Is Tripadvisor not usable anymore?

[Na Fan]

If you look at the top restaurants, and then taste their food - it doesn't add up.

 

Anyone else experience this?

 

Are they now faking their scores there too?

[StayinThailand2much]

10 minutes ago, Na Fan said:

If you look at the top restaurants, and then taste their food - it doesn't add up.

 

Anyone else experience this?

 

Are they now faking their scores there too?

There are certainly fakes and unjustified reviews. However, I'd think that due to rapid employee turnover (e.g. chefs), scores may have to be taken with a grain of salt. I wouldn't rely on reviews that are older than 6 months.

Edited September 1, 2023 by StayinThailand2much

[JBChiangRai]

I think it's way past it's prime and largely both unusable and irrelevant now.

 

It went downhill when they employed people in Thailand, suddenly places started appearing nailed at the top of the list rather than based on actual reviews.

 

They bought an activity booking company and suddenly their clients got boosted.

[scubascuba3]

When checking reviews on any platform i look for the worse ones, probably more honest on the whole

[Fat is a type of crazy]

I notice there are a lot less reviews than previously at places I go. Probably google or some other new media  reviews taking over a bit. So given fewer reviews the risk of fake ones might be higher.

Still a good place for price comparison for hotels. 

[StayinThailand2much]

5 minutes ago, Sticky Rice Balls said:

I heard the last chef didnt use salt at all! ????

In Thailand probably more often Nam Pla...

[bignok]

35 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

When checking reviews on any platform i look for the worse ones, probably more honest on the whole

The worst ones are written by the competition

[bignok]

1 hour ago, JBChiangRai said:

I think it's way past it's prime and largely both unusable and irrelevant now.

 

It went downhill when they employed people in Thailand, suddenly places started appearing nailed at the top of the list rather than based on actual reviews.

 

They bought an activity booking company and suddenly their clients got boosted.

Try the forum, worse than here

[scubascuba3]

25 minutes ago, bignok said:

The worst ones are written by the competition

you have to be smart enough to ignore ones that look suspect, but that's the idea of checking many reviews, works for me

[KannikaP]

Trustpilot is supposed to be accurate

Did anyone see the Ch4 or You Tube where an English comic registered his fake company and had 5 stars within a few weeks.

[scubascuba3]

1 hour ago, KannikaP said:

Trustpilot is supposed to be accurate

Did anyone see the Ch4 or You Tube where an English comic registered his fake company and had 5 stars within a few weeks.

i rated trustpilot 1* on trustpilot, they didn't like that

[KannikaP]

Go on, try rating TripAdvisor 5 on Trustpilot. That should 5...k 'em up!

[KannikaP]

Go on, try rating TripAdvisor 5 on Trustpilot. That should 5...k 'em up!

[brianthainess]

1 hour ago, bignok said:

The worst ones are written by the competition

You can be sued and arrested here in Thailand for leaving a bad review, with that in mind don't expect many bad reviews.

[BoganInParasite]

We see no evidence at all that anyone uses TA when looking to book accomodation in our remote northern part of Thailand. The very first review the wifes homestay got on TA was a 1/5 from someone who had not stayed and clearly posted against the wrong property. TA refused to remove. So we promptly delete a few emails every month from TA trying to upgrade her membership (at our cost) 'for more bookings'. Bizarrely all her subsequent reviews on TA have been 5/5 and her homestay has been number 1 rated in our area for four years.

[Sydebolle]

I had a restaurant for many years and in regular intervals I got email offers to "boost" Tripadvisor ratings. For USD 400 the offer claimed 400 four and five star ratings from all over the world. 
I reported that to Tripadvisor and their laconic answer was, that there is nothing they could do about it. 

Well, for one, if you use i.e. Agoda as a booking platform for an accommodation, the rating window opens only, if you paid for the service - here an overnight stay. Unlike Tripadvisor, where every Tom, Dick and Harry can vent his spleen. A simple system would have been to scan the receipt of the meal in question to be submitted together with the rating. 

Best is and remains word-of-mouth ....... me thinks! 

[MichaelHunt]

18 hours ago, Na Fan said:

If you look at the top restaurants, and then taste their food - it doesn't add up.

 

Anyone else experience this?

 

Are they now faking their scores there too?

Yes, I have noticed this too. I suspect that there are a lot of paid reviews there. I would even go so far as to say that there are probably companies (probably in India) that contact restaurants on TripAdvisor and offer to praise them in exchange for a fee.

 

One way to increase your odds of getting a fair review is to just ignore the review of any person who only has one or two reviews on TripAdvisor. TripAdivsor shows the total number of reviews that every reviewer has made (I myself have done something like 50 reviews, for example, thereby increasing my credibility, I think), and if it's only one - and that one is just for that one restaurant - then it is unlikely that it is genuine.

 

I also ignore the reviews of all Indians - as they appear to be the ones being paid to do the reviews, as mentioned above.

 

And finally, I also ignore the reviews of anyone who praises the staff of the restaurant (waiters, cooks, etc.) by name. How many of the cooks in the restaurants that you eat in are you on a first name basis with? Unless it's a pretty waitress, I don't bother asking their name.

[JackGats]

17 hours ago, bignok said:

The worst ones are written by the competition

Indeed. One and 2-star reviews are written by the competition while 4 and 5-star reviews are written by the venue itself. I'd go for mid-range reviews, ie 3 stars, paying special attention to which shortcomings are listed.

 

Note that in Thailand some people give 5 stars and then go on to write a scathing review. They do so to hedge against getting prosecuted for a negative review. This makes sites like Tripadvisor more confusing in Thailand than in other countries. My advice for review writers in Thailand would be to do exactly so. Since bad reviews are illegal, give 5 stars, then write away. Soon readers will catch on and learn to heed only the content of the reviews. And the Thais will have what they want, wall-to-wall 5 stars.

[bignok]

10 minutes ago, JackGats said:

Indeed. One and 2-star reviews are written by the competition while 4 and 5-star reviews are written by the venue itself. I'd go for mid-range reviews, ie 3 stars, paying special attention to which shortcomings are listed.

 

Note that in Thailand some people give 5 stars and then go on to write a scathing review. They do so to hedge against getting prosecuted for a negative review. This makes sites like Tripadvisor more confusing in Thailand than in other countries. My advice for review writers in Thailand would be to do exactly so. Since bad reviews are illegal, give 5 stars, then write away. Soon readers will catch on and learn to heed only the content of the reviews. And the Thais will have what they want, wall-to-wall 5 stars.

I cant be bothered writing reviews anymore. Unless im getting paid why bother? My reviews on hotel sites never got published.

 

You are right though. Lots of fake ones.

[JackGats]

12 minutes ago, bignok said:

I cant be bothered writing reviews anymore. Unless im getting paid why bother? My reviews on hotel sites never got published.

 

You are right though. Lots of fake ones.

I stopped writing reviews on Agoda and Booking because they only got published if they were positive. My negative reviews only appeared for me (when I was logged on) but they were not visible for other viewers. This deceitful practive took me some months to notice. This was not the case on Tripadvisor though. Tripadvisor published my review (as well as other's I presume) for all to see in the order they got written. This must be said to Tripadvisor's credit. Tripadvisor remains the only platform on which reviews can be trusted to a certain extent.

 

Note hotel reviews everywhere are fundamentally flawed: reviews by customers who paid for a top-notch room are thrown together with reviews by customers who booked a basic room. Different customers are reviewing different rooms that have little in common. IMO any review should start by stating the room rate that was paid.

[scubascuba3]

1 minute ago, JackGats said:

I stopped writing reviews on Agoda and Booking because they only got published if they were positive. My negative reviews only appeared for me (when I was logged on) but they were not visible for other viewers. This deceitful practive took me some months to notice. This was not the case on Tripadvisor though. Tripadvisor published my review (as well as other's I presume) for all to see in the order they got written. This must be said to Tripadvisor's credit. Tripadvisor remains the only platform on which reviews can be trusted to a certain extent.

 

Note hotel reviews everywhere are fundamentally flawed: reviews by customers who paid for a top-notch room are thrown together with reviews by customers who booked a basic room. Different customers are reviewing different rooms that have little in common. IMO any review should start by stating the room rate that was paid.

I've noticed what some people do is give the review 5* so it gets published but the comment tells the real story

[bignok]

3 minutes ago, JackGats said:

I stopped writing reviews on Agoda and Booking because they only got published if they were positive. My negative reviews only appeared for me (when I was logged on) but they were not visible for other viewers. This deceitful practive took me some months to notice. This was not the case on Tripadvisor though. Tripadvisor published my review (as well as other's I presume) for all to see in the order they got written. This must be said to Tripadvisor's credit. Tripadvisor remains the only platform on which reviews can be trusted to a certain extent.

 

Note hotel reviews everywhere are fundamentally flawed: reviews by customers who paid for a top-notch room are thrown together with reviews by customers who booked a basic room. Different customers are reviewing different rooms that have little in common. IMO any review should start by stating the room rate that was paid.

Some people are reviewing the wrong hotel. Some the wrong temple. Saw a cave review that was describing another cave 800km away 555. To be fair there are a lot of similar names but many people don't check.

[Dirk Z]

I have started writing reviews for Trip Advisor in 2012 and have contributed over 1000. I always try to give info that I would like to see myself, including e.g. parking, accessibility etc. It has earnt me many "Helpfuls". As for looking for information myself I always read the "excellent" and the "poor" categories. In "poor" you often see some personal irritations, but I try to find the structural issues like construction site next door, bathroom dirty, poor service etc. I also look at how many contributions the reviewer has made. If only one "excellent" review for a new restaurant then you can assume this is staff, friend or relative. So with a critical attitude I think the information on TripAdvisor can still be useful.

[Irish star]

Their Destination Experts were Creep know it all’s 

[bignok]

On 9/2/2023 at 4:58 PM, Irish star said:

Their Destination Experts were Creep know it all’s 

Agree

[scorecard]

On 9/1/2023 at 1:46 PM, Na Fan said:

If you look at the top restaurants, and then taste their food - it doesn't add up.

 

Anyone else experience this?

 

Are they now faking their scores there too?

 

Well established that some survey/review sites have admitted they will add positive reviews for a fee.