A few weeks ago I read a sneery comment about people who 'plan their holiday on Trip Advisor' and it's annoyed me ever since. I don't suppose the writer literally meant that people go to Trip Advisor and blindly select a holiday just because it's got a certain number of stars.
On the other hand, as part of planning a holiday or break, it's useful to consult reference sources, to find out, for example, what restaurants exist in the area, if any, and which seem to have a general consensus of positive reviews from multiple reviewers. Yes, perhaps it would be easier to wander a strange town on spec. I've done that in the past, and have been turned away at fully-booked places, or discovered the only eating places open are chains pushing processed rubbish.
Of course, many of the positive reviews from Trip Advisor are form people with no discernment and the negative reviews from people with a particular axe-to-grind. But if a place has dozens of reviews and the consensus is high, or if there is one informative review that lights a spark, given that you're in a strange town, and you want a restaurant, and this is a restaurant, in that strange town, it's not a bad reference source. In the past I have stayed in a couple of very dodgy hotels that I would surely have avoided if TripAdvisor had existed. And since I've started consulting Trip Advisor, I've not really found anywhere that is radically different from the consensus of reviews.
I do wonder a little bit about the mentality of some people who leave reviews. I went somewhere recently, and was amused by a review that said "Every time we visit England, we have Afternoon Tea here and it is unsurpassable". A philosophical conundrum - how do they know it's best, if they haven't tried the rest! I had afternoon tea there and it was decent. It was good value for money, at, arguably, half the price of some other places I have tried, but even as a satisfied customer I really couldn't call it unsurpassable.
There's a restaurant I've eaten in on two mini-breaks, and I checked out the poor reviews. The worst included this:
At NO time did anyone of the waiting staff ask what the food was like which is standard in all restaurents I thought,
The Managing Director answered politely. My reaction would be to take such people out and shoot them. It's a two rosette restaurant. The waiting staff are trained to be alert to a raised hand, or a frowned attempt to catch their eye.
Good restaurants know that people want to enjoy their food and maintain lively conversation without some untrained halfwit mechanically asking "Everything ok you guys?". The only think worse than a moronic robot interrupting your eating pleasure with "Everything ok you guys" is three mornic robots in one course asking "Everything ok you guys?".
Another poor review for the same restaurant includes
The place was full of very old people, most of who seemed like walking dead.
to which the MD replied
This review is hugely offensive and disrespectful to a particular section of our society and warrants no further comment.
A reply that should be applauded in itself.
In another location, I almost booked a restaurant on the strength of this terrible review alone:
The restaurant had a power failure and the place was left in darkness, small candles were provided for the tables and toilets.
We had to choose dishes they said they could prepare so we gave them a chance as many other customers had decided to leave (just trying to support local businesses.
After one hour (9pm) the starters arrived with still no power.
at 10.30pm the main courses arrived and the food was barley edible in parts.
We called the manager to express our disapointment that the lovely chunky home made chips were in fact thin frozen chips covered in oil (disgusting)
The fillet steak my wife had was in fact three small thinly sliced frying steaks although he insisted that it was a fillet and that was how the chef prepared them.( i think i know a fillet from a minute steak)This was pointed out to the manager and his reply was "the chef was doing the best he could ", (not the right answer, i told him that if the food was going to be sub standard then they should not be trying to serve it up.)
He said i had an attitude with him and stormed off .
I felt so sorry for the manager who replied to this - in short, they were trying to operate a restaurant during a long unannounced power cut that affected the whole street.
In short, I would never 'plan a holiday using Trip Advisor' but when I'm planning a holiday or break I use Trip Advisor as one of many reference sources. And by doing so, have found some outstanding restaurants and gleaned a few tips eg "book even numbered rooms in this hotel in order not to be disturbed by the heavy traffic for the early morning ferry".
