Who Do You Trust for Advice?

very wise thoughts.

If you asked me about hotels in Crewe I could tell you where they are. I could tell you which one on the Oyo bookings system doesn't exist and is renamed copy of another (I can't tell you why that happened). I can tell which are closed despite being on some traveller info sites. I can tell which has just reopened - but I can't verify claims on their apparently AI generated website with random photos from elsewhere. I can tell you that the onsite pub/diner at a well rated htoel has been demolished but aggregated ratings on some sites haven't been restarted to take account of that - nor will they when the restaurant at another in the chain is closed this summer. I can tell which of the several listed by Tripadvisor aren't even in Crewe, because TA's site structure seems to based on how US zip codes work and can't cope with the british system! I can also sort out the mess of reviews on TA because their members regualry mix up a pub on one side of town with a hotel with the same name slightly outside the other side of town. But ask me which has the best rooms or best value - I haven't a clue because I don't stay in hotels in my own town. The problem is the people that have stayed still post reviews in the wrong place on systems that never reset when things change - so you can't trust them either! And you definately shouldn't trust sites that allow reviews from people who aren't confirmed to have stayed at a place.

The only people you can trust are those that you already trust and by coincidence have visited the same place recently.

After that you are left with Google Maps/Streetview to check exactly where it is and how easy to get elsewhere. And you trust your own instinct when reading reviews on several sites about the same place. Some will be overhyped and even paid for, some will be wrongly negative due to undeclared factors (or paid for) and many will be too old to be worth considering. Read everything and generate an overall median review (just a minute, isn't that that AI does??)

Mr. E is right in that locals may not be the best source of advice when traveling. We have visited Rome and Naples many times after thorough research from not only guidebooks but also historical texts. In those two cities we have noticed that many locals are less informed about their city than we are. Of course the it is the same in the United States; many locals have not visited sites in their own home town.
Print and online sources also give dubious information. A case in point is our repeated attempt to visit Santa Maria Incoronata in Naples. According to its webpage and other sites on the internet and multiple guidebooks it is supposedly open. It is not. Locals we ask about the church give us conflicting information. We continue to walk to the church every time we are in the city, hoping a miracle will occur. At least it's a nice walk and the weather is good. Another case was the Forum guide in Rome who confuse the Arch of Septimus Severus with the Arch of Titus. As I listened to him my head nearly exploded.
This travel forum is a good source of information because people like us who have been to the places we want to go give us the information we want to know in the language that we speak. Those people may not be 'experts,' but they provide a starting point for further research. Mr. E, you may not be an "expert" but you are incredibly knowledgeable about the places you have visited.

Who does give the best advice?

It really depends. I think when giving advice to a first-time visitor, the advisor should put themselves in the visitor’s shoes. On this forum, however, when locals and people who have visited a location 17 times give advice, that consistently doesn’t happen. The problem is worse with people who have visited 17 times.

Although an aside to the actual question I am pleased to see that the Crewe Arms Hotel has re-opened. Even without it's most recent history and use that was something I didn't expect to see. Pleased because of its long and illustrious history.
I stayed there quite a few years ago. It was one of those hotels where it's heritage and past glory was very evident, but the hard product (the guest experience) was quite distinctly faded. An inevitable shame. But as regards a good sleep and a good breakfast it delivered. So back then my review would have been neutral- neither good or bad.
All irrelevant now. But at £38 a night this Sunday It could be worth a try, if it fitted into my plans.
It will cost a fortune to bring back to the glory days, at the prices they can charge hard to see where such money will come from.
I have been making a point recently at staying in local hotels to me, which I clearly don't need to, just to find out what they are like.
Currently I am contemplating doing such hotel, 8 miles away, on Sunday night. My very weak excuse being that it makes my life easier on Monday morning, and it is cheap as chips.
I've lived in Cumbria for 50 years but had never been to the Keswick Pencil Museum until last week- a deliberate action prompted by this forum.
You don't - it is always a case of 'manana'.
And am currently scheduling the Carlisle Military Museum. Given what I do every day it is inexcusable that has never happened - I plead lack of time.

As a citizen of Cleveland and hence an expert on the topic of how to best cause one’s river to catch on fire (which is quite a tricky business), I must say we clevelanders are a bit bothered being singled out as faux experts on Fritzhaus hotels!. May I make a small request? Can you edit your example and instead saying “clevelander” maybe replace that with Pittsburgher? We Clevelanders have suffered enough! Also folks from Pittsburgh have the Steelers which have humiliated us for decades. It’s hard being from Ohio. Harder still from being from Cleveland!

Happy travels.
P.s The Fritzhaus is the best hotel the upper/Lower Saxony with views both of the rhine and a VW auto plant. Lovely!