Have you been penalised for writing a hotel review?

The idea behind Trip Advisor is that you review the hotel BEFORE you book it. That way you never enter a bad hotel.

This couple obviously only went onto the site after the based experience. I always stay in the top B&Bs and hotels. Never had a bad experience.

I think the murky world of hotel review sites needs a bit more detailed examination. I have read allegations that establishments can ‘buy’ the positioning of reviews on the websites so that none of the unfavourable ones appear in the first few pages, or, at all even. Hotels and guest houses are now in competition for ‘rewards’ from the review websites that will lead to their premises being given greater prominence in the search facility so they press customers to leave top-rate reviews. I have to say that many guests also leave a lot to be desired by their trashing of establishments both physically and verbally; they expect the Ritz at a bog-standard back-street boarding-house and then moan on a website if they don’t get it.

I go along with NFH – prior contact often leads to a better experience. I would prefer it if there were a completely disinterested organisation along the lines of Which? doing hotel reviews – the commercial connexions between the existing websites and the establishments means they are are always compromised. We used to be able to trust the star rating system but that has fallen into disrepute because places can administer their own scheme and award themselves as many stars as they think fit. In the UK, unless it has an official AA, RAC or national tourist board sign up the rating is meaningless, and evn then I question the judgments – given that only a handful of top hotels can achieve five stars, how can there be so many four-star hotels? The four-star band is far too wide between the worst and the best to be much of a guide these days. We rarely leave reviews as we usually find we are fully satisfied and get exactly what we ordered and paid for. On a very few occasions, however, we have submitted adverse reviews when the hotel fell well below the standards we were expecting and which they were advertising [and which was not apparent from reading any reviews]. The manager of one particular hotel in Kensington, part of one of the better international hotel groups, did actually respond to my comments with promises of improvement but we went somewhere else on the next occasion and have found a better place, in the same area, and have gone back there several times since. That has also been advantageous in terms of accommodation and prices. I hope this comment is not a hostage to fortune – we’re going there again in a couple of weeks’ time.

I just wonder whether my review would make a difference to people in these days of hardship. Anyway, I never book on-line from advisors and in these days of hardship people do or have to seek “cheapest ” deal they can get. Sorry but I don’t use Tripadvisor, never heard of it. I book a hotel direct to the hotel without trawling for “best deals”- I just seek hotels where I want to go and then contact my choices. As regards helping others, that boils down to “caveat emptor”: let the buyer beware.
I have no comments re: Tripadvisor so I cannot comment plus or minus as regards their service..
I repeat I am a newby and think I’m out of my depth here.
I’ll just add a general comment which I think was said by the late Bob Monkhouse: “It’s not a bargain if you don’t need it”.
I cannot quote “am I my brother’ keeper” ‘cos the answer would be “yes” but I don’t think it refers to hotel choice.
Sorry, that’s the best I can do on this topic.

No hotel has asked me to write a favourable review, but where an online retailer asks me to give them five stars or make favourable comments, I make a point of mentioning this, along with other comments.