Ever heard of www.yelp.com? It confirms, to my mind, every slam I've ever directed at the recommendations or critiques on "user-generated" travel websites. In this highly popular travel website, the overwhelming number of user comments are so juvenile and over-the-top, that I can't imagine any mature person giving them a moment's attention.

As if they had been ordered not to do so, most of the users appearing in "Yelp" almost never mention the actual dollar cost of the places they recommend. The result is that ecstatic comments are made about hotels, but with no mention that the hotels in question are the single most expensive in the entire nation.

In writing up New York's Carlyle Hotel on the east side of Manhattan, a favorite of the late President Kennedy, a "user" writes that it's "my new FAVORITE hotel in NYC for travel with baby. We had a deluxe room and requested a crib and microwave and a room with pantry. We got it all … Don't know the price of this place b/c we used amex miles but it did cost a lot of miles."

What the "user" fails to mention is that the lowest category of rooms at the Carlyle start at $700 a night and quickly jump to $1,050 a night. At that price, it had better provide a crib!

Another "user" stayed at the Mandarin Oriental in the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle, New York. "I've stayed in a lot of nice hotels," she writes. "This hotel is in a class all its own. And that class is a class I have never been a part of….For one week last spring I was an interloper into that world and enjoyed the sweet, sweet taste of the upper crust, high society, elite lifestyle….I'm sure it's pricey. I was lucky enough to be the beneficiary of someone else's generosity."

The user fails to advise that rooms at the Mandarin Oriental in season start at $1,025 a night and quickly jump to $1,075 and $1,195. At that rate, it had better be good!

To add insult to injury, either the "user" or Yelp itself lists a wildly-inaccurate address for the Mandarin Oriental, which is located in the Time Warner Building, just off Columbus Circle, on 60th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues. Yelp places the location at Madison Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Street (there is no hotel there), nearly a mile away!

As for restaurants, Yelp presents the usual conflicting opinions, leaving the distinct impression that many favorable comments are from totally inexperienced persons without palates. In its review of the (Greek) Parthenon Restaurant in Chicago, it runs nearly a dozen gushing, over-the-top raves from people who look upon the Parthenon as the ne plus ultra. Yet interspersed among those comments are people claiming to be of Greek descent who consider the Parthenon the worst Greek restaurant they have ever visited. Stacy L says "I'm Greek and this place is the worst Greek food I've had in Chicago." Kara B says "This restaurant is probably the worst in the nation." Kristen F says "It was terrible."

Which of these conflicting comments should you heed? And wouldn't it be better to follow the advice of long-experienced food writers or travel journalists who have eaten in scores of Greek restaurants in the course of their lives?

Finally, I can't resist quoting the comment about Chicago's Alinea Restaurant by Yelp-contributor Stacy L, one of the few persons to list an actual price in her restaurant review: "This was definitely the most expensive meal we've ever had ($500+ for two--that's the tasting menu plus wine pairings, tip and tax)."

Is it worth your time to plough through nonsense like that by visiting Yelp -- or other "user-generated" websites?

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