Something I don't understand

[Madeleine]

Personally, Tripadvisor is a joke about having true guests reviews. The way it's set up anyone of us could call family and friends and post reviews about us. You can always tell the properties that have. The reviews sound like an advertisement, rather than a review. Personally, I have talked to many guests during breakfast conversations about tripadvisor and they all agree. Many don't even look anymore because the reviews are not verified..

Well I have to disagree whole heartedly on this. My friends have over 600 reviews on TA. All of them tops. They have been on TA's best of the best for 7 years in a row. Who else does that? They do no advertising. Don't play the FB or Twit games, no blog to speak of, yet they are book solid!!! They owe it all to TA and they will be the first to tell you so.
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I'm not saying everyone is like that. Don't take my comments the wrong way. I do beleive a property has the ability to boost reviews if they choose to. We all know what guests have had a really great time and the ones that do not. We all have the chance to contact those guests and ask them to review us. There is nothing wrong with that but you can tell the properties that do do that and the ones that do not. It's just my opinion that a review should be verified to be a true review. I just think there could be some improvements. That's all. I'm not trying to pick a fight!
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Even with verified reviews, there's no way to weed out those that are family & friends. They are real people. More than likely have stayed at the property. They would be verified just as any other real person.
I have more of a problem with people who are just being vindictive because the innkeeper sticks to their policies. We have fabulous glowing reviews that could look fake because they're so wonderful. Then we have the 5 nasty, vindictive, slamming reviews because people don't take responsibility for their actions. Over and over, our guests comment on those few bad reviews and laugh. They see right through them and can't believe people can be like that. Most people will see through the nonsense on TA and other review sites, but it still hurts to the core when that bad one comes in.
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Absolutely, but usually the guests usually say to me what an idiot the reviewer was. Those reviews say more about the reviewer than the property being reviewed.
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Absolutely, but usually the guests usually say to me what an idiot the reviewer was. Those reviews say more about the reviewer than the property being reviewed.

And having a few less than stellar ones, altho it impacts the rating, helps those who read them realize we are human here. I've had a few people say they opted to come here rather than the places with all 5 stars because they don't believe anyone can be that good all the time. It's nice to hear that because it kills me that we don't seem to wow people enough to write a review.

 

[Kay Nein]

Personally, Tripadvisor is a joke about having true guests reviews. The way it's set up anyone of us could call family and friends and post reviews about us. You can always tell the properties that have. The reviews sound like an advertisement, rather than a review. Personally, I have talked to many guests during breakfast conversations about tripadvisor and they all agree. Many don't even look anymore because the reviews are not verified..

Personally, Tripadvisor is a joke about having true guests reviews. The way it's set up anyone of us could call family and friends and post reviews about us. You can always tell the properties that have. The reviews sound like an advertisement, rather than a review. Personally, I have talked to many guests during breakfast conversations about tripadvisor and they all agree. Many don't even look anymore because the reviews are not verified.

Our guests always tell me they read the reviews and that was part of the reason they booked a room with us. None of them know or feel the reviews are false. We had a new review this week that DOES sound like an advertisement, and it is a real guest who stayed 3 days and loved it here. I sure hope no one thinks that her review was false!!! All of ours are real deal. But we don't have 1000, we only have like 55 or something.
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What we hear mostly is that the guest found us online and then went over to TA to see what others had to say. We get that so often and I'm thrilled. We don't push the reviews, but the ones that counted on that review to help them make a decision know how important it is. I love it when people show up saying they can't wait to try my cookies or muffins - there's alot of comments about them on TA.
It's valuable to us - even better that it's free!
We have small wipe-erase board in the dining room that asks them to check-in on FB and says "If you enjoyed your stay, please consider telling TA about it".