Comments on: Bogus Reviews on Travel Sites http://travel.booklocker.com/2007/02/15/bogus-reviews-on-travel-sites/ Bargain destinations and the cheapest places to travel Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:25:39 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Garri http://travel.booklocker.com/2007/02/15/bogus-reviews-on-travel-sites/comment-page-1/#comment-65470 Garri Thu, 22 Feb 2007 14:08:26 +0000 http://travel.booklocker.com/2007/02/15/bogus-reviews-on-travel-sites/#comment-65470 First off, congrats on your Travvie nomination Tim - good luck! We used to have a rating system on our blog and it started off with comments but we ditched it 'cos it was pointless and of course attracted bogus reviews. No-one seems to have any imagination when they write these reviews - I want to see some curveballs, such as... Why not write a gushing review but only give it 2 out of 5. Write a disclaimer saying you're only giving it 2 out of 5 because it wasn't that great. Or, you'd have given it 3 out of 5 except you got food poising, apart from that it was great ;-) You'd have my attention! First off, congrats on your Travvie nomination Tim – good luck!

We used to have a rating system on our blog and it started off with comments but we ditched it ‘cos it was pointless and of course attracted bogus reviews. No-one seems to have any imagination when they write these reviews – I want to see some curveballs, such as…

Why not write a gushing review but only give it 2 out of 5. Write a disclaimer saying you’re only giving it 2 out of 5 because it wasn’t that great. Or, you’d have given it 3 out of 5 except you got food poising, apart from that it was great ;-)

You’d have my attention!

]]> By: latin american http://travel.booklocker.com/2007/02/15/bogus-reviews-on-travel-sites/comment-page-1/#comment-65318 latin american Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:23:28 +0000 http://travel.booklocker.com/2007/02/15/bogus-reviews-on-travel-sites/#comment-65318 I use these sites just to make sure a place isn't a total dump, but after a while you notice that most of the reviews are very anecdotal and short on helpful details (like "rooms on the north side face another building"). The reviews written by professional travel writers tend to point out the little things done right or wrong and discuss the hotel in relation to how it competes with others, both locally and on the world stage. Half the TripAdvisor reviews seems to have a sentence to the effect of "I've stayed at a lot of hotels and this was the best/worst ever." Well, what are you comparing it to? Others in that country? That city? That star level? Sine the person is very unlikely to have stayed in a range of places in the same city, it's hard to tell if their opinion has any weight to it. I use these sites just to make sure a place isn’t a total dump, but after a while you notice that most of the reviews are very anecdotal and short on helpful details (like “rooms on the north side face another building”). The reviews written by professional travel writers tend to point out the little things done right or wrong and discuss the hotel in relation to how it competes with others, both locally and on the world stage. Half the TripAdvisor reviews seems to have a sentence to the effect of “I’ve stayed at a lot of hotels and this was the best/worst ever.” Well, what are you comparing it to? Others in that country? That city? That star level? Sine the person is very unlikely to have stayed in a range of places in the same city, it’s hard to tell if their opinion has any weight to it.

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