Tips on Using TripAdvisor, or How to Not Get the Room Next to the Jackhammering at 5 a.m.

Travel Blog  •  Jim Benning  •  06.01.07 | 6:39 PM ET

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Photo by Brandon Pajamas via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

Most experienced travelers are well aware of the potential pitfalls of making hotel decisions based on TripAdvisor reviews. Which reviews to trust? Is a negative review legit? Or is the writer simply out to help a competing business? The Wall Street Journal has published a helpful look at the many ways that experienced TripAdvisor users sort through reviews to find ones they can trust. The article’s author, Nancy Keates, quickly moves beyond the obvious tactic of looking for patterns and discarding opinions at odds with the bulk of a hotel’s reviews. What other strategies do readers use?

* Some study where reviewers live to gauge their sensibilities. While one Boston man says he doesn’t trust any reviews written by New Yorkers, a Manhattanite trusts other Manhattan residents because, she says, they share “certain standards.”

* Others look at previous reviews by particular writers to gauge their sensibilities. “The jackpot [for one user]: Finding someone who has reviewed a property where she’s also stayed so she knows if they’re in sync,” Keates writes.

* Some even make judgments about a review based on a reviewer’s username. One user thought a review by “crzy4cncun” was likely trust-worthy because the reviewer probably had a lot of experience in Cancun.

Keates suggests that TripAdvisor can be particularly helpful in breaking news about hotels.

“When certain key words (‘hurricane’ or ‘construction’) pop up, TripAdvisor is at its best,” she writes. “It is one of the few places to find indications that a recent event has affected the hotel’s quality.”



4 Comments for Tips on Using TripAdvisor, or How to Not Get the Room Next to the Jackhammering at 5 a.m.

Carter Nicholas 06.02.07 | 12:10 AM ET

It was an interesting article, but by delving in to the “strategies for how to read reviews”, the reporter seemed to be missing two key observations: 1) that for the consumer, the process of reading through all these reviews is extremely time-consuming, 2) that user gen and social networking sites have a real problem on their hands with reviews by interested parties and fake profiles.  Time for some user authentication!

Andrew 06.05.07 | 4:09 AM ET

Carter - In the interest of user authentication, what’s your role with Trip Connect?

Bob's Hotel Directory 08.18.07 | 6:10 AM ET

TripAdvisor is providing a valuable service, where else can you get such wealth of information before travelling to a location and booking your hotel? Personally I check TripAdvisor reviews for the hotels I know and I try to understand how subjective the reviewes can be and how all the reviewes for one hotel should be “interpreted” as a whole. So make up your own system to understand reviewes for a hotel though there is no guarantee!

Craig of Travelvice.com 11.18.07 | 1:54 PM ET

You have to keep in mind that there’s only a certain type of person that will contribute to such services. Few are coming home after a vacation and writing reviews. ...just like surveys are inherently biased, because the only people that participate in surveys are those that participate in surveys.

For each bad review, there are sure to be a dozen or more that won’t comment on a pleasant experience.

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