Overall, I have found Trip Advisor to be very helpful when searching for a hotel, especially in cities that I do not know. I think most people are smart enough to work out which reviews are the most reliable, and what it means when reviews and gradings vary significantly.

And there are some things which you are only like to find out about from candid user reviews. How many hotels are going to own up to be being located in a Red Light district, for example?

Clearly, all review web-sites should encourage their reviewers to be as specific and factual as possible, but not everyone is that capable at drafting.

David, London, UK

Tripadvisor is a typically American website that operates bias against Hotels & Guest Houses etc., Whilst they are happy to readily identify the Hotel in question and sometimes name Owners and Staff, they allow contributors to remain completely anonymous and there are absolutely no safeguards in place to ensure that the comments made are truthful or even that the contributor had actually stayed at the establishment. I'm all for freedom of speech, but freedom to publish lies and damage a business is another matter entirely. Contributors to these sites should take great care because in the UK if someone publishes a falsehood and causes financial damage or defames a third party they are open to be sued big time. But as far as Hotels in the UK are concerned the remedy surely is simple - Hoteliers have no need to take expensive legal action against Tripadvisor. If you object to this kind of publicity on a American website, just refuse to accept American guests and tell them why !

Paul Cannon, Enfield, UK

I have a family motel that is reviewed online at tripadvisor. I have mixed feelings about the site. The site has posted two different reviews to our property that are false. The person who posted the review never stayed with us and even went so far as to say they where going to post a bad review on tripadvisor if we did not rent to them they way they wanted and the price they wanted. When we notified Tripadvisor they said they could not do anything. So read reviews with bit of weary eye. Some are genually people who stayed and want to help other people choose a good motel, some are owners posting fake reviews, and many are people seeking revenge because they felt they where wronged in some way.

Joseph, carolina beach,

I travel a lot and use Trip Advisor combined with opinions of friends etc. to make choices about where to stay. I always review hotels fairly and put the positive as well as the negative. I had one bad experience when an Amalfi Coast hotelier e-mailed me directly, having traced my name and email, and was very abusive. He continued this for some time until I had to change my log-in name! However, the other side of the coin is that I run a country house B & B and have had negative feedback on my own site from 3 guests who were drunk, brawling in our otherwise silent village street then rampaging around the house at 2 a.m. and subsequently asked to leave. However, I now ask our guests to put their comments on the Trip Advisor site. They are 99% very positive and the rubbish sinks to the bottom eventually.

Nessie Poston, Great Bardfield, Essex UK

I have been using Trip Advisor for several years - for Europe, Asia, USA and found the reviews to be an excellent guideline.
I have never yet been disappointed at any hotel I have booked after looking at the reviews, and have always put a review on after my visit. I have absolutely no connection whatsoever with the travel industry or the media, and will certainly continue to use the Trip Advisor uk site. I have also recommended it to many friends none of whom have been disappointed with hotels they have booked via T/A.

MARILYN ROBERTS, BLACKPOOL, ENGLAND

I used a ladies Trip Adisor report when booking a stay at the Jamaica Inn in Ocho Rios , Jamaica ,
She recommended the hotel and a specific room for having a beautiful veranda on the sea shore. I took her advice and made my own booking for this particular room, and it was stunning.
Beautiful sunsets every evening. with the sea lapping at the veranda wall.
Perfect and you would never have known otherwise.

Richard Pearce, Witneshm, Suffolk

I have not used tripadvisor, but have used similar sites when booking accommodation. I don't take into account any particular posting, but the general themes that emerge from reading several. And take the comments with a grain of salt.

david bell, london,

As with any other website that anonymous users can post on (eg wikipedia), the reviews are always subject to the 1% of humanity that want to stuff things up for everyone else. All we can do is treat their comments with the amount of attention they deserve - none! Trip Advisor has been a valuable resource for me when planning holidays, and I would not wish to see it disappear, even if 1% of the reviews are suspicious. I also think it is good as it keeps accommodation providers on their toes, and have had conversations to this effect with some small accommodation providers who do worry about potential reviews from customers.

Rachel, Chch, NZ

We have a dude ranch in Oregon, and find the reviews on TripAdvisor are very valuable to us. Several of our guests have posted reviews. (We mentioned in our newsletter to all of our past guests how helpful these reviews are to us.)

As a small independent operator, these reviews give us credibility. It is sometimes hard for potential guests to trust everything they read from a company website - ours or any other small property where they do not personally know anyone who has stayed there. They also know that listings on many other travel websites are usually paid for, so they are not unbiased, either. The third party review in an anonymous forum may not be perfect, but I do think it is valuable and has its place in the travel planning process.

Eva Gill, Bend, Oregon

I used Tripadvisor for some of our American trip last year. Between Expedia and Trip Advisor, I felt that the descriptions given of where we were to be staying were corroborated when we arrived. So were the provided crits and compliments for the hotels that we had not arranged ourselves. I added a few more comments on my return that were faithfully reproduced, but I did notice that the review that I offered for the Omni Hotel, San Francisco, had been removed by this week, while some others, posted at the same time, were ongoing. Was my report inappropriate by now, perhaps?
I will be in a position, in August, to further compare Tripadvisor's reviews with mine on a visit to Poland. I know what has been posted on their site regarding the appropriate hotels. I will therefore, be in a position to asses the accuracy of those observations, and will quite happily post my own findings on return. Then we shall see who does what, to whom and when!!!

Iwan M., Caerphilly, Wales

As General Manager of a hotel, I was shocked to find a "guest" comment claiming that they had "Rats" in their room....and of course even recommended my top competitor. To their credit, tripadvisor finally removed the blatantly false comment, but only after 10-15 calls from me and threatened with attorney, etc. It stayed on their site for some 10 days! How can they allow something like that to be posted without checking on it? I believe they hide behind the "it's a public comment, not ours".

Bill Bianchi, Beaumont, Texas

I use trip advisor a lot, but I take into account how many bad reviews there are vs the good reviews, if there is more bad than good I wont stay in the hotel, if more good than bad I will look into it more. I always read the bad reviews as often they are just complaining about the colour of the bathroom tiles, or food that was not pizza and chips. I have stayed in hotels before where I have been put off by the review to find that they were great. I laugh at some of the candid pictures of the 'awful room' (paint round the window sill flaking, or a different coloured bit of ceiling where a light had been moved etc!). Maybe we should all review our homes!

Rebecca Hunter, Darlington, UK

TripAdvisor is as good as the people that post, I read with care, always put my mail address, realise that more unhappy people post than happy, a fact of life.

I try to post all the trips, but dont

Mike, Leicester, UK

The sadest 1% of tripadvisor is when clients at the hotel front desk threaten us to write a bad review if we do not meet their whatever requests. And in that moment you know by experience that they will do exactly that, as a revenge, if you do not give in as they pretend.
The remainig 99% is positive & sane.

Gerhard Schuler, TAORMINA Sicily Italy, ITALY

The sadest 1% part of Tripadvisor is when clients at the front desk threat us to write a bad review if we do not meet their whatever requests. And of course you know that they will do exactly that as a revenge. The remaining 99% is the positive part of tripadvisor.

Gerhard Schuler, Hotel Villa Schuler, TAORMINA Sicily Italy, iTALY

I have used TripAdvisor in the past to help 'locate' a decent Hotel or Resort. On the whole they are pretty good.
However, I did manage to find a certain Hotel in Jamaica that I still think carries bogus reviews. 'A Hotel for an amazing Wedding Honeymoon' it is not ! I wouldn't hold a wake in the place.
I did make my views clear to TripAdvisor about these 'bogus' reviews, but they seem to think that they are genuine. (These views were made after I had revisited the Hotel ! I can assure you that I did not make the same mistake twice, and stay overnight)
As TripAdvisor has rightly said, we are not stupid, and hopefully we will be able to see the bogus reviews, even if they can't.

CJ, Hereford, UK

My company sent a group of us for training at an upstate New York hotel last year. Many of the rooms had bedbugs, and one young woman was bitten so badly that she had to be sent to the emergency room. I posted a review on Tripadvisor describing this situation in order that others might avoid what we went through.

Within several days, I was asked to sign a statement from Tripadvisor acknolwledging that my statement was true which I did, because it was true. Shortly after, my review was removed without explanation.

That is unfortunate, because this is the kind of informationj about a hotel that most travelers would want to know before staying there.

Donna Cuervo, New York, NY - - USA

Tripadvisor has been an invaluable tool in planning trips, both long haul and close to home. We feel duty bound to post our own experiences and photos as we rely so heavily on the service that other tripadvisor users provide for us.
The reviews, however, do only give an overview, and it is usually clear when the writer has a particular agenda.
Tripadvisor, along with other useful sites make independent travel so much easier, with less risk involved in choosing locations and hotels. Additional detail about a particular area that individuals include has also proved very helpful.
Tripadvisor provides a free service that we wouldn't wish to be without.

Jenny, London,

I look at Trip Advisor but I find that often the type of people reviewing are all older Americans and I don't really find their reviews useful as they are not interested in the same things as me. I think new sites like boo.com will do well once they increase the number of reviews they show. One really cool thing about the boo.com site is that I can see my friends reviews so this adds a layer of trust

Andrew, London, London

We are a hotel in rome center, the Hotel Julia in Trevi Fountain area,and we can say some comments about us are thrue,but there are others that coming from some misunderstanding with our guests take sometimes too much power,due to the title of the comment and the "pathos"of the writers.
And keep in mind thath peole write a comment more when they find some troubles than when they are happy!

Dott. Tiribocchi Stefano, Rome, Italy

In line with the reviews previously posted I have nothing but praise for the service Tripadvisor provides for the public. I use it to inform my bookings and have not yet been disappointed. When I watch TV programmes showing some of the horrors people experience in hotels abroad I realise just how good Tripadvisor is!

B, West Midlands, England

Used Tripadvisor recently before going to Hawaii, reports of hotel, resort were all glowing, we got there to find a lot of building work going on at our complex and had been for up to 2 years on and off, no mention of this any reviews which I found strange as we had major problems with it until we moved to the other side of the complex. I wrote a review and mentioned all the building work etc. and this did get posted by Tripadvisor, so perhaps they have got their act together.

D, England, UK

I have used Tripadvisor to book my last 25 trips abroad and used to it select locations, things to do and primarily Hotels.

It has been spot on 99% of the time, and I hope that individual travellers continue to review for the benefit of the masses these great hotels. Also I believe TripAdvisor helps to raise the standards of the "bad ones" and I hope that the results help the hotel & travel industry to continue to raise standards across the globe.

Well done TRIPADVISOR and a big pat on the back for a change.

Kevin, exeter, devon

I have booked hotels frequently based on Tripadvisor reviews and have yet to be disappointed. I have also posted reviews and photos several times.

Jo Warren, Dartford,

I have used trip advisor reviews for seevral years as PART of the research I do into choosing hotels and resorts. In that time I have read many reviews and realise that the writers have their own opinions and expeirences that have moulded what feedback they give in the review. So I use the reviews as part of my research, I also check out forums, each countries tourist information sites, weather sites and any other resource I can find.
I find the reviews a very useful source of information and sometimes a fascinating insight to how us tourists expext perfection.
I thank Trip Advisor for providing this service and hope they carry on to do so and I TAKE Responsibiliy for my own decisions in which hotel or resort I choose.

Jean, Yorkshire, England

I rely on Trip Advisor as a source of information and have posted my own reviews there for places I've stayed. They provide worthwhile information, and I welcome their input in the cruise industry.

Susan Edwards, London, UK

Tripadvisor members often post candid photos of hotels, many include room photos. I find these incredibly helpful when choosing hotels. I also feel that it adds credibility to the accounts of members.

John McKenzie, Lossiemouth, UK

I was shocked to hear a while ago that there were problems with Tripadvisors reviews. I chose a hotel in Prague from their review and it was as great as the reviews it got. I have used the site again for an upcomming Vancouver trip....I will let you know!

Kathryn Prince, Porthcawl,

I agree with the previous comment. I always check Trip Advisor and I have worked out that reviews that are either deeply scathing or glowing are the ones to be sceptical about.

K, Brussels,

I like Tripadvisor. You read the reviews, and you form your own opinion. The hotels I've stayed in based on the reviews have been spot on. They're far more reliable than travel guides in any case.

kt, london,