Trip Advisor Reviews

[Tynemouth Blade]

This is my favourite review of the Theatre of Rust (from Google):
Football fans in the middle of the last century were expected to endure appalling conditions and facilities in support of their team and the Hillsborough stadium has been left virtually untouched as a living museum and a reminder of those dark days.

 

[Cerberus Blade]

Ha ha i've never seen the point of any of these review sites. My Mum and Sister swear by them and for a while wouldn't go anywhere which didn't have 5 stars or whatever on Trip Advisor or they wouldn't buy anything unless it was highly rated by trust pilot or whomever.

The point is that you could be looking at a review of a hotel or restaurant and you have no idea who these people are - friends, relatives or alternatively disgruntled customers. The reviewers are just strangers and i'd never take a recommendation for anything off someone i didn't trust. Its similar to on here, you read some reviews after you've been to games and you wonder what game people have been watching.

I got given a pair of cycling shorts to review last summer, they were free and worth £70, but as i was on a training camp in the alps i decided to give them a try. The downside was that i had to put a review on Wiggle for them. They were decent but of course they were, they were free...

I prefer to live my life on the edge. If i'm going to a Nando's in a new town, i'm going to take the risk and just go in without reading reviews on the place.

That's really avant-garde Swiss. I gather you're in the Forces - I thought you'd have sent a reconnaissance team in first to check it out?

You can decipher TripAdvisor to some extent. You can look at how many reviews someone has written, what type of places they rate, what geography they cover, the kind of language they use and whether it sounds like they are familiar with the owners. So, I do find it useful for throwing up a few options if I'm in an unfamiliar place, but I take it with a huge pinch of salt.

I look at TripAdvisor - but mainly to point me in the direction of where the main eating places are if I'm in an unfamiliar city. I'm happy then to browse around the area and poke my nose through a few windows, take a look at how busy the place is, see what the food looks like, etc. I think local recommendations can be good too - depending on who you ask. I often stay in big hotels and usually the folks on reception or concierge can give some good recommendations as they'll genuinely know which are the best places to eat - of course they always like to recommend their own restaurant - but accept that folk do want to go out somewhere different as well. If I wanted to get an objective view of good places to eat then the only genuine "guide book" used to be "The Good Food Guide". I say "used to be" because I haven't bought it for years - but it was one of the few that didn't take backhanders for entries and did genuine, independent, reviews.

 

[Seanshoreham]

to be fair there is more pork on that trip advisor site than a typical Roygbiv post

When they have a picture of a bloke in a Wednesday shirt it's a bit of a giveaway

TBF - just had a look at pigsboro on TA and it's 42. There's some suspicious activity on there too, although a lot seems to be based from outside Sheffield. although the 2nd below has a distinct blades feel to it

"Noah himself built Hillsborough. When he was drunk. An ancient eye-sore of a mismatched muddle of stands, sitting awkwardly alongside and upon one another. Not really a big club, but still has the draw to attract sentimental fools from surrounding towns. Have visited a fair few times, vastly overrated."

"There's a fine line between old stadiums that are full of history and character in English football, and those that are just run down and shabby. This one certainly fits the latter description. This is based on my experiences sitting in both the home and away sections of the ground. To be honest, the home fans don't exactly enhance the experience, seemingly clinging on to former glories, and currently silenced by being humbled by their local rivals in S2. I can imagine that the stadium looked the part in 1966 (when it was done up for the World Cup), but to be fair, so did my nan. I dread to think what the standard of catering is (I couldn't face the queues), but based on the lingering smell of stale bacon, I think I'll stick to a chip butty."

 

[Seanshoreham]

'Clinging on to former glories' what the average age of the fans, must be about 102

 

[Billyblade]

Aha, we're in Lanzrote then.

If you go there put a review on Tripadvisor.
We can compare it to Lanzarote then

 

[SwissBlade]

That's really avant-garde Swiss. I gather you're in the Forces - I thought you'd have sent a reconnaissance team in first to check it out?

You can decipher TripAdvisor to some extent. You can look at how many reviews someone has written, what type of places they rate, what geography they cover, the kind of language they use and whether it sounds like they are familiar with the owners. So, I do find it useful for throwing up a few options if I'm in an unfamiliar place, but I take it with a huge pinch of salt.

I look at TripAdvisor - but mainly to point me in the direction of where the main eating places are if I'm in an unfamiliar city. I'm happy then to browse around the area and poke my nose through a few windows, take a look at how busy the place is, see what the food looks like, etc. I think local recommendations can be good too - depending on who you ask. I often stay in big hotels and usually the folks on reception or concierge can give some good recommendations as they'll genuinely know which are the best places to eat - of course they always like to recommend their own restaurant - but accept that folk do want to go out somewhere different as well. If I wanted to get an objective view of good places to eat then the only genuine "guide book" used to be "The Good Food Guide". I say "used to be" because I haven't bought it for years - but it was one of the few that didn't take backhanders for entries and did genuine, independent, reviews.

Been thinking about this as i do my own selection process, much of which i wouldn't get from reading through dull reviews on Trip Advisor.

I'm more hands on, if its an unfamiliar city, like you i get the local info - hotel reception and get a map from them, I always check around on google and google maps. Then its the extended local knowledge - taxi drivers, local bars, get the low down on the types of food and the general direction.

I always go off the first impression - how it looks, menu selection, quality of beers and wines and whether they are stocking local products or serving local dishes.

Generally if a name/ place keeps cropping up when asking around or if its been recommended by someone i know before hand, i'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

And no, not in the forces

 

[Danny_Boy]

A year or so ago, the new landlady of my local was telling me they were thinking of going on Trip Advisor. I said 'Don't bother. Every pub in the area, particularly those selling meals, will be posting bogus claims about this pub - terrible service, food poisoning etc.'

As Danny_Boy says, it's only the owners of these sites who benefit, hence why they can afford endless crap ads. with meerkats, Skeletor and fat fucking opera singers.

Very true but the general public lap it up.

 

[Northyorksblade]

Don't put yourself down mate. You're a huge idiot.

Thanks so much, but it does take one to know one

 

[Hamburg Blade]

Thanks so much, but it does take one to know one

Haven't heard that for absolutely ages. Right up there with "he who smelt it, dealt it".

 

[Trigger Blade]

There’s a whole industry out there paying for fake reviews. One of our local pubs (although very good) does it so much that we play “spot the fake” but it’s getting too easy as they’re always 5* and very generic.

A pub close to me reopened and after less than a week, it had risen to the dizzy heights of No1 dining establishment in Stoke-on-Trent, admittedly a fairly shallow pond. It wasn’t even the best pub in the village at that time and is never likely to be.

A curiously large number of reviews were from South African reviewers and it transpired that the landlady herself was from Durban. Anyway, real people read the reviews, went there, were disappointed and it soon dropped down the rankings and closed again within months.

 

[Dimyan93]

Do people seriously go on TripAdvisor before an away game? Nothing says football like reviewing a stadium on a aging archaic website used mostly by middle age house wives to try and get a free meal.