Honest Traveler Reviews (besides Rick Steves)

I think Trip Advisor has it's place. I am on the forums there daily and you just have to develop a sense of what's believable.

The place where I am most familiar, Yellowstone, the reviews for lodging are not believable to me. I've never had a dirty room and if I did, I'd be to the front desk pronto and getting it sorted out. Other times people complain about things that if they'd done even half-a$$ed research would have seen there is no AC or kitchen facilities.

I am more apt to believe comments on lodging and food within the forums rather than in the reviews. Every location will have a forum . Some are active, some less so. Some go in to restaurant and lodging information questions, some do not.

Since you are posting in the France forum, I'm guessing you are going to France, lol. In Paris I also look at Happy Cow reviews because I'm vegan, otherwise, I'll just walk til I see something I like restaurant-wise.

Many also use google or yelp for restaurant reviews.

ARe you looking for hotels or restaurants or just thinking about it in general?

I trust reviews on Booking. Com
Only folks who have actually stayed at the property can submit

You can filter the reviews as well by whatever you are specifically looking for
“Wi-Fi” “lift” “noise” etc

I used to read reviews on TA but don’t bother anymore

I distrust TripAdvisor reviews as well, although it seems relatively easy to pick out the fake ones giving 5* everything is fabulous boosts. And the beyond nit picky ones from reviewers who sound like they would never be happy with any place. I spend more time on the TA forums. But for accommodations I rely more on the reviews on booking.com. as well as those on the RS destination or review forums. I use the RS site for tour information as well. As for restaurants, we either wing it and browse the outside posted menus as we pass, or ask the hotel concierge/front desk for suggestions.

The trick to TripAdvisor is only trust reviews from people who've a) had an account a long time and b) have multiple reviews. We recently stayed at the JFK Radisson which is a DUMP. Went to review it on TA and it had tons of 5-star reviews, conveniently mentioning the same front desk people over and over, all from "contributors" with one review. Ugh.

As somebody mentioned, you get a feel for which TripAdvisor reviews are reliable. Things I look at are: is a review too good to be true, is the reviewer overly picky, how old is the review, does the reviewer only write great or terrible reviews, etc. I pay attention to complaints and what they are. I write reviews on TripAdvisor (and just started writing reviews on Booking) mostly because we tend to visit many hotels and restaurants in small towns that don’t get many reviews. I noticed on my most recent trip that were few reviews of many places since Covid. If I have something negative to say, I’ll usually include a photo.

In addition to TripAdvisor we use reviews on Google, Expedia, or Booking when looking for lodging. We also look at plenty of photos. For restaurants, we never look at reviews. When we’re hungry we’ll look for a place to eat. In some really small towns, dining options are very limited.

I don't use Trip Advisor but I do use Google reviews (and also do searches on this forum). As others have said, there is no fault-free review site where everyone tells the truth. You just have to get a sense for who is lying and who is not. On Google, I tend to look for reviews from Local Guides, since I am a Local Guide and know that you must jump through a few hoops to be named one.

But one person's trash is another person's treasure so you always have to take every review - even truthful ones, with a grain of salt and consider that everyone's tastes are different.