Trip Advisor

[Zdog]

Been reading posts on Trip Advisor lately about Myrtle Beach hotels, and wonder, how many of the posts are from the keyboards of people who work at these resorts? I know TA has had problems with this in the past. Is there any way to trust the validity of posts on that site? It's strange how people with just one post, are prompted to write such wonderful things about staff and such.

 

[Kimberle]

Using TA, I generally throw out the ones that are really really good, and really really bad, then average the rest. I also look at the pictures people have posted. Like everything, use a "grain of salt".

 

[snarlingcoyote]

I don't just trust TA. I follow up with Yelp, Kayak, Yahoo Local, Priceline and Hotels.com. Then I take everything with a grain of salt.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

My DH gets on there almost everyday on the forum about Gatlinburg and from what he says they are pretty much dead on, and he would know. Now there have been people on there before that have created accounts to do a little PR control, and they were called out for it. I think you pretty much have to use your best judgement anyway, but it's nice to read about places that you are traveling to. Like we do here.

 

[Anne34]

I've reviewed hotels on tripadvisor and know a couple other people who do too. I like having reviews of the places we're going. I think you have to take all reviews with a grain of salt though. Your expectation and likes/dislikes will never be the same as another persons. Read the good & bad and figure out if it will work for your family.

 

[njmom47]

TA had terrible reviews for a place we were going to stay. We ended up asking to change rooms (we were there with a group and didn't see anyone near us that we knew). Our original place was nicer than the place we moved to (that'll teach us!) but it was clean and decent and close to all our friends so we were happy.

 

[JessicaR]

For the most part you can average out the reviews and somewhere in the middle is the truth. Follow it up with reviews on Expedia, Yahoo and Kayak.

 

[Family Fun Mom]

I contribute to Trip Advisor and read it all the time. I do sometimes suspect certain reviews to be fake but those ones are rather easy to spot. Most authentic reviewers have at least once not so perfect thing to say about a hotel. The over the top glowing reviews are usually the ones to ignore.

 

[marybet]

We booked a hotel in Minneapolis on Hot Wire and then I went to TA to read reviews. They were mixed, mostly unfavorable, but the price was good so we went. The hotel was nice, it was clean, the staff was friendly, the location was good. I would stay there again.

Same thing with Myrtle Beach, the resort had some really bad reviews on TA but was listed as the 17th favorite. Took a chance because the price was great, the location was great and it turned out the resort was great.

 

[eliza61]

I like to read reviews on TA but as others have said you must filter out some of the extreme reviews.

I do that here on the dis also.

Remember the thing with reviews is that peoples likes and dislikes vary.