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Now, as to TripAdvisor, I am a hotelier whose property has literally hundreds of reviews on the site, and it has never occurred to me EVER to "stack" reviews, I really do just take them as they come. Of course it helps that checking my hotel's TripAdvisor page is often the highlight of my day as we do get great reviews almost all the time.
What do I do when we get the occasional negative review ? Well, if I have something of value to all readers to reply to on a substantive and objectively noted point I will give an appropriate management response. However, if it is a subjective response, I tend to decline to respond, as I think most readers of UGC reviews can act like Olympic diving competition judges... you know.. discarding the top and bottom scores :)
Back to "getting" social media. If one is immersed in it (and I am, go call me the "geeky hotelier" if you will), then you take the rough with the smooth, but, apart from the ethics of it, you recognise that people will very quickly see through any attempt to influence reviews and so ratings... just wouldn't occur to social media people to try to "work the system".
Another thought... we truly try to run our resort based on guest feedback, and we love TripAdvisor for that... whether it be to commend staff for getting a "shout out" from a guest review, or in taking guest criticism to heart in making continual improvements.
Can you tell I am a fan of TripAdvisor... for all its flaws and imperfections ? :)
For any property, there were be a range of responses from overly good or needlessly bad. The totality of all the reviews will form a bell shaped curve. The goal is to figure out what the mean is.
When I look at reviews I know to toss out the highs and the lows and look for consistent themes. This is just part of the education of using sites like TripAdvisor.
Many of the sites I use have reviews which have been left within a week of my booking a hotel, which can provide timeliness impossible in guidebooks. If they are undergoing construction, you will mostly likely learn about it from an online review site.
I am typing this in a hotel in Amsterdam. Looking at TripAdvisor, there are 75 reviews. I don't think all 75 were put there by PR agencies. Many clearly are from travelers who have left many other hotels where they have stayed.
Sites like TripAdvisor do need to work on their algorithm, just like Google does with how they do search. They need to work on weeding out fake reviewers, weighing reviews, etc. Those are improvement, however, not deal breakers.
While there are obvious flaws in the system of user generated reviews, there are flaws with "experts" doing reviews as well. I'm not sure why an "expert" is any more qualified to say what is good or bad than a frequent traveler is. Staying in a hotel is not rocket science.
When reading anything, anywhere - in print or on the web you must maintain a healthy skepticism. Whether is it a news item, a travel recommendation or a blog comment. Truly objective opinions are like hen's teeth. Some publications are paid to hide their bias and others are said to minimize theirs but all have points of view and biases. I certainly have a bias, as does Mr Frommer. What I seek is an informed transparent bias. A point of view that I at least value and perhaps share.
Let's put it this way; I'd be hesitant to take the advice of a good friend on hotel recommendations given I know his and my tastes differ. I would go to another friend with tastes more similar to my own and someone I trust. Why would I take the recommendation of someone completely unknown to me with no verifiable credentials via TripAdvisor?
The reason these sites enjoy popularity is that people love to hear themselves write. (Yes I am aware of the irony of posting this in a comments section of a blog). People love to share their travel experiences and this allows them do so and gives them a sense of power especially when they feel wronged
Even without the problem of Hotels PR spinning on the reviews I have long thought user-generated referral sites were of limited value.
To paraphrase the bible - we are to seek wise counsel.
I use Tripadvisor because it has helped me find wonderful lodging at low prices. I've found some great gems this way. I stay in hotels about 12-15 times a year - not that much, granted. I've never been mislead by a careful reading of tripadvisor reviews yet. That does not mean I won't in the future. But overall, Tripadvisor has been tremendously valuable to me as a business and leisure traveler looking for great places to stay without having to spend a fortune. One place I've found this way include the Park Hotel Tokyo - fantastic boutique hotel in a great part of the city - I never ever would have found it without Tripadvisor. I've stayed there several times since and now won't stay anywhere else in Tokyo (given my budget). Another great place was Denali Lakeside Lodging in Alaska. We wanted to quiet, homey place close to Denali but far from the crowds. We looked and looked, and settled on this based in part on Tripadvisor reviews. It was fantastic and the price was so much lower than other places. I just booked another place in New Zealand - I found it through Tripadvisor - and will be staying there next week. My guess is that it will also be great for a great price. (I don't want to say what it is until I've stayed there.)
Indeed, you have to use Tripadvisor carefully. Look at the reviews. If there are glowing reviews punctuated by reviews saying that the place was a hell hole, you know that either 1) it's a great place and the competition is dinging it or 2) it's a sucky place and the owners are placing fake ads. In that case, I stay away. So perhaps I'm missing out on a great place. That's OK - with my limited travel dollars, I don't want to risk an awful experience.
Another thing I do is look at reviews on other sites - such as expedia, etc. These also help you get a sense of what the hotel is really like.
So please recognize that at least some people are NOT saying "Oh hotel owners are far too honest to place fake reviews" -- rather we are saying "A careful use of tripadvisor has consistently led me to great places for a great price." What more can someone ask?
I've also out of curiosity checked tripadvisor reviews of hotels I know well, and in every case, while some individual reviews may be unfairly good or bad, the overall impression given by the reviews has always matched my own experience.
And usually reviews posted by owners trying to game the system are pathetically obvious.