Ever since I found what I felt was a “real discrepancy” with what Tripadvisor said was THE NO. 1 HOTEL in a town we had planned to visit – meaning a small, well worn hotel was given #1 spot – while another BRAND NEW hotel with flat-screen TV’s, etc. was given a lesser spot in the ratings (I also noticed that the small, worn hotel had 100+ reviews – most of them recent and posted by people who had only posted 1 review (suspicious) – I contacted Tripadvisor asking them to ‘check on this particular property’ – and it miraculously went from #1 to #2 (still much higher in the rankings than it probably deserved).

Needless to say – we booked another property in the town – not #1 or #2 – and we drove by the said properties while we were on vacation and the well worn property was definitely WELL WORN and would NOT have been my #1 pick or anyone elses!! I am SURE their ranking generated business that they did not deserve.

So, basically, I have been using the forums on Tripadvisor – they seem to be legit – but, have stopped using the reviews for a long time now. I think many of the reviews are “plants” and sadly, once a company or a person becomes ‘suspect’ – people stop trusting.

When will companies and people learn that they must maintain a customer’s trust first and foremost??? Everything else will follow. Lose that trust and they have an almost impossible task ahead of them – trying to rebuild said trust.

Maybe the Oyster model is better for the consumer when doing their travel research.