Quote: Old Feller "I totally agree with you FB & I do the same.
What's the alternative?
To use a so-called independent guide where you can never know if the hotel/restaurant has paid to be included?
I get newsletters from the Good Food Guide whose editor is Adam Raphael who has an almost pathological hatred for Tripadvisor & vents his spleen against it every available opportunity.
But then he would wouldn't he since it serves to replace his pricey & snobbish tome.
Sure Tripadvisor isn't perfect but I've used it to find some excellent hotels & places to eat in unfamiliar places.'"
I think any establishment that appears on TripAdvisor should have the knowledge and ability to respond to each post, the manager of the hotel I spoke of on the previous pages certainly does and he is happy to apologise to each poster who records a problem during their stay, the hotel reception also record each and every gripe and complaint that people make when they are checking out and whether or not discounts were offered at checkout and this information is put on the managers reply, for instance "I'm sorry that your steak was served cold, we acknowledged to you in the restaurant that we had an issue with a hotplate and we replaced your meal and gave you complimentary wine".
That sort of response turns a bad review into a good one and he is very savvy at doing that, including putting down obvious malicious complaints, someone who lists any manner of issues after they've paid in full, left the hotel and then sat on the information for three weeks will find something on the lines of an apology followed by an assurance that they checked their housekeeping and reception logs but could find no information to back up the complaint which is a shame as the issue could have been sorted at checkout and a discount offered.
Unfortunately many hoteliers just aren't that savvy enough to understand how to use TA to their advantage but its not helped by TA themselves who will not disclose when a poster has used multiple identities to post multiple malicious complaints on one or more sites, the hotels can complain to TA but its almost impossible to get them to move from their "its not our fault" position, whereas they could actually do a bit more to help both party's.
for some reason businesses rarely negotiate with rates possibly because many are booked at the last minute and they value the in-room facilities (wi-fi, desk space etc) more than the cost, they are also less likely to complain than your private paying punter because they aren't picking up the tab.
