TripAdvisor.com vs Hotels.com (& Others)

Posted by Cap in Customer Service |

Although they’re now all owned by the same company (Expedia Inc.), I still prefer TripAdvisor over the others as a source for hotel reviews.

The reviews at TripAdvisor are submitted by people that have actually stayed at the hotel, so they’re a lot more relevant than some arbitrary star-based review from Hotels.com, HotWire, or Expedia.

Sure, it takes about ten years to read through all the reviews, but if you’re planning some special vacation and you really want to get it right, TripAdvisor is worth a visit.

Comment

2 Comments to “TripAdvisor.com vs Hotels.com (& Others)”

Nawar Alsaadi Says:
March 24th, 2006 at 1:44 am
Soon global hotel review (http://www.globalhotelreview.com) will offer hotel reviews in addition to English and Chinese, in the following languages: French, German, Russian, Japanese, Arabic, Ukrainian, Polish, Spanish and Romanian.

it seems tripadvisor has started offering an international version of its site in french, german and italian, however their reviews still in english..

regards,
Nawar
Catherine Says:
August 20th, 2010 at 6:45 am
Don’t trust tripadvisor.com
I recently posted a very negative experience about scam by Victoria Group , Sunny Beach , Bulgaria with involved Hotels4U , Med Hotels , HolodayHotels.com and the hotels Chaika Beach and Victoria Palace , Sunny Beach Bulgaria. I was directed by support to post on the forums. We booked with Hotels4U and our credit card was charged and booking confirmed. We asked disability accomodations. On arrival the Bulgarian hotel Guest Manger said we have no booking , we asked our money back and he said to get the money from UK. The merchant was unreachable and we were placed in a flooded moldy room where the AC did not work.

All critical comments on tripadvisor Sunny Beach forum are heavily bullied. I complained and support did not take any action. On asking the users to stop with the personal attacks and adhere to terms of service , thripadvisor.com CSR did bully me . I feel this is done to manipulate social media. The users making personal attacks and excuses for the hotel never been guests of the hotel. I add a picture of the moldy room we had to stay – this is a 5 star hotel.

I have noticed exactly the pattern that you have described. As soon as a negative comment about the resourt is posted the very same users keep comming in with personal comments. I would think that these are fradulent accounts. One destination expert claims to be friends with a hotel owner , hense she/ he is writing reviews about their friends. There were heavy attempts to discredit what I wrote from claiming that my pictures were old to that I never been in the hotel. There was even thread that people that had not been going on at Sunny Beach for 10 years should not be posting. It is a first time I post on the forums and I have been posting only after vacation. The other user had like 2000 posts, most of which was validation of the resourt positive comments and bullying the negative, as well with explicit posts to be friends of the hotel owner.

I am frankly suprised that Jane – Support at tripadvisor took the side of the harrassers. Here is the email for support:support@tripadvisor.com and my complaint ref:00D8LC7N.5008BqbTf:ref

Apperantly the support for tripadvisor.com is carried out by salesforce.com . I am not sure if the support Jane is doing this on a volunteer basis or just tripadvisor had comissioned Salesforce.com to manipulate the public media.

Here an example about friends of hotel managers posting reviews:
“5. Re: Hotels sunny beach – May 25, 2010, 2:47 PM-Destination Expert for Sunny Beach
WelshLady’s friend runs the Atol. Couldn’t get any more central in the resort.”
The thread link is:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g499086-i9527-k3651984-Hotels_sunny_beach-Sunny_Beach_Burgas.html

The user “WelshLadyNorthWales” (http://www.tripadvisor.com/members-forums/WelshLadyNorthWales) has posted in 2 years only 2 Hotel Reviews for Sunny Beach, Bulgaria , which made her a destination expert. One review is about Hotel Atol and according to the post above it is a friend of hers who is running it. She made over 1200 posts in the forums promoting hotel Atol and the resourt.
I did some more poking around on TripAdvisor, and you’re definitely right.

This is a classic example of how resorts (poorly) manipulate the TripAdvisor listings by spamming the forum.

Here are 3 users that only post about the same resort. Notice how they frequently reply to eachother’s posts.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/members-forums/Lawlassie48

http://www.tripadvisor.com/members-forums/evangelineSunnyBeach

http://www.tripadvisor.com/members-forums/WelshLadyNorthWales

Discreet reputation management? FAIL.
Tripadvosor.com is a machine for profit out of manipulating the public opinion. It is shameful for an American business to put a blind eye on significant issues of fraudulent promotion where as a result my family with two disabled people end up in a half flooded moldy room in a hotel promoted as a five star rating . The price we paid was close to 160 Euro night through Hotels4U ( Med Hotels, HolidayHotels.com) . When I voiced dissatisfaction I was bullied at tripadvisor. A picture of the room says 1000 words: http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g499086-d499823-Victoria_Palace_Hotel_Spa-Sunny_Beach_Burgas.html#26965437
The actual truth behind support services now outsourced in India or other third world counties is pathetic. The CSR is given X amount of minutes to attend a ticket. For sure the security analyst is unable to do any comparative analysis within 5 minutes. Looking up the user IP, location , ISP gives you no evidence as the abuser easily can use a proxy software and virtual IP.
We have enacted legislation to protect the general public in North America but certain legal concepts are poorly understood in countries like India , China , etc. How can we expect these people to enforce policy when taking care for customer service. We all pay the price.
I hope that Stephen Kaufer ( the founder and CEO of tripadviso.com) would carry some corporate responsibility toward the public and spend a miniscule fraction of the $10 million dollars profit from tripadvisor.com to hire competent team of fraud analysts and policy analyst and develop processes for honest feedback and hospitality ratings that give objective picture of the actual business performance. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGKLAFIa3qQ )
One must be blind to miss the promotion of prostitution on tripadvisor.com .

Example: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g499086-i9527-k3861070-Money-Sunny_Beach_Burgas.html

Innosent post of an user who just opened an account: ” I am staying at the Kuban and i seen a post from welshlady saying there are prossys outside the hotel but surely they wont come near a couple”

Then the destination trip advisor (http://www.tripadvisor.com/members-forums/WelshLadyNorthWalesresponds) with the exact location where one can find the prostitutes around McDonals: “Hi Speirsyboy. Now stop worrying! The Kuban is right in the centre, a bit of a landmark, because its the tallest building in Flower Street. The ‘girls’ do tend to hang around the area, well a bit further down the road near Mc Donalds…”