Travel Review Sites

As a travel consultant, I know that many of my clients will check reviews on the major travel review sites. I also use them as a part of my research but never make them the sole or primary source of reviews but would rather rely on personal experience, client feedback and the experiences of my colleagues from throughout the US and Canada.

I came across this excerpt from an article in the Independent Traveler that really reiterates what I tell my clients as well:

"Travel Review Sites
On both Yahoo! Maps and Google Maps, you can click on a particular hotel to find more information about it, including driving directions, user reviews, photos and a link to the property's Web site for booking.

For a more in-depth view of a property, though, I head to TripAdvisor.com. While Yahoo! and Google both offer reviews and links to reviews, I know of no other site where you can get such candid reviews as you'll find at TripAdvisor.

This can be a mixed blessing. While negative reviews often tell you a lot about the hotel, I have sometimes found they tell you a lot about the reviewer as well; you sometimes need to read with a judicious eye to separate a fussbudget's whine from a valid complaint."

What I always advise my clients to do is take each review with a grain of salt. Put more credence in postings from reviewers who live close to your general geographic area. If you are from the New York Metro region, look more closely at the reviewers who live in the states surrounding NY, like New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania or Massachusets, rather than those from Europe or Alabama, Tennessee or Oklahoma. No offense to anyone who lives in those states or Europe but, particulary, when reviewing an all inclusive resort, food tastes vary greatly by geographic areas.

I also advise my clients to eliminate the glowing reviews- from those who say "I want to stay here forever" and the negative reviews "my luggage was lost and I hated the entire vacation" in favor of the reviews in the middle. You need to read between the lines on many reviews. Was the reviewer a honeymooner- their reviews will tend to be more glowing. Was the reviewer annoyed at an outside source- the weather, airline, travel agent or their spouse?

Travel review sites can help in your vacation planning but please don't make it your only site in deciding upon a vacation destination or resort.