Using Trip Advisor

[GAN]

I just listened to the recent On Property/Off Property episode and have a comment regarding the use of Trip Advisor. Kevin had mentioned that he generally takes the top /bottom 10 or so and tosses those reviews aside so he is left with a less biased sample. Peter somewhat disagreed and they moved on. I have used T/A for maybe 10 years and use a similar method to Kevin's. Basically, if a reviewer has less than 5-10 reviews I won't even look at it ..my experience is that if a reviewer is dedicated enough to write 10 reviews then the likelihood that one of their other reviews is bogus is reduced significantly. I'm with Kevin in that some reviews can be potentially biased. In fairness to Pete and T/A ...they do a remarkable job of keeping the site very honest.

 

[JimmyV]

I find that if you throw out the top 10 of anything, you do yourself a disservice. Instead, look at the top 10 and get second or third opinions from other sources. I know that when I travel, I certainly don't want to stay in the 11th best hotel in the area. I'd rather do a little more homework and hopefully land at one of the top 10. Same with restaurants. Throw out the top 10 at WDW and you would be eliminating some mighty fine spots. Double check TripAdvisor with Zagat, Fodor, Frommer, Chowhound, Food & Wine, Conde Nast, Travel and Leisure, and you won't have to throw out anything.

 

[GAN]

We're talking reviews, not the Top 10 Hotels/Restaurants. Why throw out the highest rated places ...that would be crazy. At least that isn't how I understood Kevin. It's certainly not what I'm suggesting. But you're right, if that was the case you wouldn't have much to choose from depending on what region you're looking at.

 

[JimmyV]

We're talking reviews, not the Top 10 Hotels/Restaurants. Why throw out the highest rated places ...that would be crazy. At least that isn't how I understood Kevin. It's certainly not what I'm suggesting. But you're right, if that was the case you wouldn't have much to choose from depending on what region you're looking at.

He was talking about the top 10 rated places (and the bottom 10). We know this for 2 reasons. First, it is impossible to toss out the top 10 reviews. If an establishment is rated #1, it has to have a certain number of reviews to get there. A single 5 star review doesn't vault you up there. It takes volume. So assume that a place has 200 reviews and is rated #1 in a region. I guarantee you that it will have at least 120 5 star reviews. So what good would it do to take out the top 10 of those? Which ones are the top 10? They are usually ordered chronologically. So first, it is impossible to take out the top 10 reviews from a top rated place, because you wouldn't know which ones to omit, and even after omitting 10, you would still be left with a whole host of 5 star reviews. (By way of example, Victoria & Albert's has 734 reviews. 663 are 5 star. Which 10 do you take out?)

The second reason why we know that they were talking about establishments and not reviews is Pete's response to Kevin's statement. When Pete responded, he was clear that when he follows TripAdvisor's top rated places, he has never been disappointed. He didn't say that he follows the top 10 reviews. He clearly indicated that he was following the top 10 establishments. Kevin did not correct him.

 

[Oodalally13]

I rely on tripadvisor and it has never done me wrong. I have several reviews there as well. To each his own but I would never throw the top 10 out of consideration and I would definitely never even think of considering the bottom 10.

 

[GAN]

He was talking about the top 10 rated places (and the bottom 10). We know this for 2 reasons. First, it is impossible to toss out the top 10 reviews. If an establishment is rated #1, it has to have a certain number of reviews to get there. A single 5 star review doesn't vault you up there. It takes volume. So assume that a place has 200 reviews and is rated #1 in a region. I guarantee you that it will have at least 120 5 star reviews. So what good would it do to take out the top 10 of those? Which ones are the top 10? They are usually ordered chronologically. So first, it is impossible to take out the top 10 reviews from a top rated place, because you wouldn't know which ones to omit, and even after omitting 10, you would still be left with a whole host of 5 star reviews. (By way of example, Victoria & Albert's has 734 reviews. 663 are 5 star. Which 10 do you take out?)

The second reason why we know that they were talking about establishments and not reviews is Pete's response to Kevin's statement. When Pete responded, he was clear that when he follows TripAdvisor's top rated places, he has never been disappointed. He didn't say that he follows the top 10 reviews. He clearly indicated that he was following the top 10 establishments. Kevin did not correct him.

Hey you're right ....Kevin's crazy!

But I have to admit, it's kind of hard to believe that when he goes and books his stay in Portland, ME this summer he isn't even going to LOOK at some of those options that were in the Top 10 highest rated. I mean, I REALLY like that Hampton Inn at #4. You're saying he is going straight to #11 ...okay. Ramada Plaza it is. You probably know him better than I do!

Either way ...I will stick with what works for me.

 

[OKW Lover]

You folks may be mis-interpreting what Kevin suggested. I believe he refers to the individual reviews of a property/restaurant when he says to ignore the top/bottom 10 reviews, not the facility itself.

 

[GAN]

You folks may be mis-interpreting what Kevin suggested. I believe he refers to the individual reviews of a property/restaurant when he says to ignore the top/bottom 10 reviews, not the facility itself.

Well, thank heavens I'm not the only one who thought that!

The point I was trying to make was that Pete pretty much swears by the hard rating(if it's number 1, that's good enough for him ...no need to go crazy analyzing the reviews), while Kevin (may) apply his own kind of "analysis" to come to the conclusion of which would be best for him. Somehow it turned into a debate on what Kevin actually meant ...and I'm pretty sure only he knows that.

When I use T/A, I usually ignore any review by a member that has just ONE/TWO reviews -I look for reviews by members who have already committed the time to review multiple properties. I believe this reduces the chances that the review is a fake(positive or negative) or biased for some other reason.

 

[JimmyV]

You folks may be mis-interpreting what Kevin suggested. I believe he refers to the individual reviews of a property/restaurant when he says to ignore the top/bottom 10 reviews, not the facility itself.

But you're ignoring that the reviews in TripAdvisor are not ordered in any way. Using my example above, take a look at the reviews for Victoria & Albert's and tell me which of the 734 reviews are the "top 10" and which are the "bottom 10". Go ahead and list them in a follow up post.

Crickets.......

There simply is no such thing as a listing of "Top 10 reviews" and never has been. Are you suggesting that we read every one of the 663 five-star reviews and then independently decide which 10 shower the restaurant with the most effusive praise and then ignore those? Or are you suggesting that one should just randomly ignore 10 of the 663 five-star reviews? And if we were to do so, the 10 that you choose to ignore would be different from the 10 that I choose to ignore. So what good does that do? In the end, we would each be left with 653 five-star reviews. Have we accomplished anything? No. If Kevin really intended to suggest that people siphon off the Top 10 Reviews, he doesn't know what he is talking about. And Kevin always knows what he is talking about.

 

[Sarabi's Cubs]

I use Trip Advisor a lot, but I take most of the details with a grain of salt since everyone's experience is personal to them. Generally, I look at the bar graph that shows the distribution of reviews to see if there are a high number of poor or terrible ratings vs excellent or very good. Then I read some recent individual reviews mainly for tips. For example with hotels, I look for comments relating to proximity to sights or nearby restaurants etc.

Laurie

 

[GAN]

But you're ignoring that the reviews in TripAdvisor are not ordered in any way. Using my example above, take a look at the reviews for Victoria & Albert's and tell me which of the 734 reviews are the "top 10" and which are the "bottom 10". Go ahead and list them in a follow up

I always thought that they were ordered by date posted. But regarding any place like V&A's, I would think that most reviews beyond 6-months aren't necessarily significant because service can change. I don't know about other people, but I don't have time to create a Top/Bottom 10...that isn't something I've ever even thought about.

But when you say "go ahead and list them in a follow up" it sounds like you're taking this a bit too personal. It's all good.

 

[JimmyV]

I always thought that they were ordered by date posted. But regarding any place like V&A's, I would think that most reviews beyond 6-months aren't necessarily significant because service can change. I don't know about other people, but I don't have time to create a Top/Bottom 10...that isn't something I've ever even thought about.

But when you say "go ahead and list them in a follow up" it sounds like you're taking this a bit too personal. It's all good.

They are ordered chronologically. Which is why the whole notion of a "Top 10" or "Bottom 10" is illogical. And my comment wasn't the result of taking anything personal. It's just that anyone who believes that the task at hand is to filter out the top and bottom 10 has obviously never actually tried to do what they suggest needs to be done. So it was merely an invitation for anyone to try to do this themselves. Sometimes failure or futility are the best teachers.

 

[GAN]

I don't think anyone in their right mind would disagree with you!

 

[DisneyKevin]

When using any rating system, I tend to put less credence in those that are over the top positive and those that are overwhelmingly negative.

I believe the truth lies in the middle.

That doesn't mean that I would avoid the top choices or that you have to read every single review.

This is how we found Simply Delicious near Port Canaveral.

GAN is correct in understanding what I was talking about.

If the the phrase "top ten and bottom 10 percent" confused you, I apologize. My system is far from scientific or quantifiable....but it's worked well for us.

 

[disneysteve]

I also think it's important to actually read the reviews and not just look at the ratings. Sometimes what people complain about are things that really don't matter to me. On the flipside, some of the things they rave about are things that I'm not interested in "great nightclub, huge choice of craft beers, pet friendly". Sometimes one person's positives are actually another person's negatives.
I use TripAdvisor as a guide, and it's a good one, but I never blindly follow their rankings.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

when i look at trip advisor I look and see if the venue in question responds to thing the users bring up and how positive they are about them

 

[NewJediOrder81]

I just used TA to book my wife & I a 2 week Orlando vacation in May. Thier #7 rated hotel - Point Orlando Resort ( along with roundtrip airfare ) was within the budget I set for that particular section of our vacation. After looking at pics and reading the reviews ( almost 2,000 of which were Excellent/ 5 Stars )... I decided that's where we should stay. I'll let everyone know how it was once we return.

 

[bear_mom]

When using any rating system, I tend to put less credence in those that are over the top positive and those that are overwhelmingly negative.

I believe the truth lies in the middle.

That doesn't mean that I would avoid the top choices or that you have to read every single review.

This is how we found Simply Delicious near Port Canaveral.

GAN is correct in understanding what I was talking about.

If the the phrase "top ten and bottom 10 percent" confused you, I apologize. My system is far from scientific or quantifiable....but it's worked well for us.

I do the same, avoid the over top or the overly negative.

I agree with Pete also, I love Trip Advisor when booking a hotel. Although I tend to not just pick the highest rated, I am also brand loyal if possible.

 

[Jing]

I use a combo of reviews and forums from TA, paying specific attention to if the individual's travel style fits mine. I tend to be a luxury traveler who reads about hotels before booking, so a reviewer dinging a hotel for lack of free breakfast or charging resort fees carries no weight with me. I put almost no stock in TAs ranking. Las Vegas is a great example as for YEARS, Staybridge suites was the #1 hotel. TA rankings have become more reliable, but I don't take the #1 as necessarily #1 for me.

And Yelp has become pay-to-play to the point where I trust nothing on there anymore.

 

[disneysteve]

a reviewer dinging a hotel for lack of free breakfast or charging resort fees carries no weight with me.

That makes no sense anyway. Those are both things you would have known before making your reservation. If you wanted a hotel with breakfast included (there's no such thing as "free breakfast") you should have gone somewhere else. Don't choose a hotel that doesn't offer that and then complain about it in your review.