TripAdvisor sucks

All I know is they are REALLY obnoxious with popups and always have been. Really annoying.

What I don't like is that they are snooping on what I am posting elsewhere.

When I stayed in this town in 2007, I carefully studied the overnight options. I found this place on the town website and feel I got the best possible deal. And then they come up with their recommendations (actually, they are not recommendations, just advertisements). They can't even offer the place I found, and the places they offered were inferior.

It might also help to set your browser to request no tracking.

But, seriously, you are not describing anything that most websites don't already do. The difference is that TripAdvisor is blunt and clumsy about it. For example, their pop-up policy. I also post there a lot, but it bothers me more that have such a short editing period and so many handheld, texty, postings.

If targeted advertising bothers you, you should not use any location services, Siri like services, or buy a loudspeaker with a microphone to do tasks for you. Alas, you also have to start reading ten page Terms of Service!

I posted to Tripadvisor once, at the request of a new restaurant. I never use that site. I successfully unsubscribed and never got any more junk from them.

Booking.com also sends irrelevant alerts, I just delete those.

Although I've sent TripAdvisor several emails pointing out the mistake, they've never corrected the erroneous review.

What exactly is their policy for vetting reviews and "editing" what's submitted, or dealing with a conflict where someone wants another review altered? I don't know what their policy is but if you are going to rant, it would be helpful to know. I think the bigger issue may be that their universe of lodging reviews extends beyond people who they have evidence have actually stayed at the property. Booking or Hotels.com only allows people who booked a hotel room to post a review because they are the only ones who receive the review links.

As far as the website tracking and e-mails and pop-ups, it's just because they're not sophisticated at targeting their ads. Can you imagine writing software for every possible situation? It works like a dumb trigger - you mention a hotel and you get an ad (it's not situation based - what happened to you is totally typical of software "guessing" you have an interest in a particular hotel and making suggestions). You can block their e-mails, unsubscribe or use a pop up blocker. No big deal.

I think you're expecting computer algorithms to approximate human judgment. They don't. The entire flow you explained made sense to me. Some hotels don't share their prices with them, so the algorithm tries to be helpful and suggests other options. How can it compare those prices to those you've found elsewhere or know about unless you know for sure it has access to pricing info from the least expensive channels? Since the least expensive channels may be competing with them, they have reason to restrict pricing information so that customers book directly with them. The point is it's not full proof, but that doesn't make them "scum bags". Everyone should not depend on one site, that's what comparison shopping is all about. I only use TripAdvisor for Things to Do and restaurants in different cities and I find both valuable...I'm sure others do as well. I don't post reviews so I'm not plagued with these annoyances.

sooner or later all good things get ruined.

I use TripAdvisor all the time -- for info. I would never use it to book anything, and I read reviews rather than just look at the ranking of a place. As to erroneous reviews, that can be a problem. If you are the owner of the place, or the reviewer, there is a mechanism for requesting a change. However, if you are someone who wants to point out an error, it can be very difficult. I recently managed to get TA to move a terrible review to where it belonged -- to a hotel by the same name in a different town. But it took a lot of time and effort, and I just got lucky when a TA staff member noticed my posting.

I have an old TripAdvisor account, but I never log into it so I don't receive any ads or anything. I do find TA helpful when I am looking for lodging. It helps me sort by price and gives me an idea of ranking - I glance at the rankings, but it's the actual reviews I'm after. The reviews are very helpful for showing me consistent issues with properties or trends over time. A lot of time people are complaining about things that don't matter at all to me, like bell service and porters or room service.

If you use TripAdvisor just to read, then never log in, and as long as YOU CLEAR YOUR COOKIES, CACHE AND HISTORY every time you shut your computer, then that site will not be able to target you. Taking care of your privacy is basic computer protection, and please no one jump in and tell me "but if I do that I will lose my log-in information or informatiuon on me" (or such). There is no reason why you can't log on to any site that you actually have to transact something on when you need it, and not have them - or anyone else - find you. And anything any site needs to know about you when you transact business with them will have it from your account when you log in. There are many auxiliary programs that you can use that will store your username/password combos and pre-fill them for you.

There is actually no reason to ever log in to TripAdvisor unless you need to post a review.

And yes, I get worthless to me pop-ups show that I cannot avoid when I do log on to TripAdvisor, I even complained once and was told "Tough".

After renting an apartment in Bologna that had numerous good reviews, I inspected the reviews more closely and decided the majority had been faked and written by people with non-hyperlinked usernames--ie, no longer active usernames. I signaled to TA Italy, but the reviews are all there. Only one review before me and one after had the same perception. In pms, those writers told me they too had signaled to TA.

I believe the NYTimes wrote that something like 50% of on-line reviews are faked, either positive for the business or negative against competition. I've never been on a day tour, either in the US or Europe, where I wasn't requested to remember to post on TA--to inflate positive numbers. Or, some have you fill out their own quality control surveys to intercept any problems before you post. Finally, my hairdresser said he has yelp take down any negative reviews--so much for reliability.

And Lee, I agree with you 100%.

I use Trip Advisor all the time. It is useful no matter where in the world you want to visit. It is so much more than just hotel listings. Whether you want up to date reviews of vegetarian restaurants, the local hostel, the tour that fits your interest or easy access to the websites of museums, you can find it here. If you need more soecific questions answered, the forums and the destination experts are invaluable. There is a forum for almost every city in the world, as well as forums for trains, planes, those with disabilities, and much, much more.

Ranting about a website because of 1 tiny flaw is very petty.

Bets, I don't know about the NY Times, but read this article from the Daily Mail in London, "Disturbing proof the online review that made you book your holiday may be FAKE:" Or read this from the Daily Guardian, "Italy fines TripAdvisor €500,000 over false reviews". The 500.000€ fine was eventually overturned by the Italian courts, but not because the reviews were not false, but because readers of TripAdvisor had been warned by the site.

In the case of the review I tagged, it was from a "Level 4" reviewer with over 30 reviews. Fortunately, she described the "location" of the hotel she was reviewing, and it wasn't even close to the actual location.

I use and contribute to TA. It is mostly positive as a site for getting user reviews of hotels, restaurants and sites. But I would never consider booking through them and find their advertising to be quite obnoxious and un-helpful.

One must always read reviews carefully and never just rely on the rankings. It is the reviews themselves that are helpful to understand nuances and up-to-date information about places that can never make it into a guidebook. Like if there is renovation work at a hotel or which rooms might be quieter. I always read positive reviews and some negative. This helps not only weed out legitimate reviews that are not based on a proper understanding of a place (like Americans complaining about small bathrooms in European hotels or that a waiter never came over to check on their dinner), but also the occasional fake review.

I've seen a lot of media about the fake reviews and no doubt it can be an issue at times. But it is nowhere near the problem that some people think it is.

Well if it was in the Daily Mail it must be true.
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or not

I don't think TA "sucks". I use it all of the time and contribute heavily. Yes, there are fake reviews, but if you know how to use the TA website effectively you can get great information and easily spot the fake stuff. You've got to look at the people who leave the reviews and see how active they are, how long they've been contributing, how many contributions they've made...etc.

If you compare the minor (but annoying) negatives against all the info Tripadvisor provides for free that people can use to plan their trips, I think on net it definitely does not suck. I guess the "price" is actually the annoyances you spoke about, so perhaps it's not entirely free but it's a tradeoff. I get the same pop ads and "nudges" from other sites as well. Sure, some percentage of the lodging reviews is junk (may even be a moderate percentage), but there's a lot of other good meat there...let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater due to a few drawbacks. But it is a pity they don't respond to their customers.

I think that TA is fine. I use a lot. I enjoy the forums. You have to know how to read the reviews. Yelp has the same issue as does any free online site. Look at who is posting the review. If this is the only activity that they have on TA be suspicious. As for negative reviews, look at what they complain about. It's one person's perspective and you may not care at all about what drives them nuts. As for ads, heck there are the crazy Facebook ads these days too. Google does the same thing. Clear your cache and cookies if you don't like it.

In the meantime, I'll keep using them.

Pam

Of these third party vehicles I look at booking. com to get an overview re. a place to stay, mainly to look at any prevailing common threads positive or negative. Most reasons for negative comments don't bother me. I don't bother with TA, never use them, not interested in the least with their opinions, reviews, whatever.

I have been using TA for over 12 years and in that time I have seen it go from being a great tool for the independent traveller to being almost. useless.
One of the reasons that I joined the Rick Steves forums was to try and find travellers more akin to my way of travelling and even thinking.
TA are all about quantity not quality , they want reviews, ratings , articles and as many of them as possible.Their demographics have changed greatly over the years,before you had genuine independant travellers coming on the forums exchanging information and helping each other to have a great trip, now you have all the idiots that don.t have a clue about travel, who need their hands held and their arses wiped,they need to be told where to go what to do, what the weather will be like, what to wear , where to stay, what to eat and even how much to bloody tip.
The standard of reviews have dropped dramatically especially since the introduce the "Trip Collective" points system where you earn points and badges for reviews, ratings , photos and forum posts.the points are worth exactly half of bugger all.
TA have also started linking to 3rd party websites and booking systems and they also have their own holiday letting company Flipkey, they do not make it clear that they are sending you to third patry sites when booking through them and this has caused major problems, the support forum of TA is littered with requests for help with all the problems that have occurred.
I am trying to distance myself from TA now, the forums still hold some appeal but I have removed all my reviews (over 800) and all my photos and rating. I do not trust TA anymore and do not intend to make any more contributions to the website apart from the Forum.
Does TA suck?....................... in my opinion yes!

I do not think TA sucks.. and I use and contribute to it regularily. I get SPECIFIC answers to some very difficult questions that no one on other forums can handle ( like which train to take to a very small village in France to visit a relative and then which bus to take.. it was very obscure information and a local was able to help.. other tourists usually do not have specific answers to more difficult questions)

I read the reviews all the time. and have booked dozens of places by the reviews.. but NOT through TA.. I contacted hotels directly or use booking.com.
I like that I can actually that the folks that wrote the reviews are long time posters.. I admit to not paying as much attention to one time review posters.
I also like being able to contact posters directly via private message system.

I think its like any site.. once you learn to use it , it can be very helpful.

I have never been surprised or disappointed in a place I had booked after researching on tripadivsor, but I do read more then the first page of reviews.. and I love the "travellers " photos.. not the commercial ones.

woinparis,i have received several 2 week bans from TA because I always argue my views and try and defend the views of others, I'm Scottish it is in our nature to be argumentative buggers .
Over the years I have made some very good friends through TA forums and have even been to the wedding of folk that met through TA and these friends are the main reason I still contribute to the travel forums as well as wanting to help fellow travellers.
What really annoys me about TA these days is that they seem to forget that it is the members that made TA what it is and many of the longer serving members have abandoned TA for other sites or just given up contributing to travel websites because of the direction that TA has now taken. Newer TA members will take the website to new places but I very much doubt these places will be ones I want to visit.

I prefer TA over any other travel review site. You just have to take it all with a grain of salt. The forums are the best out there - lots of local experts as opposed to casual travelers with one time experiences.

Agree with unclegus! One has the right to argue and defend, at the very least argue and defends one's own assertions, even if at variance with the trend. Whether the effort is worth it or not is another matter. Eloquent use of "bugger"...good British term..

I have been a member of TA for nine years and always found it to be a useful tool for checking out rankings and reviews of hotels and restaurants. There are some very knowledgable and helpful people on the travel forums.

For the most part, i have found the reviews and rankings to be fairly reliable. My first experience with possibly fake reviews was recently for a Cuban resort which we are planning to visit. There are tons of first time reviewers. One star reviews by people who appear to be trying to discredit the hotel and five star reviews by people who appear to be trying to drive up the hotel's ranking. When i compared these reviews, it was like there are two completely different hotels. However, i did find some members with lots of reviews who appear to be trustworthy and i was able to pm them directly for answers.

I read and contribute daily to TA forums. It doesn't bother me to get the side ads on Yahoo or FB for TA any more than when I look at something on LLBean or Land's End and within 5 minutes there is a side ad for the item I just looked at.

I also enjoy giving information, even very basic information, to travelers and when it comes to the point where I do NOT enjoy it, I take a break for a few weeks. No sense fuming over people who post naive questions...sometimes they don't realize what they don't know.

It does make me laugh when I get an email every 2-3 months saying I am the #5 or #6 contributor of reviews for the Moscow Idaho area. It's funny because 3 out of the top ranked individuals are from the other well-known Moscow, and generally seem to submit their reviews in Cyrillic. Plus very few of my reviews are from the Moscow area anyway. I just click "delete" and get rid of it.

And TA sends gifts every year to its destination experts...

Gifts! Emily do tell. What do they send?

Wow.. those who say ta is good for lazy first time posters.. or those "who need their arses wiped" must not go on many travel sites. All travel sites have folks who have never travelled before .. and some do need more basic help then others.
Seriously its kind of funny as Rick Steves site ( yes the one we are all on right now) in fact attracts more first time posters that seem to need a lot of hand holding.. and some seem reluctant to stray from what the RS guidebooks say ( how many of them on the Paris forums say they want to stay in the Rue Cler area.. and we ALL know why ) .. lol

A nice messenger bag, a cooler - with the TA logo. This year's hasn't arrived yet, but should soon.

UncleGus, you were extremely helpful to me several years ago on TA when I was planning a trip to Edinburgh. I am neither lazy, nor need my hand held with planning a trip, but at this time, I was swamped with work and didn't have time to do much research. Having someone that knew the neighborhood, the bus #, and which tours were the best made my short trip to celebrate my daugters graduation better. I am still grateful for your aadvice.

Recently used it to find out info about Sacramento and San Francisco. Read reviews of the hostels to see which ones fit our plans best. TA helped us pick the right one. Once we saw the location of our 2nd choice, was glad we had read the up to date reviews.

Why do people whine about helpful websites? If you don't like it, just don't use it. Sheesh! Who here uses Fodors? It often isn't that useful to me, but there is still no reason to whine about the heated discussions that go on there and there are some helpful posters there. Anyone here use FB to read about cities or tourist attractions? Again, very helpful. One can whine about FB too but what a waste of energy.

I think I may have upset a few folk who has misread or misinterpreted my post. I have said that TA has changed a great deal and the whole demographics have changed. TA does not cater for the independent travellers anymore.
As to the reviews, have a look and see most attraction reviews now link you to the Viator website to book tours,Viator is owned by TA, even if your review is a about a tour company or just an attraction that review will link to Viator so folk can book through them and with Viator being a consolidator you don't even know who you are booking with.
TA are linking up with some real shonky third party websites for flights and hotel bookings, just look at their various support forums to see the problems that are being caused and what do they do about it nothing, they expect unpaid , untrained other members to try and help out .
They constantly bombard people with emails about reviews , booking fligths and hotels.I have blocked all emails from TA.Their pop ups/ pop unders are numerous and even with constantly checking my blockers they still get through,there is a new hotel pop under that keeps arriving whenever I log on and it makes no difference what browser I am using or what computer.
I was a DE for Edinburgh and gave it up a few years ago .I used to get numerous Private messages asking me to sort itineries, hotels and transportation for folk who did not even bother to ask questions on the forums,i think they thought I was some free travel agent.I have even had one person complain that I did not reply to them quickly enough, I did say that because of time differences the 8 hours it took me to reply was due to the fact that I was sleeping.
I have had a few gifts from TA over the years but all of them have been given away or ended up in a charity shop.
I will repeat TA WAS a great travel website but it has changed, commerce is at its heart now, and it now no longer serves the needs of what was at its core. TA has just got too big.

I will repeat TA WAS a great travel website but it has changed, commerce is at its heart now, and it now no longer serves the needs of what was at its core. TA has just got too big.

Either that or it needed to tweak its business model to make money for its shareholders. That's probably the reason for all the linkages with other groups like booking.com and viator - they probably need the revenue sharing to grow/survive.

I contracted to rent a condo in Belize through the Tripadvisor Website. I was asked to place a deposit of $1060 to hold the unit with the full remaining balance to be paid on 4/19/2016. My wife suddenly became ill and is being operated on for heart issues and can no longer travel out of the country in June which is when the contract was for. I contacted the owner on 4/15 and she graciously agreed to refund my full deposit. She sent a letter to that effect to Tripadvisor and they agreed to send my deposit to me. I have talked to their "customer service" people in India for a total of 2.5 hours trying to find out when my refund would come. I was told that if the owner allowed this she would end up owing tripadvisor a $150 dollar booking fee but tripadvisor would credit me for the full amount of my reservation. The Tripadvisor call center has been the most inept group of people I have ever dealt with. They told me that I would have to cancel my reservation on their site. When I tried to do that it said "do you really want to cancel your reservation and showed that if I pressed yes I would receive 0 dollars credit. I told the person that there was no way I would agree to that and that once they fixed it to show that I would receive the full credit I would click the tab. He became argumentative and said that was the only way to do it and to "trust him" I then asked to talk to his supervisor. His supervisor said that they still needed confirmation from the owner even though it was acknowledged that they had already received confirmation. She sent another letter to them stating her wish to have my ENTIRE deposit sent back to me because I had paid her directly for the $150 that Tripadvisor was going to keep. I have since talked to three more of their representatives without any confirmation that my deposit is on the way. They said that a "special team" was working on it. I asked to talk to that team and was told there was no way to get ahold of them. I asked how they would get the money back to me and was told that it would be deposited into my bank account. I asked them how that was possible since they didn't have my bank information and he didn't have an answer. This company is impossible to get ahold of at their MA. headquarters. You are stuck with people with very limited English and no authority to do anything towards resolving the issue. Do not book vacation rentals with the or Flipkey which is their rental company.

I am noticing that as time goes on, more and more of the trip advisor reviews seem "fishy" to me. There were two for a property in Montenegro - negative reviews - that had obviously been copied from somewhere, a lot of the language was identical and both ended up by recommending some other property. And then there are pages and pages of people with 1 review. I mean really, who joins TA to write ONE glowing review of ONE property and then never again. It makes me think they were paid or at least goaded into reviewing. Many properties will have dozen of one review posters. I am also starting to think that it's not very useful any more. That being said, I will still leave reviews sometimes. I hope my little opinions will contribute to the site being useful for someone. But, don't really mind the emails. I am an expert at deleting unwanted emails.

A good way to use TA is ignore the top 10% best reviews and ignore the bottom 10% worst reviews. That weeds out the vindictive disgruntled people who post exaggerated poor reviews and it weeds out the ultra rosy reviews that could be planted by the establishment, etc. If the other 80% look satisfactory then I go for it.

"The study also suggested that TripAdvisor users spend less on average per day than other travellers"

They obviously didn't ask me.

I read TripAdvisor because I find it's the only source where people talk frankly about one of the biggest issues for me in a hotel - exterior or interior noise. I've not booked at a lot of tourist-guide-recommended places because multiple reviews on TA have said "the interior soundproofing sucks" or "I was kept awake by noise from the bar two doors away".

As far as fake reviews goes, I think fake positive reviews are often pretty easy to spot by the number of vague positive adjectives compared to factual information.

I prefer privacy too but it's getting harder to come by.

I've noticed if I search for something in Amazon, I start getting pop up ads for the product I looked at - even if I already bought it. Same thing with Google searches. I search something, then get pop up ads for it. The weirdest was Facebook. I posted a photo from Copenhagen. I was eating at a restaurant and another person (first name Paul, I didn't know his last name) was in the photo. Facebook later suggested him as a potential friend; it had to be from facial recognition software of photos I'm tagged in because we have nothing else in common.

George Orwell is spinning in his grave.

Is it possible that Paul knew your name and found your picture on facebook and made the friend request himself?

Lee,

No, It was probably two years after the trip that I posted the photo on my facebook page. Still later, maybe six months to a year, I got a friend suggestion that's generated by facebook (normally for people who have friends in common). I don't think it showed any common friends but I recognized him. Based on their suggestion I pushed the button that sent him a friend request. He sent a message asking, "How do I know you?"

I have had tremendous success with TripAdvisor. It never fails me. I read many of the reviews to determine if the rating may not be correct or old. Also, I research on other sites as second opinion.

I also like Tripadvisor. I would never book a hotel before checking out the Traveler Photos on TA, and I really appreciate the specificity of the information you can find about aspects such as transportation or venues. The written reviews range from nonsense to invaluable, but if you take the time to read several you can spot legitimate patterns in the reviews. Travel advice is primarily geared toward independent travelers, so you won't find much in the way of reviews of tours or tour companies. I agree that many of the changes that have occurred over time on TA have not been for the better, but I still find it a useful tool for travel planning.
Edited for clarification: We NEVER use third-party bookings, so I use TA only for research. Then I contact the hotel directly for booking. I cannot count the number of times I have overheard/witnessed upset travelers/desk staff because of misunderstandings/snafus on the part of third-party arrangements. Errors will always happen, but when you book directly with the property you eliminate excuses and insure prompt resolution.

Expedia owns Trip Advisor, hotels.com, Trivago, Seat Guru, Orbitz, HomeAway, Travelocity, etc. etc... publicly traded, for profit. These companies don't make money by hosting forums and facilitating reviews. If you don't want to support the business model, don't visit the site.

I don't support their business, used hotels.com once domestically, most often booking.com has had reliable customer service as regards to cancellation when I had to do that. I don't bother with any of the others.

Of these third party vehicles I look at booking. com to get an
overview re. a place to stay, mainly to look at any prevailing common
threads positive or negative. Most reasons for negative comments don't
bother me.

Ditto, Fred.

I'll occasionally use TA just to check for prevailing themes on certain properties but I'm not a member so never have to log in. As far as fake reviews, just spending time on a variety of travel sites provides an education on recognizing the tell-tale fingerprints. They're not that hard to sort out.

Seriously its kind of funny as Rick Steves site ( yes the one we are
all on right now) in fact attracts more first time posters that seem
to need a lot of hand holding.. and some seem reluctant to stray from
what the RS guidebooks say

I've noticed the same, Pat. It's not a complaint as I'm obviously a member here and enjoy the forums and many in the community but sometimes I think the original vagabond spirit - the freedom of striking forth on one's own - has been lost a bit. As I see younger travelers becoming ever more intrepid and independent, it'll be interesting to see if or how the RS model evolves in the future?

That said, Beacon Bell's blog is a fun read!

Tripadvisor has helped us with some hotels in the states but I also check trivago & our AAA website. Recently looked at a city in Poland and trivago came in $16.00 a night less than AAA. Like others here, I've studied the reviews & can usually spot the phonies. Both times I posted on Tripadvisor & had complaints, I did get responses from the properties within a day or two & apologies. If you are concerned about tracking & are a firefox user, right click the icon when you start. That opens a private window & blocks the cookies & stuff from your computer. Just a suggestion

One aspect of TripAdvisor, and other review websites like Yelp, not discussed very much in this thread so far is the contrast between expertise and crowd-sourced evaluations. All experts have a point of view that one has to take into account -- Fodor's cares about shopping more than I do, Michelin cares about scenic routes more than I do, RS cares about fine dining less than I do, etc. -- but their opinions usually turn out to be insightful and helpful.

The opinions and observations of the great mass of travelers can provide useful info but the condensed summaries and rankings that TA lists aren't very helpful for someone who isn't in the fat part of the distribution curve. I'm not being pretentious (much) but just recognizing that what Joe and Jane Vacationer use as yardsticks isn't what I use. I don't mind if there aren't enough cable television stations in English available or the parking spaces are too tight for a minivan. If you go by averages, then you end up with Toyota Camry and Ford Focus experiences.

Example that comes to mind -- one of the better dining experiences of my life was in the Meson Don Raimundo in Sevilla (it has changed more recently) but the British version of Yelp and TA gave it middling ratings. When you read the details, a typical comment from a Brit was that the room was mostly empty, no action, at 7:30 on Saturday night and that the paella was only so-so. Now, you and I know that 7:30pm is not dinner time in Sevilla and that paella is not what an Andalucian restaurant that prides itself on mozarab dishes is going to focus on, but this low rating nudges the restaurant towards a mediocre ranking that doesn't reflect its merits at all.

Depending on TA will only reinforce the castanet sellers on the streets around the major cathedrals and the fan and shawl shops chock full of Chinese-made goods. Part of being adventurous is the availability of a range of options -- let's not behave in ways that collectively result in a decrease in options. There's room for Howard Johnsons and Starbucks, but let's not put everyone else out of business.

One aspect of TripAdvisor, and other review websites like Yelp, not
discussed very much in this thread so far is the contrast between
expertise and crowd-sourced evaluations. All experts have a point of
view that one has to take into account -- Fodor's cares about shopping
more than I do, Michelin cares about scenic routes more than I do, RS
cares about fine dining less than I do, etc. -- but their opinions
usually turn out to be insightful and helpful.

And therein lies the need to match your forum with your audience? The 20-something backpacker on a tight budget will likely find their sweet spot on Lonely Planet. Shoppers may gravitate to Fodor's. Tourists renting cars may find their home at Michelin. People who want in-depth reviews from a broad international community may want to explore VirtualTourist. The good news is that there is something for just about anyone out there but not necessarily a one-size-fits-all site.

One thing I find TripAdvisor and other crowd-review sites useful for is getting info on the likely reliability of promised features like air conditioning and Wi-Fi. A single reviewer, however expert, may run into no problems, but if there's an issue, it is likely to affect at least a few reviewers out of dozens. There are also hotels with elevators but also some rooms that require traipsing up and down stairs. That's useful to know if you have awkward luggage.

I don't know how useful such web sites would be if I were looking for a vacation-making deluxe-hotel experience, but I'm not.