Trip Advisor For Chiang Mai

[annabel]

Hi

I would like to know if any of you ever have used Trip Advisor to find a good hotel in Chiang Mai and if so what do you think of them??

Just want a general opinion. Also who owns Trip Advisor ??? Have any of you used their Chiang Mai forum for hotels or activities or whatever info you wanted to get about Chiang Mai ???

[satiariyan]

Aren't they just one of the uncountable thousands of sites that were created in the vain hope that the owners could make a few bucks on pay-per-click ads from Google Ads or the few hotels and restaurants that fell into their spell.? - I can't talk about their value regarding Chiang Mai, but I recently did a research regarding the top-twenty of such sites with respect to their value for someone who've never been there and did a Google query for things like "'hotels in lampang, "sights in lampang", or just "lampang thailand" and so on. --- Although, that site in question did turn up on all the first 1-2 result pages of all my queries, they really didn't offer much but ads and the same standard copy of general "lampang info"all the similar sites had copied from wiki or governmental tourist sites, which can easily be found on the usually more informative sites beyond the first 2-3 Google search result pages.

You aren't hired by them to post this question, right? - And you aren't one of those many robots that posts questions like that in order to make help some forum members post links, right?

Edited October 15, 2009 by satiariyan

[elektrified]

Whatever you do, do not give Tripadvisor your email address. Somehow they got my email address and for almost 4 years now they have been bombarding me with offers in Romania (I think they are a Romanian company). I have written them numerous times asking them to stop - all to no avail. No matter what I do to filter them, mark them as SPAM or whatever, they always get through. One time an on-line account of mine was compromised and tampered with. The financial institution told me that the IP address from the party who accessed my account was in Romania. It happened on the same day I got 3 emails from them. Avoid them like the plague!

[mcgriffith]

I check them out once in a while.

They were one of the first travel booking sites that offered customer feedback/user content. Web 2.0

I perused them once for a hotel booking in BKK Sukhumvit soi 4 to 11 area.

Was about to pull the trigger on a deal....and one of the customers who posted feedback on said hotel mentioned a major problem with a bedbug infestation.

Ewwwww.

Ended up staying at a place that I just showed up at in the same area; no bites.

Sometimes the feedback is quite valuable about the good side of the building re: construction noise in the area, or a part of the hotel that has been remodeled, or is not yet remodeled.

[britmaveric]

Great place for reviews! I wouldnt put weight to the top hotel rubbish though.

[lannarebirth]

Trip Advisor good for reviews, but I use agoda for booking rooms.

[ctrunfree]

Tripadvisor is based in the USA, linked to Expedia. It has recently gone through a major change of emphasis on the commercial side of the site, which has alienated a lot of regular users like myself. However, the hotel reviews (if approached with caution) are quite useful, and the forums excellent. The restaurant and hotel ratings however are rubbish.

[alant]

Tripadvisor is based in the USA, linked to Expedia. It has recently gone through a major change of emphasis on the commercial side of the site, which has alienated a lot of regular users like myself. However, the hotel reviews (if approached with caution) are quite useful, and the forums excellent. The restaurant and hotel ratings however are rubbish.

agree with the above, bear in mind that all reviews are personal and taken at a point in time, things change.

i wouldnt book via them, too expensive i think, if you are an independant traveler use one of the popular booking web based outfits here like asia rooms, sawadee, jollythai, (i think asia rooms advertise on TV). make sure your price includes taxes and service with no booking fee etc.

have a good trip

[madmitch]

Agree with most of the above. Read the reviews. But remember, some people just try to find fault and aren't interested in the good points so use a bit of your own initiative as well.

The top hotels are nearly always the five star ones, often out of the price range of tripadvisor readers. Price and value should be stressed higher to give a more accurate rating, IMHO.

Have fun

[getgoin]

Unfortunately, TripAdvisor has become one of the major sites that people anonymously log on to either promote themselves or to denigrate a business. The site is so large that there is no control and no accountability.

[annabel]

Aren't they just one of the uncountable thousands of sites that were created in the vain hope that the owners could make a few bucks on pay-per-click ads from Google Ads or the few hotels and restaurants that fell into their spell.? - I can't talk about their value regarding Chiang Mai, but I recently did a research regarding the top-twenty of such sites with respect to their value for someone who've never been there and did a Google query for things like "'hotels in lampang, "sights in lampang", or just "lampang thailand" and so on. --- Although, that site in question did turn up on all the first 1-2 result pages of all my queries, they really didn't offer much but ads and the same standard copy of general "lampang info"all the similar sites had copied from wiki or governmental tourist sites, which can easily be found on the usually more informative sites beyond the first 2-3 Google search result pages.

You aren't hired by them to post this question, right? - And you aren't one of those many robots that posts questions like that in order to make help some forum members post links, right?

Hi , Thanks for posting your opinion ....and no I am CERTAINLY not hired by them and my question was directed at finding out who at their end, and on their forums, are answering all querries in regards to Chiang Mai?? or any other place for that matter?? ... when somebody asks about a good hotel for example for a couple with 2 kids, or for a honeymoon .... or ask about what to do in Chiang Mai...? Or what activities are the best ? And so on ...it is always the same 4-5 Aussie people ( Ocasionally an American or Canadian or European ) answering and basically with the same hotel names, the same tours and the same hatever....which made me wonder as to how reliable the advice given is ??? Is it from people hired by them and who are plugged into certain hotels, activity centers etc...?? However they do not have that Pay -per - Click thing like Google from what I can see....but the people on the forum are all the same ones replying day in / day out...and mostly 80% Australians as I said before and again the same 4-5 or so Australians always recommending the same thing to whoever and whatever over and over again .... so was just wondering, cause I have recommended TA to many people asking me for info about Chiang Mai and they have come back to me stating that the info is always the same and from the same people and were not happy that I had recommended this site to get info...Is there a better one to go to ?? To recommend to people? People like to get as much info as they can about a place prior to travelling there and when one lives in that place ...well , what can I say ...yes we do venture out and explore but we do not know everything and there are always new things to see and discover which I myself don't have time to do and cannot recommend ....so I recommend such sites for more info but seems to be a big let down in general for now as I only know of TA...

[annabel]

Tripadvisor is based in the USA, linked to Expedia. It has recently gone through a major change of emphasis on the commercial side of the site, which has alienated a lot of regular users like myself. However, the hotel reviews (if approached with caution) are quite useful, and the forums excellent. The restaurant and hotel ratings however are rubbish.

agree with the above, bear in mind that all reviews are personal and taken at a point in time, things change.

i wouldnt book via them, too expensive i think, if you are an independant traveler use one of the popular booking web based outfits here like asia rooms, sawadee, jollythai, (i think asia rooms advertise on TV). make sure your price includes taxes and service with no booking fee etc.

have a good trip

Oooopss I didn't know you could book through TA ...I thought they were only an advisor site to get opinions on hotels and other tourist stuff ??? Are you sure you can book through TA....?? I don't think so ...

They are however from what I can see tied into Asiarooms.com, Expedia.com, Agoda.com etc.... so they must be getting commissions from these sites but as far as I know you cannot book through TA itself and they say so in their profile //// Or am I wrong???

[bluweyze]

I have used Tripadvisor a lot to research hotels throughout the world. I find the reviews and travel advice informative and when I have stayed in the places I found them mostly accurate. I ignore any reviews that don't match the general concensus (good or bad). They have links to booking sites such as Expedia but I don't use these, like another contributor I prefer to book with Agoda.

[mauiguy90]

They are however from what I can see tied into Asiarooms.com, Expedia.com, Agoda.com etc.... so they must be getting commissions from these sites but as far as I know you cannot book through TA itself and they say so in their profile //// Or am I wrong???

I use tripadvisor.com quite frequently and find the feedback from members to be quite useful. Just got back from a trip to Chiang Mai and found the reviews to be spot on regarding both the upsides and complaints about the hotel. Some reviewers are apparently quite picky (i.e. arrived at 1 a.m. and expected to get top service; ) but most are well thought out. As previously mentioned, its best to generally filter out the nit picky feedback and look for consistent remarks from consumers with reasonable expectations.

I find the overall ratings to be generally accurate, with places having the most responses being the most accurate. The ratings tend to be from members who had strong reactions to their experiences travelling and consequently tend to be from those who had a great time or a really bad experience.

I agree with Annabel that tripadvisor is linked to numerous travel agency sites including agoda.com but that they don't have their own booking service. Although many of the top rated hotels are expensive, a fair number of them are highly rated less expensive places. It is an excellent service, although some users expect a lot from places which are highly rated even though the prices are very reasonable.

Edited October 17, 2009 by mauiguy90

[justmaybe]

I've used them for a long time, as well, have never felt that the reviews (when averaged) were very far off, and have ended up in a few great finds as a consequence. I attend a lot of professional meetings and usually get high points for having more interesting and often much more reasonable alternatives to the conference sites.

Just checked the reviews for Chiang Mai hotels out of curiosity and was surprised that I didn't recognize most of the names of the Top Ten and I thought I knew the place pretty well.... but that's what I have found a strength of the site.