As experience shows, you should not blindly trust all travel websites
Imagine Charles's surprise when he discovered that TripAdvisor (travel tips from other travelers) continued to publish customer stories claiming they had enjoyed a traditional Sunday roast at the "Tavern by the Bridge" the previous week, but were not entirely satisfied with the service. Moreover, as BBC notes, a letter sent by the astonished Charles to TripAdvisor had no effect, and the fake reviews did not disappear, although after some time the site did inform users that this pub no longer existed.
Deception of the workers, or lack of control?
The story of the "Tavern by the Bridge" could have been an unfortunate accident, in no way reflecting the reliability of TripAdvisor, if it were an isolated case. However, the British consumer protection society Which? found that this is not the case.
How can we determine whether we are dealing with genuine impressions of visitors or an advertising campaign that has nothing to do with reality? I'm afraid there is no guaranteed criterion, although Which? staff say that the first such indicator is a large number of reviewers who never wrote about anything else except this place.
Upon closer inspection, the most suspicious turned out to be four hotels in Las Vegas, several "best" hotels in the Middle East (here, of course, one must always consider the political situation in the region), and the second-largest hotel chain in Britain, Travelodge.
"We know we are far from perfect," said TripAdvisor director Stephen Kaufer, "but we are constantly improving methods to combat people who use our platform for selfish purposes." Under pressure from customers and various consumer organizations, TripAdvisor admitted its mistakes and published a report on how it checks reviews.
It stated that last year about 66 million reviews were submitted to the site, all of which were checked for reliability, that 2.7 million suspicious comments were additionally checked by staff, that 79% of all comments are checked within six hours of publication, and that on average only 5% of them turn out to be fake.
However, unjustifiably laudatory reviews are certainly unpleasant, but they threaten you only with not getting the level of comfort you expected. Unjustifiably bad reviews, on the other hand, can easily ruin a restaurant or hotel.
Damaged reputation
Robert Melman, founder of the Brazilian cuisine restaurant chain "Fazenda," told the BBC that his restaurants have several times received, in his opinion, unjustifiably bad reviews. He believes that most of them were written by people who never ate there.
That some customers write angry reviews because they don't like the dress code (the restaurant's website states that gentlemen are not required to wear jackets and ties, but please, no sweatpants and sneakers). Or those who are unhappy that after six in the evening, children under eight are not allowed.
Last year, Melman tried to complain directly to TripAdvisor, but nothing good came of it. According to him, the site's staff didn't even bother to reply.
Nothing but good
It is said that there is another problem. Some users of the site claim that they have tried several times to post their negative thoughts about a particular place, and that TripAdvisor simply ignored them. By the way, it is completely unclear why the site would exclude negative texts.
For example, Kurt Wilding, who wrote a lot and willingly about various places, left TripAdvisor two years ago. According to him, he was very surprised when the site for some reason did not publish two negative reviews in which Kurt complained about too high prices and too poor conditions in one of the hotels.
After waiting several days without result, he wrote to the site and asked for an explanation of what the moderators did not like about his messages. In response, he received a standard reply that comments are deleted if they do not comply with the site's rules, or if the establishment in question provided evidence that the comment was unfair.
The worst British hotel I have ever stayed in
Something similar happened to me. A few years ago, I traveled across half the country, accompanying my girls to numerous open days at various universities. In one fairly large and well-known city, I booked a room in a hotel, tempted by its close proximity to the campus.
It was a nightmare horror, or a horrible nightmare, and honestly, the worst hotel I have ever stayed in on British soil. I was ready to ignore the carpet of screaming yellow with dirty red flowers that covered the entire corridor. I was ready not to make a fuss about the smell of stale beer and mold that greeted us in our room. (The child, by the way, turned out not to be so tough, and spent the first five minutes spraying perfume in all corners.)
I even decided that wobbly furniture with cracks in the frames and stains on the upholstery was not the worst thing when it comes to one night. But what completely undermined me was that one of the two elevators in the hotel was not working. It just hung between floors and refused to move anywhere.
I admit that I was quite scared, and after we finally managed to get out of it, I complained to the concierge. They looked at me with great displeasure and did nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Furious to the utmost degree, I wrote a scathing review on TripAdvisor. They replied, saying, oh dear, what a pity you didn't like it, we will definitely publish your comment.
But no one published it, even though I once asked, like, what's going on?
By the way, out of curiosity I went back to TripAdvisor now, and was surprised to find that there are tons of negative reviews about that same hotel. Why my comment wasn't published three years ago, and why they aren't restricting them now, I can't say. I suspect it's a matter of quantity turning into quality, when ignoring negative comments became simply impossible.
Not Only TripAdvisor
The second site that recently made the blacklist was Booking.com. Which, by the way, the same experts from Which? accused of dishonest marketing and psychological pressure on customers.
Actually, it's very convenient, it immediately gives you a map, distance to any known landmark in the city (if you ask), and all you have to do is arrive on time.
But sometimes its employees also bend the truth a little. For example, you find something convenient and not too expensive, but you're not entirely sure if you want to go there or not. But if next to the hotel name there's a flashing red inscription saying, 'We have only one room left at this price,' or 'Only three rooms available in the hotel,' your hand automatically reaches for your bank card to confirm the booking.
But often it's enough to go to the hotel's own website to realize that there are no 'last' rooms, and you can safely continue your search. Here it should be added that customers are not at all obliged to heroically resist psychological attacks.
Not All That Bad
Overall, both sites can be trusted quite a bit if you keep a cool head and use common sense. At the same time, don't forget the main thing: both TripAdvisor and Booking.com are very convenient and save a lot of time and effort.
You can always determine with a certain degree of probability which reviews seem truthful and which don't. And the more comments there are, the more likely you are to get a real average opinion of the public.
So I, like many others, will continue to use them. But a little cautious skepticism has never hurt anyone.