TripAdvisor.com is a great online resource, with constantly updated opinions and articles about travel destinations, including resorts popular with families. But the first thing to strike readers is the polarization of opinions... Have these travelers even been to the same property?
Bear in Mind about Trip Advisor Comments:
- some people are impossible to please, and will complain about every little thing.
- some comments aren't even about the right resort! Occasionally, two different resorts have similar names. Watch for this sort of confusion especially when a resort has a sister property.
- visitor experience will vary widely from, say, an overbooked stay at Christmas --when pressure on facilities is maxed, and staff are harried-- to a relaxed off-season visit in October.
- people with a personal connection to a resort can post false raves (or rants).
- reportedly some people are offering to post slanted resort reviews online, either for pay or for free stays.
Advice for Using Trip Advisor:
- check for objective comments such as excerpts from Guidebooks.
- when reading visitors' comments, pay more attention to the pattern of responses than the particulars.
- listen for the whining tone of the constant complainer and disregard those comments.
- when two comments differ widely, check their dates: was one visit during a a peak period?
- keep an eye out for bogus reviews: Trip Advisor staff try to weed out such trash, but can't be omniscient.
