this tends to bring out more complaints against the hotel, as if the hotel control the weather.
i do wonder sometimes if people have stayed in the same hotel as they are reviewing, especially when i have stayed there myself.
one hotel i know well gets lousy reviews from families in the summer(and deservedly so), as it is used primarily during the summer by the youngsters who want to go clubbing till all hours of the morning, and it is indeed a place to avoid from may to september. however, when they are open at christmas this 3* hotel gets better reviews/comments locally, than its 4* sister hotels in the same resort.
it all comes down to research -read everything you can before you part with money, and read any reviews by others at least twice.

My family have been going to the same site in Brittany for 11 years and just out of curiosity I had a look on TA to see what had been said about it. I am afraid I just do not know what planet some of these people are on. I actually recognised one woman from last year (she gave quite a lot of personal information) who was complaining loudly that there was no English language entertainment and no english speaking staff. I found this rather strange as I had been standing next to her one evening when she had been thanking the entertainments organiser (David a Frenchman who speaks fluent English and is married to an English woman) and congratulating him for having three bands during her fortnight stay who played English language music.
I would like to say this was an isolated incident but sadly there were several reports which were absolute nonsense. I cant imagine why people feel the need to blatantly lie.

John

The phrase 'one man's meat is another man's poison' comes to mind here when reading hotel reviews. We all like different things and the same applies to holidays, eg a walking holiday would be hell on earth for me, so it's obvious that people aren't always going to agree about hotels. After we'd booked a 2 night stay in a hotel in Perth (Oz) my friend and I looked at the reviews only to have palpitations as the very first review was horrendous and they only improved slightly as we scrolled down the page. In the event, we thought the hotel (Sullivans) was fine and suited us for what we wanted and couldn't understand what people had been saying. Normally, I would have looked up reviews prior to booking but can't remember why I didn't on this occasion and booked on the recommendation of our travel agent. Would I have booked if I'd read the reviews first - I probably would have looked to try and find something else , but as I have said, we found the hotel perfect for our needs.

I agree with other posters that if there is a common thread running through the reviews, ie noise or the place is unclean, then I would take note of that, but at the end of the day you can do your homework but you still can't legislate for the unexpected problem.

It's not really fair to call this thread TA as all review sites (including our own) will be the same. The only difference with Holiday-Truth.com is that we aren't owned by anyone in the travel industry, we are owned and ran by joe public

I agree Glynis but what also makes the reviews here more believable is the fact that you cannot post a review from a destination you are in e.g. you'd have to wait to get back before posting. Over in TA, there is nothing to stop management or staff posting as holidaymakers to brag up their hotel as they can post from wherever they are.

I think I've got my above facts right

Shirley.
We dont allow reviews from the resorts. The only ones we do allow are UK ones for obvious reasons. We do have to delete a lot as its obviously written by hotel staff or by rival hotels staff. I cannot of course speak for other sites.
And to the OP- did you realise before you posted about TA that we do hotel reviews?

What often amuses me is that you can read two widely differing reports from people who have apparently stayed in an hotel at the same time, often complimenting/complaining on the attitude of the staff. This does lead me to wonder if it is the attitude of the guests which is reflected in the review!!

Thanks so much people! Well this brightens up my day! I booked a hotel for two weeks on a whim in the travel agents (where the customers can't check the hotels on TA or other review sites) and on coming back home nipped on the Internet to be shocked that 55% of 88 reviews recommended not to return or stay. The British are a hard to please bunch of people whereas me and my Girlfriend so seem to worry so much.

However we are the sort of Englishman/woman who love to experience different culture i.e. foods, music, dance, drink and life. Some people in England seem to want all out England in a different country, yet they live there all there lives!!

Totally agree with aslemma on attitudes of hotel guest rather than staff!

BombEars

With your attitude I'm sure you'll have a good holiday. If you post in the forum for your chosen destination I'm sure you will be able to pick up some useful tips. Just don't forget to come back on here and tell us about it, including an honest hotel review.

I certainly will! not long now anyway... End of August whooo!!

Cheers again everyone!!

I can't remember where I saw the review but I recently saw one for a hotel that made me laugh. First review said how great the place was, and he was really impressed that not only was there a telly in the room, but it even had 2 English channels. Next review... The telly in the room ONLY had 2 English channels, not good enough!!

It just shows how people's standards differ. What was a huge plus point to the first reviewer was turned ito a big negative by the other.

I've just spent an hour sending in corrections to listings. Not sure how I got there but i ended up looking at their listings for my home town and there seemed to be rather a lot. So i went through and it's a mess.

A hotel that closed last year is noted as such (good) but the restaurant is still open for reviews!

One pub restaurant has two threads running using different versions of it's name.

One restaurant in a village in a different county but the same postal sorting district and with a shared street name has been moved, it even has it's wrong location marked on the supplied Google map just to confuse even more! Putting the postcode into google maps would have shown the correct location so no excuse there.

One hotel in a third county (keep up, I may ask questions later...) and the same name as a hotel here has also been moved to us and the two threads are clearly getting each others reviews.

One hotel that really is here has been given the wrong street name and postcode, set your satnav and end up in the car park at Bannatynes gym! The wrong location is shown with a pin in the Google map - even though the hotel is a marked landmark on the same map further to the east!!

If they can get that much wrong in one small town how the hell can I have confidence in anything else they publish?

Steve, I wholeheartedly agree!!!. I've also sent them five messages over the last two days correcting the same sort of stuff... they generate an automated email reply, but don't appear to do much else...

ROBOTS!
ATB,J.

I use TA as well as this site as I have found reviews on there for places that are not listed on here, or places with a review more recent that reviews in here. I take everything I read for exactly what it is, the opinion of the person writing the review which may not necessarily be the same as the next person writing a review...and different to mine.

A site is only as good as the people running it and the people that contribute to it, so sometimes information can be out of date. I booked a place for a very special occasion based on what I had read on bookings.com and also in TA. I then received a telephone call from the proprietor of the hotel who informed me that the facilities were not as described becuase the room was undergoing a refurb...and the entire reason I had booked that room was no longer applicable. He did advise me that he had spoken to bookings.com and also TA and asked them to amend thier information several times but obviously they hadn't. I did not want to settle for "second best" and regretably cancelled the booking. Obviously the proprietor was not too happy, but he was quite understanding about it. I have booked somewhere else in May now based on the information I read on TA so since I am shelling out a lot of £ for it..I want it to be accurate what I have read...we shall see...