Should you rely on TripAdvisor for Italy lodging?

There's more to Trip Advisor than ranking/ratings; in fact I never look at them. It's best value comes from the individual reviews. From these reviews one can ascertain the real conditions of rooms (often with photos), description of the neighborhood, interactions of the staff, and lots of other details. It's an excellent travel tool.
Thank you.

I find trip advisor reliable. I used TA to find a place to stay in Sorrento and it was one of the best B&Bs I stayed at in Italy. I would agree the ratings don't mean much. It is much more important to actually read the reviews. In fact, I start with the negative reviews first. A lot of times you will notice people complaining about things that aren't that big of a deal.

I agree with NY Michael - I tend to rely more on the member reviews than anything else. Ok, maybe I use the rankings to narrow down my search (especially in huge cities like Rome), but it's the comments that really sell me on a place. That said, I also take those comments with a grain of salt. I realize that many people expect certain things from a hotel/B&B that really don't matter to me. For example, some people really want (or even expect) all the luxuries and accomodations that they get with the more expensive American hotels. They're then greatly disapointed when, say, the walls are a little thin or the bathroom isn't the size of a stadium. And that's ok, if that's what they want. But I don't look for any hotel in Europe to be exactly like what I get in the USA (in fact, I'm kind of dissapointed when they are). So for me it's a process of reading between the lines and paying as much attention to the type of person who wrote the reviews as the reviews themselves.

When I read trip advisor, I look for the complaints that are common across multiple posters and whether it's a "real" complaint or a stupid complaint. For example, there was a complaint on a hotel in Venice because the staff didn't speak very good English. (What would they expect, they are in a foreign country). However if there are muliple complaints about rooms or bathrooms not being clean, I'd pay a more attention to that.

Never say never, BUT never been disappointed in the top 1, 2, 3 rated hotel in the various categories we have researched in probably 20 towns in Italy. Also compare with Venere.com

I tend to trust venere.com more than TA and I'm a regular poster there. I have seen too many fake reviews, both good and bad, to trust them. You can wade through the reviews and easily pick out the fakes but to me that's a waste of my time. On venere you have to have completed a stay at the hotel before you are asked to review it. To me, that's more credible. Donna

I agree with Karen. I read it as information and primarily read what people dislike about certain hotels. Lokk for common complaints then look for common compliments. Anybody can log on and praise a location but I like to know what is bad about a location.

Wow, what a bunch of excellent comments about TA. To us TA is a fantastic tool, but it must be used 'with a grain of salt'. You have to read between the lines, and do your own analysis, but you can have some wonderful info to use to make a lodging decision. TA is but one of the tools that we can use.

Michael, That's an interesting perspective on Trip Advisor! I tend to follow the same methods as some of the others, and use T.A. to double-check information that I obtain elsewhere (Guidebooks) but take the ratings "with a grain of salt". I tend to use these more as a "guideline" and read through the reviews as well as the rebuttals from Hotel owners which are often very revealing. I've encountered people that are "chronic whiners", where nothing is ever "good enough" for them. I suspect that some of the negative ratings are posted by these individuals, so that's another reason not to trust the ratings completely. T.A. seems to be a well run website, and they don't tolerate Hotel owners "padding" the ratings.

I agree with Donna and tend to trust venere.com more because you must have stayed at a property to write a review. Several years ago we stayed at a hotel in Tirano at the bottom of the Bernina Pass in the Valtellina. Someone on TA wrote a scathing review because the staff spoke only Italian. Well, this is Italy and they speak Italian. Once you leave the major tourist areas most people in Italy only speak Italian. Buon viaggio,

Over the years we've found several wonderful B&B's and small hotels that we never would have known about if not for Trip Advisor. TA's influence is very powerful. We've stayed at B&B's with guests from diverse countries and found that we've all chosen the particular place because of TA. A top rating on TA can really help a B&B or hotel's business, and a low rating can really hurt them. More than once we've been asked by a B&B host to "please put in a good rating" for them on TA.

I too have always had good results from TA's reviews, and found some real gems. Yes, Venere's reviews are only from people who booked through them, but that means that there are fewer reviews, and many of them are terse, not really giving enough information. I do pay attention to the number of contributions the reviewer has made (one or two - I''m suspicious; dozens or hundreds - that is a real TA member). Then I read the reviews, paying attention to the dates. If I'm going in the summer, I want to know about the AC, who cares if the open windows in December made it impossible to sleep. Another way to use TA is to ask on the forums. I have gotten a couple of very good hotels from locals' recommendations.

Over the yeas we have always had good luck with TA. No service is perfect. We have even had a couple dogs off the Rick Steves list -- especially one in Athens. But Michael is correct, you need to be careful with all recommendations and maybe more than grain of salt even with Michael's recommendation that one Roman thinks TA is not reliable in Italy -- big country. Maybe he is unhappy that his recommendations are not higher.

I like using TA for finding places and the reviews can be entertaining. Finally, I ask on the TA forums. The Destination Experts often live in those towns or traveled extensively there, they know the neighborhoods and know the real reputation of these places. Sure there are fake reviews, but one of the things that the Destination Experts do is try and weed them out. If you suspect a review is false, either one way or the other, then it is easy to report it. Hotels can be kicked off of TA for misbehaving in this manner. Checking the reviewer and how many reviews they have written or if they have contributed to the forum is also a way of seeing if a review is honest. Personally, I also like the up-to dateness of the reviews. A place that is in a guide book may not have had a visit from the editors in a couple of years, plus the lag time on getting a book out. I prefer the review on TA, written last week.